Who was Robert Peel?
The son of a rich Lancashire cotton manufacturer who sat in Parliament, Robert Peel was born in 1788. He became an MP in 1809. Early on he resisted Catholic emancipation and was jeered as Orange Peel. After taking the Home Office in 1822 he overhauled the criminal law and the prisons. In 1829 he created London's police force and, in a reversal, helped pass emancipation. The Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 gave the Conservatives a fresh program. He led two governments, in 1834-1835 and 1841-1846, and died in 1850 after a fall from his horse.
Political views
- The Tamworth Manifesto accepted the Reform Act of 1832 as settled and promised to review institutions carefully while protecting established rights.Source: historyhome.co.uk
- Started London's Metropolitan Police force in 1829.Source: gov.uk
- As Home Secretary, cut around 100 offences from the list of crimes that carried the death penalty, and improved the prisons.Source: gov.uk
- Freed up trade during the 1840s, although he was not a strict free-trade thinker.Source: gov.uk
- Scrapped the Corn Laws in 1846, so imported grain no longer carried duties, at a time of poor harvests and famine in Ireland.Source: ebsco.com
- Supported the Mines Act of 1842 and the Factory Act of 1844, both of which restricted the hours and jobs of women and children.Source: gov.uk
Legacy
Admirers call Peel the father of modern conservatism, a practical reformer who put the country before his party, and they cite the police, penal reform and freer trade. Opponents inside his party, Disraeli foremost, accused him of selling out the landowners and breaking faith with voters. They had the Corn Laws and emancipation in mind. After the 1846 split, the Conservatives did not win a clear majority for roughly a generation. Historians still debate whether his changes of mind came from principle or from convenience.
In their own words
“a careful review of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, undertaken in a friendly temper combining, with the firm maintenance of established rights, the correction of proved abuses and the redress of real grievances”