Peel,

Peel, SIR ROBERT, statesman, was born on 5th February 1788, near Bury in Lancashire. His father, Sir Robert Peel (1750-1830, created a baronet in 1800), was a wealthy cotton-spinner, from whom he inherited a great fortune. He was educated at Harrow, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a double first in 1808, and entered the House of Commons in 1809 as member for Cashel, adopting the strong Tory politics of his father. Perceval was then prime-minister. Peel set quietly about the business-work of the House, feeling his way with that steady prudence and persevering diligence that were the conspicuous features of his character. In 1811 he was appointed Under-secretary for the Colonies; and from 1812 to 1818 he held the office of Secretary for Ireland. In this capacity he displayed a strong anti-Catholic spirit (whence the witty Irish gave him the nickname of 'Orange-Peel'), and was in consequence so fiercely attacked by O'Connell that even the cool and cautious Secretary was stung into sending the agitator a challenge. The police, however, prevented the duel from taking place. From 1818 till 1822 Peel remained out of office, but not out of parliament, where he sat for the university of Oxford. He now began to acquire a reputation as a financier and economist, and in 1819 was appointed chairman of the Bank Committee, and moved the resolutions which led to the resumption of cash-payments. He was still as averse as ever to anything like religious or political reform. No member of the Liverpool-Castlereagh cabinet could have been to appearance more resolute; he even vehemently defended the 'Peterloo Massacre' of 1819. In 1822 he re-entered the ministry as Home Secretary—Canning shortly after becoming Foreign Secretary, on the suicide of Lord Castlereagh. The two worked together pretty well for some time, as Peel devoted himself chiefly to financial matters, and especially to the currency; but 'Roman Catholic emancipation' was a question on which Canning was considerably in advance of his brother-secretary; and when the former was called upon by the king, after the resignation of Lord Liverpool, to form a sort of Whig-Tory ministry, Peel, along with the Duke of Wellington and others, withdrew from office. Yet it is singularly characteristic of this most honest statesman that even when he seceded (1827) his opinions were veering round to the liberal and generous view of the claims of Roman Catholics; and when the death of Canning, shortly after, led to the formation of the Wellington-Peel government, its great measure—actually introduced by 'Orange-Peel' himself—was the ever-memorable one for the 'relief' of the Roman Catholics (1829). As Home Secretary he also signalised himself by a reorganisation of the London police force (since popularly called 'Peelers' and 'Bobbies'), and by the introduction of several other important measures.

Meanwhile, the university of Oxford had rejected its apostate representative, and chosen in his stead Sir Harry Inglis. And now came on the great question of parliamentary reform, which Peel firmly but temperately opposed. In 1830 the Wellington-Peel ministry fell, and was succeeded by a Whig ministry under Earl Grey, which, in 1832, carried the Reform Bill. Peel (now, by the death of his father, Sir Robert Peel), when he saw that reform was inevitable, accepted defeat and its results with great equanimity. He shrank from anything like factious opposition to the measure, and contented himself with presenting as forcibly as he could the political per-contra. After it was passed he became the leader of the 'Conservative' opposition; and, as we have said, accepting reform itself as a fait accompli and irreversible, he only sought by a keen and vigilant criticism of Whig measures to retard the too rapid strides of liberalism. In 1833, when the first reformed parliament assembled, Peel took his seat as member for Tamworth, which he represented till the close of his life. On the retirement of the Melbourne ministry in November 1834 he accepted the office of prime-minister, but could not succeed in giving stability to his administration; he was compelled again to give place to Viscount Melbourne in April 1835, and resumed his place as leader of the opposition. Peel's conduct in opposition was always eminently patriotic. The Whigs, who were being pressed on the one side by the new Radical party and the Anti-corn-law League, and on the other by O'Connell and the Irish repealers, gradually lost ground, and, being all but defeated in 1841 on a motion of want of confidence, dissolved parliament. The general election that ensued was virtually a contest between Free Trade and Protection. Protection won; and, when the new parliament met, a vote of no confidence was carried by a majority of ninety-one.

The Conservative party, headed by Peel, now came into office. The great feature of the new government was the attitude it adopted on the corn-law question. The Whigs, while in office, and even after their expulsion, were bent upon a fixed but moderate duty on foreign corn; the Anti-corn-law League would hear of nothing short of an entire repeal, while Sir Robert was in favour of a modification of the sliding-scale of duty which had existed since 1828. He introduced and carried (1842), in spite of strong opposition, a measure based upon this principle. The deficit in the revenue, which had become quite alarming under the Melbourne administration, next engaged his attention, and led him to bring in a bill (1842) for the imposition of an 'income-tax' of 7d. in the pound, to be levied for three years. To alleviate the new burden Peel commenced a revision of the general tariff, and either abolished or lowered the duties on several very important articles of commerce, such as drugs, dye-woods, cattle, sheep, pigs, salted meat, butter, eggs, cheese, and lard. He also showed himself resolute in the repression of the malcontents of Ireland. O'Connell (q.v.) was tried for conspiracy, and, though the judgment against him was set aside on appeal to the House of Lords, the influence of the 'agitator' was broken. The first half of 1845 was marked by the allowance to Maynooth being increased and changed into a permanent endowment instead of an annual grant, and by the foundation of the Irish unsectarian colleges, and other important measures. But the potato-rot in Ireland during the autumn, followed by a frightful famine, rendered 'cheap corn' a necessity, if millions were not to starve. Cobden and the League redoubled their exertions. Lord John Russell announced the views of the Whig party on the crisis, and Peel again yielded. He told his ministerial colleagues that the corn laws were doomed, and that their repeal was inevitable. Some of them refusing to go along with him, he resigned, but after a few days was recalled, and resumed office. Lord Stanley (afterwards Earl of Derby) seceded, and, with Lord George Bentinck, Disraeli (whose savage attacks goaded Peel into sending him a challenge), and others, formed a 'no-surrender' Tory party; but the Duke of Wellington, Graham, Aberdeen, Gladstone, and other eminent Conservatives stood by him, and the measure for the repeal was carried. He was, however, immediately afterwards defeated on an Irish Protection of Life Bill. Not so much upon this account as because he felt that the course which he had pursued had produced a dissolution of the old ties of party, and that he could not expect for some time to find himself at the head of a strong government, Peel retired from office in June 1846, giving place to a Whig administration under Lord John Russell, to which he gave an independent but general support as the leader of a middle party rather Whig than Tory. In the critical times of 1847-48 he was one of the most important props of the government, whose free-trade principles he had now completely accepted. His ecclesiastical policy had also undergone a remarkable change, and he now frankly supported the Whigs in the efforts to carry an act for the repeal of the Jewish disabilities. He was himself regarded by the working and middle classes generally with much grateful respect. He had a keen English interest in sport, and a cultivated taste in matters literary and artistic. An accident put an end to his career. On the 28th of June 1850 he had delivered a great speech against Lord Palmerston in the Don Pacifico matter; but on the following day he was thrown from his horse near Hyde Park Corner, and was so much injured that he died on the night of the 2d of July. He was buried in the church of Drayton Bassett, his Staffordshire home. Peel left five sons, the eldest of whom, SIR ROBERT, and the second, SIR FREDERICK, held office as ministers; whilst ARTHUR WELLESLEY, the youngest (born 1829), was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1884 to 1895, when he was created Viscount Peel.

See Sir Robert Peel from his Private Papers, edited by C. S. Parker (3 vols. 1891-99), his Memoirs (2 vols. 1857), his Speeches (5 vols. 1835 and 1853; monographs on Peel by Guizot (1851), Laurence Peel, Lord Dalling, Barnett Smith, F. C. Montague (1888), Justin M'Carthy (1891), J. R. Thursfield (1891), Lord Rosebery (1899); Shaw Lefevre, Peel and O'Connell (1887); Greville's Memoirs; Beaconsfield's Bentinck; Morley's Cobden; Froude's Beaconsfield (1890); Croker's Memoirs (1884); also CORN LAWS, CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.