Robert Peel was born in Bury, Lancashire, on 5th February, 1788. His
father, Sir Robert Peel (1750-1830), was
a wealthy cotton manufacturer and member of parliament for Tamworth.
Robert was trained as a child to become a future politician. Every
Sunday evening he had to repeat the two church sermons that he had
heard that day.
Robert Peel was educated at Harrow School
and Christ Church, Oxford, where he won
a double first in classics and mathematics. In 1809 Sir Robert Peel
rewarded his son academic success by buying him the parliamentary
seat of Cashel in Tipperary (exchanged for Chippenham in 1812). Robert
Peel entered the House of Commons in April 1809, at the age of twenty-one.
Like his father, Robert Peel supported the Duke of Portland's Tory
government. He made an immediate impact and Charles Abbott, the Speaker
of the House of Commons, described Peel's first contribution to a
debate as the "the best first speech since that of William
Pitt."
After only a year in the House of Commons
the Duke of Portland offered him the
post of under-secretary of war and the colonies. Working under Lord
Liverpool, Peel helped to direct the military operations against
the French.
When Lord Liverpool became prime minister
in May 1812, Peel was appointed as chief secretary for Ireland. In
his new post Peel attempted to bring an end to corruption in Irish
government. He tried to stop the practice of selling public offices
and the dismissal of civil servants for their political views. At
first Peel also attempted to end those aspects of government that
gave preference to Protestants over Catholics.
However, Robert Peel was not successful in carrying out this policy
and eventually he became seen as one of the leading opponents to Catholic
Emancipation.
In 1814 he decided to suppress the Catholic Board, an organisation
started by Daniel O'Connell. This was
the start of a long conflict between the two men. In 1815 Peel challenged
O'Connell to a duel. Peel travelled to Ostend but O'Connell was arrested
on the way to fight the duel.
In 1817 Robert Peel decided to retire from his post in Ireland. This
upset the Irish Protestants in the House of
Commons and fifty-seven of them signed a petition urging him not
to leave a post that they believed he had "administered with
masterly ability". Oxford University
acknowledged Peel's "services to Protestantism" by inviting
him to become its member of the House of Commons.
In 1822 Peel rejoined Lord Liverpool's government when he accepted
the post of Home Secretary. Over the next five years Peel was responsible
for large-scale reform in the legal system. This involved repealing
over 250 old statutes.
Lord Liverpool was struck down by paralysis
in February 1827 and was replaced by George
Canning as prime minister. Canning was an advocate of Catholic
Emancipation and as Peel was strongly opposed to this, he felt
he could not serve under the new prime minister and resigned from
office. After the death of Canning Peel returned to government as
Home Secretary in the government led by the Duke
of Wellington.
On 26th July, 1828, Lord Anglesey, wrote to Peel arguing that Ireland
was on the verge of rebellion and asked him to use his influence to
gain concessions for the Catholics. Although Peel had opposed Catholic
Emancipation for twenty years, Lord Anglesey's letter encouraged
him to reconsider his position. Peel now wrote to Wellington saying
that "though emancipation was a great danger, civil strife was
a greater danger". He also added that as William
Pitt had rightly said: "to maintain a consistent attitude
amid changed circumstances is to be a slave of the most idle vanity".
Although the Duke of Wellington agreed
with Peel, King George III was violently
opposed to Catholic Emancipation. When
Wellington's government threatened to resign the king reluctantly
agreed to a change in the law. When Peel introduced the Catholic Emancipation
Act on 5th March, 1829, he told the House of Commons that the credit
for the measure belonged to his long-time opponents, Charles
Fox and George Canning.
For a long
time politicians had been concerned about the problems of law and
order in London. In 1829 Robert Peel decided to reorganize the way
London was policed. As a result of this reform, the new metropolitan
police force became known as "Peelers" or "Bobbies".
In November 1830, Wellington's government was replaced by a new administration
headed by Earl Grey. For the first time in
over twenty years in the House of Commons, Peel was now a member of
the opposition. Peel was totally against Grey's proposals for parliamentary
reform. Between 12th and 27th July 1831, Peel made forty-eight speeches
in the House of Commons against this measure. One of Peel's main arguments
was that the system of rotten boroughs
had enabled distinguished men to enter parliament.
After the passing of the 1832 Reform Act
the Tories were heavily defeated in the
general election that followed. Although victorious at Tamworth, Peel,
now leader of the Tories, only had just over hundred MPs he could
rely on to support him against Earl Grey's government.
In November 1834 King William IV dismissed
the Whig government and appointed Robert Peel as his new prime minister.
Peel immediately called a general election and during the campaign
issued what became known as the Tamworth Manifesto. In his election
address to his constituents in Tamworth, Peel pledged his acceptance
of the 1832 Reform Act and argued for a policy
of moderate reforms while preserving Britain's important traditions.
The Tamworth Manifesto marked the shift from the old, repressive Toryism
to a new, more enlightened Conservatism.
The general election gave Peel more supporters although there were
still more Whigs than Tories in the House of Commons. Despite this,
the king invited Peel to form a new administration. With the support
of the Whigs, Peel's government was able
to pass the Dissenters' Marriage Bill and the English
Tithe Bill. However, Peel was constantly being outvoted in the
House of Commons and on 8th April 1835 he resigned from office.
In August 1841 Robert Peel was once again invited to form a Conservative
administration. Over the last few years Britain had been spending
more than it was earning. Peel decided the government had to increase
revenue. On 11th March, 1842, he announced the introduction of income-tax
at sevenpence in the pound. He added, that he hoped that this was
enable the government to reduce duties on imported goods.
In 1843
Peel once more had problems with Daniel O'Connell,
who was leading the campaign against the Act
of Union. O'Connell announced a large meeting to be held at Clontarf.
The British government pronounced it illegal and when O'Connell continued
to go ahead with his planned Clontarf meeting he was arrested and
imprisoned for conspiracy. Peel attempted to overcome the religious
conflict in Ireland by setting up the Devon Commission to inquire
into the "state of the law and practice in respect to the occupation
of land in Ireland." He also increased the grant to Maynooth,
a college for the education of the Irish priesthood, from £9,000
to £26,000 a year.
However, Peel's attempts to improve the situation in Ireland was severely
damaged by the 1845 potato blight. The Irish crop failed, therefore
depriving the people of their staple food. Peel was informed that
three million poor people in Ireland who had previously lived on potatoes
would require cheap imported corn. Peel realised that they only way
to avert starvation was to remove the duties on imported corn. Although
the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, the
policy split the Conservative Party
and Peel was forced to resign.
Robert
Peel
continued to attend the House of Commons
and gave considerable support to Lord John
Russell and his administration in 1846-47. On 28th June 1850 he
gave an important speech on Greece and the foreign policy of Lord
Palmerston. The following day, while riding up Constitution Hill,
he was thrown from his horse. Peel was badly hurt and on 2nd July,
1850, he died from his injuries.
(1)
Mrs. Arbuthnot, journal (8th June 1831)
Peel appears
to hate every body and every body hates him. If any of the young men
are anxious to speak, he throws cold water on it because speaking
well would give claims; and yet, while he was in office, he never
ceased to complain of getting no support. He is supercilious, hauty
and arrogant and a most bitter and determined hater. He has been down
as his place in Staffordshire almost ever since the dissolution, and
has scarcely had any communication with any one. He is, however, firm
and determined against reform and, being a very honest man, we must
hope he will so manage as to make our party as formidable as good
management certainly can make it.
(2)
Horace Twiss, Under Secretary of State for
War and the Colonies (1828-1830)
Peel was
the best man of business and the best debater in England - but always
thinking of his reputation and his outward character - never decided
and courageous - thinking more of getting well through a business
into which he had been led by circumstances, than bold and decided
in his pursuit and assertion of great principles and worthy objects.
With great occasional show of affability and condescension, he was
in reality selfish, cold and unconcilatory - and therefore never had,
and never would have a personal following.
(3)
Charles Greville, journal, February 1833
Under that
placid exterior he conceals, I believe, a boundless ambition, and
hatred and jealously lurk under his professions of esteem and political
attachment. He is one of those contradictory characters, containing
in it so much of mixed good and evil, that it is difficult to strike
an accurate balance between the two, and the acts of his political
life are of a corresponding description, of questionable utility and
merit, though always marked by great ability. Opposition to Reform
in Parliament and to religious emancipation of every kind. His resistance
to alterations with great ability, and for a long time with success;
but he was endeavouring to uphold a system which was no longer supportable.
(4)
Lord Hatherton writing at the time of Peel's death in 1850.
Peel always
seemed to me the most faultless of Ministers. The steadiness of his
application and his facility of research, acquired from habit and
good memory, were quite wonderful; he always appeared to me to do
everything with great ease. He seemed to me not to have a particle
of vanity or of undue ambition about him, but a constant of love of
truth and desire to give it the victory. Naturally he did not appear
to me good-tempered, but his temperament was not hasty, and his feelings
were held under wonderful control. His friends, and even his most
intimate colleagues, all complained that they could never learn his
mind; yet at table or in the society of those he liked, or in a country
ride or walk, he seemed unreserved and cordial, and at such times
the good sense of his remarks and the liveliness of his anecdotes
were very charming. He frequently carried the House away with him,
but it was by his greater knowledge of his subject, and his superior
power in handling facts, and by the moral character of his sentiments.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
