Peel, Robert

Robert (1788-1850), a prime minister of England. He was born in the neighborhood of Bury, Lancashire. His father and his grandfather before him were wealthy cotton spinners. Young Robert was educated at Harrow, and entered Christ's Church, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He studied hard and stood first in classics and mathematics. Though distinguished for his political life he never lost his love for books, and in 1837, when elected lord rector of Glasgow University, his inaugural speech was devoted to praise of the classical education. In 1809 he entered Parliament. The generation of Pitt, Fox, Burke, and Sheridan had done its work. Gladstone and Disraeli had not yet appeared on the public stage. Brougham, Parnell, Canning, Palmerston, and Russell were the parliamentarians among whom his lot was thrown.

He rose rapidly. At the age of twenty-five he was secretary for Ireland. He was twice prime minister. For forty years his name was connected with every public measure of importance. He was a Tory in politics. He merged the remnant of the Tories in a new political party known as the Conservatives. He opposed the Reform Bill which extended the right of voting; but, like a politician, accepted the passage of the act in good faith. Sometimes his course was dictated by his own feelings and opinions. Sometimes it was shaped by the evident wishes of the people. He advocated the emancipation of the Catholics, freedom of religious worship, free trade, the encouragement of agriculture, and improvement by loans of public money. His service in reforming the Corn Laws is noted in a separate article. He brought about reforms in the police systems both of Ireland and England. The nicknames of "peelers" and "bobs," by which the police of London are known to this day, are mere plays on the name of Robert Peel. In foreign affairs, he was a friend of the people. The Napoleonic wars came to a close soon after he entered Parliament. It was Peel's policy to keep out of foreign wars. In his life-time he declined to be made a peer. He was mortally injured by a fall from a horse. The nation would have laid him at rest in Westminster Abbey, but it was his will that he should be buried in the parish church at Drayton.