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Home Politics and Parties from the Reform Bill of 1832 to that of 1867 Sir Robert Peel's Conservative Ministry and the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1841-1846 |
Sir Robert Peel's Conservative Ministry and the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1841-1846With the fall of the Whigs in 1841 the Tories returned to power. Sir Robert Peel was at last able to form a more durable ministry than on the two previous occasions on which he had been called to office. Peel, who was the son of a wealthy manufacturer, had been destined, like the younger Pitt, for politics from his birth (When still a boy at Harrow he used to listen to the debates in the House of Commons. At Oxford he had worked prodigiously hard, studying just before his examination some eighteen hours a day, and he was the first Oxonian who obtained a double first; this was not possible before owing to the system of examinations). When he was barely of age, in 1809, his father bought for him a "rotten borough" in Ireland. He quickly made his mark in Parliament. His maiden speech was pronounced to be "the best first speech since that of Mr. Pitt", and within a year he became an under secretary of state. In 1812 Lord Liverpool made him chief secretary for Ireland, and for the next six years he remained the virtual ruler of that country. Subsequently, in 1822, as we have seen, he was given the post of home secretary (It was whilst he was home secretary that he formed the Metropolitan Police - hence their nicknames "peelers" or " bobbies", as his Christian name was Robert) in Lord Liverpool's reorganized ministry, and in 1828 - just before he was forty years of age - he became, in the Duke of Wellington's ministry, leader of the House of Commons. During the Whig ascendancy, from 1830 to 1841, he had industriously revived the energies of the Tory or, as he preferred to call it, the Conservative party. He had succeeded in introducing many important amendments into the Whig measures, and had recruited promising young men such as Gladstone and Disraeli to serve under his banner.Peel thus found himself, in 1841, at the head of a great party, and his only difficulty with so much talent at his command was whom to exclude from office,, The ministry which he eventually formed was exceptionally strong. It included four past or future prime ministers, in the Duke of Wellington, who held at first no office of State, though later he became commander-in-chief; Lord Aberdeen, the pacific foreign secretary; Lord Stanley, who was responsible for the colonies; and Gladstone, who was given a post at the Board of Trade. Besides these, there was Peel's closest ally, Graham, who was home secretary, and an experienced and clever lord chancellor in Lord Lyndhurst. Yet in this galaxy of talent Peel stood pre-eminent. Though a shy man, cold and awkward in his manner towards his political followers (It was described as "haughtily stiff or exuberantly bland"), he was a weighty and cogent speaker, and his skill and tact in managing Parliament made him, in Disraeli's opinion, the greatest member of Parliament that ever lived. His immense powers of work, the clearness of his intellect, and his great experience enabled him not only to spend eight hours a day in the House of Commons attending the debates, not only to conduct a huge correspondence, but also to supervise, to an extent which no subsequent prime minister has probably even attempted to equal, the affairs of the various departments of State. Mr. Gladstone thought Peel's ministry "a perfectly organized administration". "Neither the Grand Turk nor a Russian despot", said Cobden, the free trader, " had more power than Peel." |
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