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Robert Peel

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1750-1900

   The Rt Hon Sir Robert Peel, Bt
   Robert Peel
     __________________________________________________________________

   Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
   In office
   December 10, 1834 –  April 8, 1835
   August 30, 1841 – June 29, 1846
   Preceded by The Viscount Melbourne
   Succeeded by The Viscount Melbourne
   The Lord John Russell
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chancellor of the Exchequer
   In office
   December 2, 1834 –  April 8, 1835
   Preceded by Thomas Denman
   Succeeded by Thomas Spring Rice
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born 5 February 1788
   Bury, Lancashire, England
   Died 2 July 1850 (age 62)
   Westminster, London, England
   Political party Conservative

   Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet ( 5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was the
   Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from December 10,
   1834 to April 8, 1835, and again from August 30, 1841 to June 29, 1846.
   He helped create the modern concept of the police force while Home
   Secretary, oversaw the formation of the Conservative Party out of the
   shattered Tory Party, and repealed the Corn Laws.

Biography

   Peel was born in Bury, Lancashire, England to the industrialist and
   Member of Parliament Sir Robert Peel. His father was one of the richest
   textile manufacturers of the early Industrial Revolution. Peel was
   educated first at Hipperholme Grammar School, then at Harrow School and
   finally Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a double first in classics
   and mathematics. He is also believed to have briefly attended Bury
   Grammar School. While living in Tamworth, he is credited with the
   development of the Tamworth Pig by breeding Irish stock with some local
   Tamworth pigs. He has living relatives even today, as far as Australia,
   and the Peel family living in Victoria.

Early 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 Sir
   Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, with whom Peel's
   political career would be entwined for the next twenty-five years.
   Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonPrime Minister 1828-1830
   Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
   Prime Minister 1828-1830

   His maiden speech in the Commons was a sensation, and was famously
   described by the Speaker as "the best first speech since that of
   William Pitt".

   For the next decade he occupied a series of relatively minor positions
   in the Tory governments: 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 Oxford University in 1817.

   He later served as MP for Tamworth from 1830 until his death. His home
   was Drayton Manor. His home Drayton Manor is no longer standing, but it
   is home to Drayton Manor Theme Park.

Home secretary

   Peel was considered one of the rising stars of the Tory party, first
   entering the cabinet in 1822 as Home Secretary. As Home Secretary, he
   introduced a number of important reforms of British criminal law: most
   memorably establishing the Metropolitan Police Force (Metropolitan
   Police Act 1828). He also changed the Penal code reducing the number of
   crimes punishable by death. He reformed the gaol system, introducing
   payment for gaolers and education for the inmates.
   Sir Robert Peel
   Sir Robert Peel

   He resigned as Home Secretary after the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool,
   became incapacitated and was replaced by George Canning. Canning
   favoured Catholic Emancipation, while Peel had been one of its most
   outspoken opponents. Canning himself died less than four months later
   and, after the brief premiership of 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 in the Tory Party, after Wellington himself.

   However, the pressure on the new ministry from advocates of Catholic
   Emancipation was too great and an Emancipation Bill was passed the next
   year. Peel felt compelled to resign his seat as MP representing the
   graduates of Oxford University (many of whom were Anglican clergymen),
   as he had stood on a platform of opposition to Catholic Emancipation
   (in 1815 he had, in fact, challenged to a duel the man most associated
   with emancipation, Daniel O'Connell). Peel instead moved to a rotten
   borough, Westbury, retaining his Cabinet position. Peel's protege
   Gladstone later emulated Peel by serving as MP for Oxford University
   from 1847 to 1865, before himself being defeated for his willingness to
   disestablish the Irish Church.

Police Reform

   It was at this point that he established Metropolitan Police Force for
   London based at Scotland Yard. The 1,000 constables employed were
   affectionately nicknamed 'Bobbies' or, somewhat less affectionately,
   'Peelers' (both terms are still used today). Although 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 Policing in the United Kingdom. (Actually, the
   authorities in Stalybridge, Cheshire had set up their own police force
   some two years earlier and so Peel was aware of this success of "police
   forces" before he "introduced" them in London. The city of Glasgow,
   Scotland had also had its own police force since 1800.) Known as the
   father of modern policing, Robert Peel developed the Peelian Principles
   which defined the ethical requirements police officers must follow in
   order to be effective. His most memorable principle was, "the police
   are the public, and the public are the police."
     * The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime
       and disorder.
     * The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon
       public approval of police actions.
     * Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in
       voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain
       the respect of the public.
     * The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured
       diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical
       force.
     * Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public
       opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service
       to the law.
     * Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure
       observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of
       persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.
     * Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the
       public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police
       are the public and the public are the police; the police being only
       members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to
       duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of
       community welfare and existence.
     * Police should always direct their action strictly towards their
       functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
     * The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder,
       not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

Whigs in power (1830-1834)

   Statue in Parliament Square, London
   Statue in Parliament Square, London

   The lower classes in England at that time, however, were clamoring for
   reform, and Catholic Emancipation was only one of the ideas in the air.
   The Tory ministry refused to bend on other issues and 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
   King William IV felt confident enough invite the Tories again to form a
   ministry in succession to those of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne in
   1834. Peel was selected as Prime Minister but was in Italy at the time,
   so Wellington acted as a caretaker for the three weeks until Peel's
   return.

First term as Prime Minister (1834-1835)

   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 issuing of this document is often seen as one
   of the most crucial points at which the Tories became the 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. The only real
   achievements of Peel's first administration was a commission to review
   the governance of the Church of England. This ecclesiastical commission
   being the forerunner of the Church Commissioners. A further achievement
   was a rapid gain in seats in the House of Commons which was around 100
   seats in the 100 days Peel's Ministry lasted.

Leader of the Opposition (1835-1841)

   In May 1839, he was offered another chance to form a government, this
   time by the new monarch, 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 wives and female 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.

Second term as Prime Minister (1841-1846)

   Image:Robert-Peel-arms.PNG
   Arms of Sir Robert Peel

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 Act 1844 acted
   more against these industrialists than it did against 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.

   In 1843 Peel was the target of a failed assassination attempt; a
   criminally-insane Scottish woodsman named Daniel M'Naghten stalked him
   for several days before accidentally killing Peel's personal secretary
   Edward Drummond instead.

Corn Laws and after

   John Russell, 1st Earl RussellPrime Minister 1846-1852, 1865-1866
   John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
   Prime Minister 1846-1852, 1865-1866

   The most notable act of Peel's second ministry, however, was the one
   that would bring 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 Conservative
   protectionism was triggered by the Irish potato famine. At first
   sceptical of the extent of the problem, Peel reacted slowly to the
   famine. 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. Yet
   many historians believe that Peel merely used the Irish Famine as an
   excuse to repeal the Corn Laws, having been an intellectual convert to
   free trade since the 1820s. Blake points out that if Peel was convinced
   that total repeal was necessary to stave off the famine, he should have
   enacted a bill that brought about immediate temporary repeal, not
   permanent repeal over a three-year period of gradual tapering-off of
   duties. 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.
   Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of BeaconsfieldPrime Minister 1868,
   1874-1880
   Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
   Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880

   As an aside in reference to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, Peel did make
   some moves to subsidise the purchase of food for the Irish, but this
   attempt was small and had little tangible effect. To criticise Peel for
   acting too late in repealing the Corn Laws, or for not giving enough
   subsidies to the Irish, shows a misunderstanding of the historical
   context. In the age of laissez-faire, government and their taxes were
   small, and subsidies or direct economic interference were almost
   non-existent. That subsidies were actually given was very much out of
   character for the political times; Peel's successor, Lord John Russell,
   has received more criticism than Peel has on Irish policy. The repeal
   of the Corn Laws was more political than humanitarian. Peel's support
   for free trade could already be seen in his 1842 and 1845 budgets; it
   can be argued that the repeal of the Corn Laws was the next logical
   step towards a free-market economy. Whatever the intentions, in the end
   the repeal of the Corn Laws had little effect on the situation in
   Ireland.

   The historian Boyd Hilton argues that Peel knew from 1844 that he was
   going to be deposed as Conservative leader—many of his MPs had taken to
   voting against him and the rupture within the party between liberals
   and paternalists which had been so damaging in the 1820s, but masked by
   the issue of reform in the 1830s was brought to the surface over the
   Corn Laws. Hilton's hypothesis is that Peel wished to actually be
   deposed on a liberal issue so that he might later lead a
   Peelite/Whig/Liberal alliance.

Later career and death

   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 a member of the committee
   which controlled the House of Commons Library, and on 16 April 1850 was
   responsible for passing the motion that controlled its scope and
   collection policy for the rest of the century.

   Peel was thrown from his horse while riding up Constitution Hill in
   London on 29 June 1850, the horse stumbled on top of him and he died
   three days later on July 2 at the age of 62. His Peelite followers, led
   by Lord Aberdeen and William Gladstone, went on to fuse with the Whigs
   as the Liberal Party.

In Memory of Sir Robert Peel

   Peel Tower Monument, this tower was built on top of Holcombe Hill in
   Ramsbottom, Bury. There is also a statue of Sir Robert Peel outside the
   Robert Peel public house in Bury town centre.
     * A British steamer named SS Sir Robert Peel, based in Canada, was
       burned by American forces on May 29, 1838, at the height of
       American-Canadian tensions over the Caroline Affair.

Sir Robert Peel's governments

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     * First Peel Ministry (1834–1835)
     * Second Peel Ministry (1841–1846)

Offices held

   Parliament of the United Kingdom
   Preceded by
   Quintin Dick Member for Cashel
   1809–1812 Succeeded by
   Sir Charles Saxton, Bt
   Preceded by
   John Maitland
   James Dawson Member for Chippenham
   1812–1817 Succeeded by
   John Maitland
   Preceded by
   Charles Abbot Member for Oxford University
   1817–1829 Succeeded by
   Sir Robert Inglis, Bt
   Preceded by
   William Yates Peel Member for Tamworth
   1830–1850 Succeeded by
   Sir Robert Peel, Bt
   Political offices
   Preceded by
   William Wellesley-Pole Chief Secretary for Ireland
   1812–1818 Succeeded by
   Charles Grant
   Preceded by
   The Viscount Sidmouth Home Secretary
   1822–1827 Succeeded by
   William Sturges-Bourne
   Preceded by
   The Marquess of Lansdowne Home Secretary
   1828–1830 Succeeded by
   The Viscount Melbourne
   Preceded by
   William Huskisson Leader of the House of Commons
   1828–1830 Succeeded by
   The Viscount Althorp
   Preceded by
   The Viscount Melbourne Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
   1834–1835 Succeeded by
   The Viscount Melbourne
   Preceded by
   Viscount Althorp Chancellor of the Exchequer
   1834–1835 Succeeded by
   Thomas Spring Rice
   Preceded by
   The Lord John Russell Leader of the House of Commons
   1834–1835 Succeeded by
   The Lord John Russell
   Preceded by
   The Viscount Melbourne Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
   1841–1846 Succeeded by
   The Lord John Russell
   Preceded by
   The Lord John Russell Leader of the House of Commons
   1841–1846
   Party Political Offices
   Preceded by
   None recognized Conservative Leader in the Commons
   1834–1846 Succeeded by
   The Lord George Bentinck
   Preceded by
   The Duke of Wellington Leader of the British Conservative Party
   1834–1846 Succeeded by
   The Lord Stanley
   Baronetage of Great Britain
   Preceded by
   Robert Peel Baronet
   (of Clanfield)
   1830–1850 Succeeded by
   Robert Peel
   Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

   Walpole · Wilmington · Pelham · Newcastle · Devonshire · Newcastle ·
   Bute · G Grenville · Rockingham · Chatham (Pitt the Elder) · Grafton ·
   North · Rockingham · Shelburne · Portland · Pitt the Younger ·
   Addington · Pitt the Younger · W Grenville · Portland · Perceval ·
   Liverpool · Canning · Goderich · Wellington · Grey · Melbourne · Peel ·
   Melbourne · Peel · Russell · Derby · Aberdeen · Palmerston · Derby ·
   Palmerston · Russell · Derby · Disraeli · Gladstone · Disraeli ·
   Gladstone · Salisbury · Gladstone · Salisbury · Gladstone · Rosebery ·
   Salisbury · Balfour · Campbell-Bannerman · Asquith · Lloyd George ·
   Bonar Law · Baldwin · MacDonald · Baldwin · MacDonald · Baldwin ·
   Chamberlain · Churchill · Attlee · Churchill · Eden · Macmillan ·
   Douglas-Home · Wilson · Heath · Wilson · Callaghan · Thatcher · Major ·
   Blair

   Flag of the United Kingdom
   Chancellors of the Exchequer

   Baker · Mildmay · Fortescue · Home · Caesar · Greville · Portland ·
   Newburgh · Cottington · Colepeper · Clarendon · Shaftesbury ·
   Duncombe · Ernle · Booth · Hampden · Montagu · Smith · Boyle · Smith ·
   Harley · Benson · Wyndham · Onslow · Walpole · Stanhope · Aislabie ·
   Pratt · Walpole · Sandys · Pelham · Lee · Bilson Legge · Lyttelton ·
   Bilson Legge · Mansfield · Bilson Legge · Barrington · Dashwood ·
   Grenville · Dowdeswell · Townshend · North · Cavendish · Pitt ·
   Cavendish · Pitt · Addington · Pitt · Petty · Perceval · Vansittart ·
   Robinson · Canning · Abbott · Herries · Goulburn · Althorp · Denman ·
   Peel · Monteagle · Baring · Goulburn · C Wood · Disraeli · Gladstone ·
   Lewis · Disraeli · Gladstone · Disraeli · Hunt · Lowe · Gladstone ·
   Northcote · Gladstone · Childers · Hicks Beach · Harcourt ·
   R Churchill · Goschen · Harcourt · Hicks Beach · Ritchie ·
   A Chamberlain · Asquith · Lloyd George · McKenna · Bonar Law ·
   A Chamberlain · Horne · Baldwin · N Chamberlain · Snowden · W
   Churchill · Snowden · N Chamberlain · Simon · K Wood · Anderson ·
   Dalton · Cripps · Gaitskell · Butler · Macmillan · Thorneycroft ·
   Heathcoat-Amory · Lloyd · Maudling · Callaghan · Jenkins · Macleod ·
   Barber · Healey · Howe · Lawson · Major · Lamont · Clarke · Brown
   Leaders of the Conservative Party

   The Duke of Wellington · Sir Robert Peel · The Earl of Derby · Benjamin
   Disraeli · The Marquess of Salisbury · Arthur Balfour · Andrew Bonar
   Law · Stanley Baldwin · Neville Chamberlain · Winston Churchill ·
   Anthony Eden · Harold Macmillan · Sir Alec Douglas-Home · Edward Heath
   · Margaret Thatcher · John Major · William Hague · Iain Duncan Smith ·
   Michael Howard · David Cameron
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel"
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