Peel, Sir Robert

Peel, Sir Robert (1788–1850). Prime minister. Peel was born into a family which had recently become wealthy through cotton manufacture. His father became a baronet in 1800, and Peel was destined for a political career without direct involvement in industry. He was educated at Harrow and Oxford, where his contemporaries mainly came from established governing groups. Like his father, a traditional church and king Tory, Peel was a loyal supporter of Pitt's wartime government. When he was 21, his father bought him a parliamentary seat for the Irish borough of Cashel. He was widely seen as an able man and in June 1809 became under-secretary for war and colonies. He quickly earned a reputation as a fine parliamentary speaker. In 1812 he became chief secretary for Ireland, described as ‘one of the most difficult and laborious offices under the government’. During his six years there he developed administrative skills and acquired a defensive armour of apparent aloofness. He had a strong physique but by 1818 overwork had impaired his health and he resigned. But he retained close links with ministers and was responsible for piloting through the return to cash payments in 1819. In 1822 Peel became home secretary in Liverpool's government. He introduced several important measures, including far-reaching reform of the criminal law and the creation of the Metropolitan Police. He also distinguished himself as a leading opponent of catholic emancipation, increasing his status with many Tories in and out of Parliament. He left office in 1827, refusing to serve under Canning, who supported catholic emancipation, but returned after Canning's early death. When Wellington felt obliged to concede emancipation in 1829, Peel resigned but then yielded to Wellington's pleas to return to office and skilfully piloted emancipation through the Commons. This earned him the enmity of many of his old admirers and raised doubts as to his trustworthiness. After the Tory government fell in 1830, Peel increasingly emerged as leader of the opposition to the new Whig ministry. He opposed the Great Reform Act, but tried to keep within bounds the enmity of right-wing Tories towards the Whigs.

Peel began to establish a national reputation for moderation, exemplified by his Tamworth manifesto, in which he accepted the Reform Act and committed his Conservative Party to a policy of cautious reform, while pledging to conserve all vital national interests. This was a successful ploy, although its vagueness held the seeds of future trouble since it was easy to disagree as to what vital national interests were. The manifesto was issued for the general election after William IV dismissed his Whig ministers late in 1834. Peel became prime minister with a minority of seats. In the following election his party gained about 100 seats, but not a majority. The Whigs forced Peel's resignation and returned to office, but the following years saw them weaken both in Parliament and in the country. The 1837 election brought further Conservative gains. Peel's moderation and obvious ability attracted many supporters, though this involved a dangerously broad range of political opinion, from reactionary Tories to moderate reformers. Deepening economic and political troubles brought the Whigs in 1841 to propose a more radical financial policy which involved reductions in tariffs, including the Corn Laws which protected agriculture. Peel then defeated ministers on a no-confidence motion, took office, and dissolved. In the ensuing election Peel won decisively. He had projected an image of strength and responsibility, while the Whigs had seemed to many voters both financially inept and culpably weak in face of chartist agitation. Although the country was suffering grave social and economic troubles, he used the winter of 1841–2 to mature plans for recovery and in the 1842 budget scored a major success. He slashed tariffs as impediments to commerce and revised the Corn Laws downwards. Unlike the Whigs, he was strong enough to balance this loss of revenue by enacting direct taxation on incomes. Ensuing years saw further moves towards free trade, including a second comprehensive tariff-cutting budget in 1845, and growing restiveness in some Conservative quarters, as Peel's commitment to the preservation of the Corn Laws became doubtful. To him, agricultural protection was now no more than a commercial expedient, but to many Conservatives this bulwark of the landed interest was a vital national concern. The Anti-Corn Law League's agitation increased right-wing anxiety. From 1842 onwards, Peel's Conservative critics had warned that free trade policies would fail, but economic recovery by 1845 seemed to confound them. By then Peel was at heart a free trader, although he knew that to attack the Corn Laws was politically perilous. In 1845 the potato crop failed, bringing catastrophe to Ireland. Peel determined to take the opportunity to repeal the Corn Laws. He was unable to persuade his cabinet to back him, and resigned, but when the Whigs failed to form a ministry late in 1845, he returned to office. He had lost some right-wing ministers and alienated many backbenchers and supporters outside Parliament. He introduced his repeal measures cleverly, offering concessions to the landed interest, but failed to preserve his position when the aristocratic Lord George Bentinck and the political adventurer Benjamin Disraeli succeeded in organizing protectionist opposition. With his own following among the Conservatives and support from Whigs and radicals, Peel succeeded in repealing the Corn Laws in 1846. At the same time, disaffected Conservatives joined the opposition in defeating an Irish Coercion Bill, in order to bring Peel down. He resigned immediately after this defeat and never held office again. For the remainder of his life he possessed great influence, since the political scene was fragmented after the Conservative rift, and enjoyed great prestige in the country. His status owed much to the widespread belief that as a minister he had preferred the public good to his own retention of power. The conviction that under Peel a legislature dominated by the landed interest had sacrificed the Corn Laws to the need to feed the people played a part in ensuring that subsequent change in 19th-cent. Britain was evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Norman McCord

Bibliography

Gash, N. , Mr. Secretary Peel (1961);
—— Sir Robert Peel (1971).