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The Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet
(5 February 1788–2 July 1850) was Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime
Minister from December 1834 to April 1835, and
again from June 1841 to 29 June 1846.  Born in
Bury in Lancashire to an industrialist and Member
of Parliament also named Robert Peel, and educated
first at Hipperholme Grammar School, then at
Harrow School and finally Christ Church, Oxford.

== Political Career ==
The young Peel entered politics at the young age
of 21 as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel
City, Tipperary. With a scant twenty-four voters
on the rolls, he was elected unopposed. More
importantly, his sponsor for the election (besides
his father) was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
Wellington|Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke
of Wellington, with whom Peel's political career
would be entwined for the next twenty-five years.
His maiden speech in the Commons was a sensation,
and famously described by the Speaker of the House
of Commons as "the best first speech since that of
William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt". 

For the next decade he occupied a series of
relatively minor positions in the Tory governments
of the time (Undersecretary for War, Chief
Secretary for Ireland, and chairman of the Bullion
Committee charged with stabilizing British
finances after the end of the Napoleonic Wars). He
also changed seats twice, first picking up another
rotten borough, Chippenham, then becoming MP for
University of Oxford|Oxford University in 1817.

He later served as MP for Tamworth from 1830 until
his death.

He was considered one of the rising stars of the
Tory party, and first entered the cabinet in 1822
as Home Secretary, in which capacity he introduced
a number of important reforms of British criminal
law. It was in this capacity that he is probably
best remembered for his creation of the
Metropolitan Police Force (Metropolitan Police Act
1829) which created 1000 constables
(affectionately nicknamed 'Peelers' or 'Bobbies')
charged with the prevention and investigation of
criminal activity in the London area. As a result
crime plummeted in London and soon local councils
all over Britain were copying this initiative. His
changes to the Penal code resulted in fewer crimes
being punished by death. He also reformed the gaol
system with payment for gaolers and education for
the inmates.

He resigned from this position after the Prime
Minister, Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of
Liverpool|Lord Liverpool, was incapacitated,
leading to his replacement by George Canning;
Canning favoured Catholic Emancipation, and Peel
had been one of its most outspoken opponents.
Canning himself died less than four months later,
and after the brief premiership of Frederick John
Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|Lord Goderich,
Peel returned to the post of Home Secretary under
the premiership of his long-time ally the Duke of
Wellington. During this time he was widely
perceived as the number two man in the Tory Party
after Wellington himself. 

But the forces being exerted on the new Ministry
by advocates of Catholic Emancipation were too
great, and a Bill to that effect was passed the
next year. Peel felt compelled to resign his seat
at Oxford, as what had made him attractive to that
constituency in the first place was his opposition
to it (in 1815 he had, in fact, challenged to a
duel the man most associated with emancipation,
Daniel O'Connell). He instead moved to another
rotten borough, Westbury, and retained his Cabinet
position.

== Peelian Police Reform ==
It was at this point that he arranged for his
most-remembered act: the organization of the
Metropolitan Police Force for London based out of
Scotland Yard. As a result the colloquial term for
police in Britain, "bobbies", is taken from Peel's
name, as is the older slang term "peelers". Though
at first unpopular they proved very successful in
cutting crime in London, and by 1835 all cities in
the UK were being directed to form their own
police forces—see British Police.
Known as the father of modern policing, his
Peelian Principles defined the ethical
requirements police officers must follow in order
to be effective.  His most memorable principle is:
 The police are the public, and the public are the
police.

== Whigs Take Power ==
The lower classes in England at that time,
however, were in a passion for reform, and
Catholic Emancipation was only one of the ideas in
the air. As the conservative Tory ministry refused
to bend on other issues, they were swept out of
office in 1830 in favour of the Whigs. The
following few years were extremely turbulent, but
eventually enough reforms were passed that William
IV of the United Kingdom|King William IV felt
confident enough invite the Tories again to form a
ministry in succession to those of Charles Grey,
2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey and William Lamb, 2nd
Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne in 1834. Peel
was selected as Prime Minister, though was in
Italy at the time, so Wellington acted as a
caretaker for the three weeks in November and
December it took Peel to return.

This new Tory Ministry was a minority government,
however, and depended on Whig goodwill for its
continued existence. As his statement of policy at
the general election of January 1835, Peel issued
the Tamworth Manifesto, the document which is
considered the point at which the Tories became
the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party. In
it, he pledged that the Conservatives would
endorse modest reform, but the Whigs instead
formed a compact with Daniel O'Connell's Irish
Radical members to repeatedly defeat the
government on various bills. Eventually Peel's
ministry resigned out of frustration, and the
Whigs under Lord Melbourne returned to power.

In May 1839, he was offered another chance to form
a government, this time by the new monarch,
Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria.
However, this too would have been a minority
government and Peel felt he needed a further sign
of confidence from his Queen. Lord Melbourne had
been Victoria's confidant for several years, and
many of the higher posts in Victoria's household
were held by the female wives and relatives of
Whigs; there was some feeling that Victoria had
allowed herself to be too closely associated with
the Whig party. Peel therefore asked that some of
this coterie be dismissed and replaced with their
Conservative counterparts, provoking the so-called
Bedchamber Crisis. Victoria refused to change her
household, and despite pleadings from the Duke of
Wellington, relied on assurances of support from
Whig leaders. Peel refused to form a government,
and the Whigs returned to power.

== Factory Act ==
Peel finally had a chance to head a majority
government following the election of July 1841.
His promise of modest reform was held to, and the
second most famous bill of this ministry, while
"reforming" in 21st century eyes, was in fact
aimed at the reformers themselves, with their
constituency among the new industrial rich. The
Factory Acts|Factory Act 1844 acted more against
them than the traditional stronghold of the
Conservatives, the landed gentry, by restricting
the number of hours that children and women could
work in a factory, and setting rudimentary safety
standards for machinery. Interestingly, this was a
continuation of his own father's work as an MP, as
the elder Robert Peel was most noted for reform of
working conditions during the first part of the
19th century.

Notably, in 1843, Peel was the target of a failed
assassination; a criminally-insane Scottish
woodsmen named Daniel M'Naghten stalked him for
several days before accidently killing Peel's
personal secretary Edward Drummond by mistake.

== Corn Laws ==
The most notable act of Peel's ministry, however,
was the one that brought it down. This time Peel
moved against the landholders by repealing the
Corn Laws, which supported agricultural revenues
by restricting grain imports. This radical break
with Tory protectionism was triggered by the
appalling Irish potato famine.

At first sceptical of the extent of the problem,
Peel reacted slowly. As realisation dawned
however, he hoped that ending the Corn Laws would
free up more food for the Irish. Though he knew
repealing the laws would mean the end of his
ministry, Peel decided to do so out of humanity.
His own party failed to support the bill, but it
passed with Whig and Radical support on 29 June
1846. A following bill was defeated as a direct
consequence, however, and Peel resigned.
Unfortunately, repeal did little to alleviate the
suffering, but in the end Peel was willing to
sacrifice himself in an attempt to help.

As a historiographical aside in reference to the
Repeal of the Corn Laws. Peel did make some moves
to subsidise the purchase of food for the Irish,
however this was small and had very little effect.
To criticise Peel for acting too late in repealing
the Corn Laws or for not giving enough subsidies
to the Irish, shows a gross misunderstanding of
the historical context. In the age of
laissez-faire taxes were small and subsidies
almost non-existent. That subsidies were actually
given was very much out of character for the
political times. Secondly the repeal of the Corn
Laws was more a political action than a
humanitarian one; there had been poor harvests all
across Europe so the repeal made little
difference. 

The historian Boyd Hilton argues convincingly that
Peel knew from 1844 that he was going to be
deposed as Conservative leader, many of his MP's
had taken to voting against him. Hilton's
hypothesis is that Peel who had led a very Liberal
ministry wished to be deposed on a Liberal issue
so that he might later lead a Peelite/Whig
alliance. 

He did retain a hard core of supporters however,
known as Peelites, and at one point in 1849 was
actively courted by the Whig/Radical coalition. He
continued to stand on his conservative principles,
however, and refused. Nevertheless, he was
influential on several important issues, including
the furtherance of British free trade with the
repeal of the Navigation Acts.

Peel was thrown from his horse while riding up
Constitution Hill in London on 29 June 1850, and
died three days later at the age of 62. His
Peelite followers, led by George Hamilton-Gordon,
4th Earl of Aberdeen|Lord Aberdeen and William
Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone, went on to fuse
with the Whigs as the Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal
Party.


==Sir Robert Peel's governments==
*First Peel Ministry (1834–1835)
*Second Peel Ministry (1841–1846)

start box
succession box | before=William Wellesley-Pole,
3rd Earl of Mornington|William Wellesley-Pole |
title=Chief Secretary for Ireland |
years=1812–1818 | after=Charles Grant, 1st
Baron Glenelg|Charles Grant
succession box | before=Henry Addington, 1st
Viscount Sidmouth|The Viscount Sidmouth |
title=Secretary of State for the Home
Department|Home Secretary | years=1822–1827
| after=William Sturges-Bourne
succession box | before=Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice,
3rd Marquess of Lansdowne|The Marquess of
Lansdowne | title=Secretary of State for the Home
Department|Home Secretary | years=1828–1830
| after=William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|The
Viscount Melbourne
succession box | before=William Huskisson |
title=Leader of the House of Commons |
years=1828–1830 | after=John Spencer, 3rd
Earl Spencer|The Viscount Althorp
succession box | before=None recognized |
title=Leaders of the Conservative
Party|Conservative Leader in the Commons |
years=1834–1846 | after=Lord George
Bentinck|The Lord George Bentinck
succession box | before=Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke
of Wellington|The Duke of Wellington |
title=Leaders of the Conservative Party|Leader of
the British Conservative Party | after=Edward
Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|The Lord Stanley
| years=1834–1846 
succession box | before=William Lamb, 2nd Viscount
Melbourne|The Viscount Melbourne | title=Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister |
years=1834–1835 | after=William Lamb, 2nd
Viscount Melbourne|The Viscount Melbourne
succession box | before=John Spencer, 3rd Earl
Spencer|Viscount Althorp | title=Chancellor of the
Exchequer | years=1834–1835
 | after=Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron
Monteagle|Thomas Spring Rice
succession box | before=John Russell, 1st Earl
Russell|The Lord John Russell | title=Leader of
the House of Commons | years=1834–1835 |
after=John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|The Lord John
Russell
succession box two to one | before1=William Lamb,
2nd Viscount Melbourne|The Viscount Melbourne |
title1=Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime
Minister | years1=1841–1846 | after=John
Russell, 1st Earl Russell|The Lord John Russell |
before2=John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|The Lord
John Russell | title2=Leader of the House of
Commons | years2=1841–1846
end box

PeerNavbox | Prev=Sir Robert Peel, 1st
Baronet|Robert Peel | Title=Peel Baronets|Peel
Baronet of Clanfield | Next=Sir Robert Peel, 3rd
Baronet|Robert Peel

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

The Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet
(5 February 1788–2 July 1850) was Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime
Minister from December 1834 to April 1835, and
again from June 1841 to 29 June 1846.  Born in
Bury in Lancashire to an industrialist and Member
of Parliament also named Robert Peel, and educated
first at Hipperholme Grammar School, then at
Harrow School and finally Christ Church, Oxford.

== Political Career ==
The young Peel entered politics at the young age
of 21 as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel
City, Tipperary. With a scant twenty-four voters
on the rolls, he was elected unopposed. More
importantly, his sponsor for the election (besides
his father) was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
Wellington|Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke
of Wellington, with whom Peel's political career
would be entwined for the next twenty-five years.
His maiden speech in the Commons was a sensation,
and famously described by the Speaker of the House
of Commons as "the best first speech since that of
William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt". 

For the next decade he occupied a series of
relatively minor positions in the Tory governments
of the time (Undersecretary for War, Chief
Secretary for Ireland, and chairman of the Bullion
Committee charged with stabilizing British
finances after the end of the Napoleonic Wars). He
also changed seats twice, first picking up another
rotten borough, Chippenham, then becoming MP for
University of Oxford|Oxford University in 1817.

He later served as MP for Tamworth from 1830 until
his death.

He was considered one of the rising stars of the
Tory party, and first entered the cabinet in 1822
as Home Secretary, in which capacity he introduced
a number of important reforms of British criminal
law. It was in this capacity that he is probably
best remembered for his creation of the
Metropolitan Police Force (Metropolitan Police Act
1829) which created 1000 constables
(affectionately nicknamed 'Peelers' or 'Bobbies')
charged with the prevention and investigation of
criminal activity in the London area. As a result
crime plummeted in London and soon local councils
all over Britain were copying this initiative. His
changes to the Penal code resulted in fewer crimes
being punished by death. He also reformed the gaol
system with payment for gaolers and education for
the inmates.

He resigned from this position after the Prime
Minister, Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of
Liverpool|Lord Liverpool, was incapacitated,
leading to his replacement by George Canning;
Canning favoured Catholic Emancipation, and Peel
had been one of its most outspoken opponents.
Canning himself died less than four months later,
and after the brief premiership of Frederick John
Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|Lord Goderich,
Peel returned to the post of Home Secretary under
the premiership of his long-time ally the Duke of
Wellington. During this time he was widely
perceived as the number two man in the Tory Party
after Wellington himself. 

But the forces being exerted on the new Ministry
by advocates of Catholic Emancipation were too
great, and a Bill to that effect was passed the
next year. Peel felt compelled to resign his seat
at Oxford, as what had made him attractive to that
constituency in the first place was his opposition
to it (in 1815 he had, in fact, challenged to a
duel the man most associated with emancipation,
Daniel O'Connell). He instead moved to another
rotten borough, Westbury, and retained his Cabinet
position.

== Peelian Police Reform ==
It was at this point that he arranged for his
most-remembered act: the organization of the
Metropolitan Police Force for London based out of
Scotland Yard. As a result the colloquial term for
police in Britain, "bobbies", is taken from Peel's
name, as is the older slang term "peelers". Though
at first unpopular they proved very successful in
cutting crime in London, and by 1835 all cities in
the UK were being directed to form their own
police forces—see British Police.
Known as the father of modern policing, his
Peelian Principles defined the ethical
requirements police officers must follow in order
to be effective.  His most memorable principle is:
 The police are the public, and the public are the
police.

== Whigs Take Power ==
The lower classes in England at that time,
however, were in a passion for reform, and
Catholic Emancipation was only one of the ideas in
the air. As the conservative Tory ministry refused
to bend on other issues, they were swept out of
office in 1830 in favour of the Whigs. The
following few years were extremely turbulent, but
eventually enough reforms were passed that William
IV of the United Kingdom|King William IV felt
confident enough invite the Tories again to form a
ministry in succession to those of Charles Grey,
2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey and William Lamb, 2nd
Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne in 1834. Peel
was selected as Prime Minister, though was in
Italy at the time, so Wellington acted as a
caretaker for the three weeks in November and
December it took Peel to return.

This new Tory Ministry was a minority government,
however, and depended on Whig goodwill for its
continued existence. As his statement of policy at
the general election of January 1835, Peel issued
the Tamworth Manifesto, the document which is
considered the point at which the Tories became
the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party. In
it, he pledged that the Conservatives would
endorse modest reform, but the Whigs instead
formed a compact with Daniel O'Connell's Irish
Radical members to repeatedly defeat the
government on various bills. Eventually Peel's
ministry resigned out of frustration, and the
Whigs under Lord Melbourne returned to power.

In May 1839, he was offered another chance to form
a government, this time by the new monarch,
Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria.
However, this too would have been a minority
government and Peel felt he needed a further sign
of confidence from his Queen. Lord Melbourne had
been Victoria's confidant for several years, and
many of the higher posts in Victoria's household
were held by the female wives and relatives of
Whigs; there was some feeling that Victoria had
allowed herself to be too closely associated with
the Whig party. Peel therefore asked that some of
this coterie be dismissed and replaced with their
Conservative counterparts, provoking the so-called
Bedchamber Crisis. Victoria refused to change her
household, and despite pleadings from the Duke of
Wellington, relied on assurances of support from
Whig leaders. Peel refused to form a government,
and the Whigs returned to power.

== Factory Act ==
Peel finally had a chance to head a majority
government following the election of July 1841.
His promise of modest reform was held to, and the
second most famous bill of this ministry, while
"reforming" in 21st century eyes, was in fact
aimed at the reformers themselves, with their
constituency among the new industrial rich. The
Factory Acts|Factory Act 1844 acted more against
them than the traditional stronghold of the
Conservatives, the landed gentry, by restricting
the number of hours that children and women could
work in a factory, and setting rudimentary safety
standards for machinery. Interestingly, this was a
continuation of his own father's work as an MP, as
the elder Robert Peel was most noted for reform of
working conditions during the first part of the
19th century.

Notably, in 1843, Peel was the target of a failed
assassination; a criminally-insane Scottish
woodsmen named Daniel M'Naghten stalked him for
several days before accidently killing Peel's
personal secretary Edward Drummond by mistake.

== Corn Laws ==
The most notable act of Peel's ministry, however,
was the one that brought it down. This time Peel
moved against the landholders by repealing the
Corn Laws, which supported agricultural revenues
by restricting grain imports. This radical break
with Tory protectionism was triggered by the
appalling Irish potato famine.

At first sceptical of the extent of the problem,
Peel reacted slowly. As realisation dawned
however, he hoped that ending the Corn Laws would
free up more food for the Irish. Though he knew
repealing the laws would mean the end of his
ministry, Peel decided to do so out of humanity.
His own party failed to support the bill, but it
passed with Whig and Radical support on 29 June
1846. A following bill was defeated as a direct
consequence, however, and Peel resigned.
Unfortunately, repeal did little to alleviate the
suffering, but in the end Peel was willing to
sacrifice himself in an attempt to help.

As a historiographical aside in reference to the
Repeal of the Corn Laws. Peel did make some moves
to subsidise the purchase of food for the Irish,
however this was small and had very little effect.
To criticise Peel for acting too late in repealing
the Corn Laws or for not giving enough subsidies
to the Irish, shows a gross misunderstanding of
the historical context. In the age of
laissez-faire taxes were small and subsidies
almost non-existent. That subsidies were actually
given was very much out of character for the
political times. Secondly the repeal of the Corn
Laws was more a political action than a
humanitarian one; there had been poor harvests all
across Europe so the repeal made little
difference. 

The historian Boyd Hilton argues convincingly that
Peel knew from 1844 that he was going to be
deposed as Conservative leader, many of his MP's
had taken to voting against him. Hilton's
hypothesis is that Peel who had led a very Liberal
ministry wished to be deposed on a Liberal issue
so that he might later lead a Peelite/Whig
alliance. 

He did retain a hard core of supporters however,
known as Peelites, and at one point in 1849 was
actively courted by the Whig/Radical coalition. He
continued to stand on his conservative principles,
however, and refused. Nevertheless, he was
influential on several important issues, including
the furtherance of British free trade with the
repeal of the Navigation Acts.

Peel was thrown from his horse while riding up
Constitution Hill in London on 29 June 1850, and
died three days later at the age of 62. His
Peelite followers, led by George Hamilton-Gordon,
4th Earl of Aberdeen|Lord Aberdeen and William
Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone, went on to fuse
with the Whigs as the Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal
Party.


==Sir Robert Peel's governments==
*First Peel Ministry (1834–1835)
*Second Peel Ministry (1841–1846)

start box
succession box | before=William Wellesley-Pole,
3rd Earl of Mornington|William Wellesley-Pole |
title=Chief Secretary for Ireland |
years=1812–1818 | after=Charles Grant, 1st
Baron Glenelg|Charles Grant
succession box | before=Henry Addington, 1st
Viscount Sidmouth|The Viscount Sidmouth |
title=Secretary of State for the Home
Department|Home Secretary | years=1822–1827
| after=William Sturges-Bourne
succession box | before=Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice,
3rd Marquess of Lansdowne|The Marquess of
Lansdowne | title=Secretary of State for the Home
Department|Home Secretary | years=1828–1830
| after=William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|The
Viscount Melbourne
succession box | before=William Huskisson |
title=Leader of the House of Commons |
years=1828–1830 | after=John Spencer, 3rd
Earl Spencer|The Viscount Althorp
succession box | before=None recognized |
title=Leaders of the Conservative
Party|Conservative Leader in the Commons |
years=1834–1846 | after=Lord George
Bentinck|The Lord George Bentinck
succession box | before=Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke
of Wellington|The Duke of Wellington |
title=Leaders of the Conservative Party|Leader of
the British Conservative Party | after=Edward
Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|The Lord Stanley
| years=1834–1846 
succession box | before=William Lamb, 2nd Viscount
Melbourne|The Viscount Melbourne | title=Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister |
years=1834–1835 | after=William Lamb, 2nd
Viscount Melbourne|The Viscount Melbourne
succession box | before=John Spencer, 3rd Earl
Spencer|Viscount Althorp | title=Chancellor of the
Exchequer | years=1834–1835
 | after=Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron
Monteagle|Thomas Spring Rice
succession box | before=John Russell, 1st Earl
Russell|The Lord John Russell | title=Leader of
the House of Commons | years=1834–1835 |
after=John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|The Lord John
Russell
succession box two to one | before1=William Lamb,
2nd Viscount Melbourne|The Viscount Melbourne |
title1=Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime
Minister | years1=1841–1846 | after=John
Russell, 1st Earl Russell|The Lord John Russell |
before2=John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|The Lord
John Russell | title2=Leader of the House of
Commons | years2=1841–1846
end box

PeerNavbox | Prev=Sir Robert Peel, 1st
Baronet|Robert Peel | Title=Peel Baronets|Peel
Baronet of Clanfield | Next=Sir Robert Peel, 3rd
Baronet|Robert Peel