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Robert Peel Biography

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PEEL, Sir Robert (1788–1850). An eminent British statesman. He was born near Bury, Lancashire, on Feb. 5, 1788, the eldest son of Robert Peel (created Baronet in 1800), a wealthy cotton spinner. Peel was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating from the latter in 1808, with a first class in classics and in mathematics. He subsequently studied law at Lincoln's Inn. In 1809 he obtained a seat in the House of Commons for the close borough of Cashel and began his political career by supporting the Tory ministry of the Duke of Portland. In 1810 he was appointed Undersecretary for War and the Colonies. In 1812, Lord Liverpool having meanwhile become Prime Minister, Peel became Chief Secretary for Ireland. In this capacity he had to consider three great questions—patronage, the preservation of order, and the maintenance of the Protestant ascendancy. In order to carry out these affairs successfully Peel ignored all personal ends and appointed Catholics and Protestants alike, thus strengthening his party. He created the Irish constabulary, dubbed Peelers, and became involved in such a bitter contest with Daniel O'Connell (q.v.) that he was driven in 1815 to send the agitator a challenge. The police, however, prevented the duel from taking place. Peel remained Irish Secretary until 1818, when he resigned. He had been chosen in 1817 the representative of Oxford in Parliament, an unusual honor for so young a man. He also began about this time to acquire a reputation as a financier and economist, and in 1819 he was appointed chairman of a special committee to consider the state of the Bank of England. As a result the so-called Peel's Act was adopted, according to which specie payments were resumed on May 1, 1823.

Peel had been a vigorous opponent of all acts intended to emancipate the Catholics, but about this time his views gradually began to change, though the process was so slow that after he had reëntered the ministry at the close of 1821 as Home Secretary he continued to oppose the measures of Canning, the most powerful advocate of the Catholics, and in 1827, after Canning had become Prime Minister, Peel resigned. In 1828 he again became Home Secretary in the cabinet of the Duke of Wellington. By this time Peel decided to support Catholic emancipation, and on March 5, 1829, himself introduced a bill to effect this change, which soon became a law. As a result of this reversal of his views Peel no longer remained the representative of Oxford, but sat for Westbury and subsequently for Tamworth. He brought about at this time numerous reforms in the laws, and in 1829 established a police force in London similar to that which he had established in Ireland.

In November, 1830, the cabinet was defeated on the question of parliamentary reform, and Peel for the first time belonged to the Opposition. He vigorously attacked the Reform Bills and played an important part in the various dramatic episodes of that time. On Dec. 9, 1834, he became Prime Minister, and tried to carry on the government in the face of a hostile majority, but on April 8, 1835, he was compelled to give up the contest. He began slowly, but surely, to build up the great Conservative party, so called since 1831, and gathered together under his leadership young men like Disraeli and Gladstone. In 1839 the Conservative leader was summoned on one occasion to form a cabinet, but Queen Victoria refused to submit to changes in the personnel of her household, and so the Whigs remained in power. They were, however, pressed on the one side by the new Radical partý and the Anti-Corn Law League and on the other by O'Connell. They lost ground and in 1841 were compelled to dissolve Parliament. The general election that ensued was virtually a contest between free trade and protection, and the latter won. When the new Parliament met the Conservative party, headed by Peel, came into office. The Whigs desired a fixed and moderate duty on foreign corn; the Anti-Corn Law League wished free corn; while Peel was in favor of a modification of the sliding scale of duty which had existed since 1828. He introduced and carried in 1842, in spite of strong opposition, a measure based upon this principle. The deficit in the revenue, which had grown to about £2,000,000, 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 on all incomes of £150 or more. To equalize still further the burdens of taxation, Peel commenced a revision of the general tariff and either abolished or lowered the duties on several very important articles of commerce. The great Bank Charter Act of 1844 was the measure to which Peel himself felt most attached and which he considered the most important and far-reaching of his administration. 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 increase of the allowance to Maynooth and its change into a permanent endowment instead of an annual grant, and by the foundation of the Irish nonsectarian colleges and other important measures. 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 Liberal party on the crisis, and Peel finally yielded. He told his ministerial colleagues that the Corn Laws were doomed and their repeal was inevitable. Some of them refusing to go along with him, he resigned; but after a few days he was recalled and the repeal was carried. He was, however, immediately afterward defeated on a protection of life bill for Ireland. 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 Liberal administration under Lord John Russell, to which he gave an independent but general support as the leader of a middle party rather than Liberal or Conservative. 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 Liberals in their efforts to carry an act for the repeal of the Jewish disabilities. On June 28, 1850, he spoke with great eloquence in the debate on Lord Palmerston's Greek policy. On the following day he was thrown from his horse in Hyde Park and was so much injured that he died on the evening of July 2, 1850.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 251-252.