PEEL 



4549 



PEER AND THE PEERAGE 



a House of the Good Shepherd. Situated north 

 of the town along the river is the state military 

 camp. The chief industrial establishments are 

 foundries and hat and underwear manufactories. 

 In 1910 the population was 15,245; in 1916 it 

 was 18,530 (Federal estimate). The area of 

 illage is about four square miles. 



Peekskill is the birthplace of Chauncey M. 

 Depew; two miles east of the village was the 

 summer home of Henry Ward Beecher. The 

 old Robinson House, occupied in 1778-1779 

 by Generals Parsons and Putnam, and the fol- 

 lowing summer by Arnold, is still standing. It 

 was here that Arnold first learned of the cap- 

 ture of Andre; and John Paulding, his captor, 

 is buried in the old rural cemetery- The place 

 was settled in 1764 by the Dutch, and named 

 in honor of Jans Peek, a Dutch navigator. In 

 1816 it was incorporated as a village. 



PEEL, SIR ROBERT (1788-1850), one of the 

 foremost English statesmen of the first half of 

 the nineteenth century. He was born near 

 Bury, in Lancashire, educated at Harrow, where 

 he became acquainted with Byron, and at 

 Christ Church, Oxford. 



The Youngest Chief Secretary. He entered 

 Parliament as a Tory when but twenty-one 

 years of age. In the next year he was made 

 under-secretary for war and the colonies, and 

 in 1812, at the unprecedentedly early age of 

 'y-four, became chief secretary for Ire- 

 land. In general, he pursued a moderate course 

 in his six years' tenure of this office, but at one 

 time he came into such open conflict with 

 Daniel O'Connell over the Irish question that 

 he sent him a challenge to a duel. Interven- 

 tion of mutual friends prevented this, how- 

 One great service he did for the dis- 

 tre->ed i-lantl, where conditions were so unset- 

 tled that neither life nor property was safe; 

 he established the regular Irish constabulary, 

 the members of which received the nickname 

 of "Peelers." 



Meanwhile, he had come to be regarded as 

 an authority on financial affairs, and served 

 m 1819 as chairman of a commission which 

 brought about the resumption of specie pay- 

 ments. In 1822 he became home secretary m 

 Lord Liverpool's government, and though he 

 resigned in 1827 when Canning formed a Min- 

 istry, he resumed his former office in 1828 under 

 the Duke of Wellington. Originally he had been 

 much opposed to Roman Catholic emancipa- 

 tion, but he was always open to 

 ha*l by tin* time become so convinced that 

 nothing rise could bring peace to Ireland tha 



introduced a successful bill establishing it. In 

 1827 he organized the London police force, 

 whose popular name of '' bobbies" was derived 

 from Peel's first name. 



Period of Greatest Service. Peel retired from 

 office in 1830, and was one of the chief oppo- 

 nents of the Reform Bill, which held public 

 attention for the next few years. For a brief 

 period in 1834-1835 he was Prime Minister, but 

 remained chiefly in opposition until 1841, when 

 as the leader of the Conservatives he was called 

 upon to form a government. At the opening 

 of the Ministry he was pledged not to bring 

 about the repeal of the Corn Laws, yet that 

 very measure was the central part of his ad- 

 ministration. A famine in Ireland made con- 

 ditions there desperate, and Cobden so pressed 

 his Anti-Corn Law agitation that Peel at length 

 exclaimed, "Let them answer him who can; I 

 cannot;" and forthwith set himself to bring 

 about the repeal of the obnoxious laws. In 

 1846 the repeal was carried, and in that same 

 year Peel retired, having brought about a re- 

 vision of the tariff and a revival of the income 

 tax. During Lord Russell's Ministry Peel was 

 a firm supporter of the free-trade principles 

 which once he had decried, and lent his aid 

 to an attempt to abolish the political disabili- 

 ties of the Jews. 



Changed with the Times. Peel had in the 

 course of his official life changed his views on 

 most of the great questions brought up for 

 settlement, not because he was vacillating or 

 inconsistent, but because he could not conscien- 

 tiously refuse to take what he saw clearly were 

 progressive steps. The nation has rarely had a 

 minister whom it trusted more thoroughly, and 

 the grief at his death was widespread. A: MC c. 



Consult Thurston'8 Peel, in Twelve English 

 Statesmen Series. 



PEER AND THE PEERAGE, /wrr'ay;. The 

 word / r really means M/U/, but as used in 

 England it refers to members of the peerage, or 

 nobility, who are all equal in that each is 

 titled to a seat in the House of Lords, or Peers, 

 and has a voice in all legislation there ena 

 In Kn^land the peerage dates from the Norman 

 conquest. Previous to that time the go\- 

 mcnt was in the hands of a vritanagemot 

 parliament, composed of notable men without 

 tit Irs, who owed their positions en' 

 alulity and standing. 



the conquest in 1066 the country be- 



My the property of William I. 



the Conqueror, who proceeded to portion it out 



among his followers. The men to whom he 



