Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/226

 In November 1830 Wellington's government was defeated on Parnell's motion to revise the civil list [see, first ]. It was succeeded by the reform government of Lord Grey. On 22 Nov. Peel, who had succeeded to the baronetcy, a fine estate, and a great fortune at the death of his father on 3 May, and had become member for Tamworth at the August elections, took his place for the first time in his life on the opposition bench. Though he refused to pledge himself against all reform, and avowed ‘that there might have been proposed certain alterations to which I would have assented,’ yet, in a series of great speeches delivered on 3 March, 6 July, 21 Sept., 17 Dec. 1831, and 22 March 1832, he vigorously opposed the ministerial plans of parliamentary reform as an ill-advised reconstruction of the constitution. He was also a close critic of details, and between 12 and 27 July 1831 spoke no less than forty-eight times. His main arguments were that the plan in question would totally disfranchise the lower classes, that the rotten boroughs had given special opportunities to distinguished men of entering parliament, and that the existing constitution gave no hindrance to any necessary reforms. Early in April an amendment was carried in committee against the government, and Peel was the chief actor in the historic scene on 22 April 1831, when he was interrupted in the full tide of unwonted passion by black rod suddenly summoning the commons to hear the dissolution of parliament. In May 1832, after the lords had carried a motion in committee adverse to the Reform Bill, and the ministers had resigned, Peel's professions were put to the test by an offer of the premiership, ‘on the condition of introducing an extensive measure of reform,’ but he unhesitatingly declined. His conduct in this crisis won him back the tory allegiance which he had forfeited over catholic emancipation.

When Peel entered the parliament of 1833 as member for Tamworth his position was unique. He was the representative of an extinct system and the leader of a shattered party. For the tories, if nominally about 150 in number, rarely mustered one hundred on a division, and they were so dispirited that they even allowed their leader to be pushed from his place and made to sit nearer the speaker. On the other hand, he was incomparably the first man in the House of Commons. He had held office for sixteen years altogether, and had carried a long series of reforms. His weight was such that the whole house listened with an ‘unutterable anxiety’ to anything that he said or did. He was rid of embarrassing questions and an unmanageable party, and at once announced that he would accept the new order and act in the spirit of moderate reform. On this principle he constantly voted with Lord Grey's government against the extreme radicals and repealers, so that, out of the twenty important domestic questions dealt with during the sessions of 1833 and 1834, he sided on no less than sixteen with the government.

In July of the latter year the king tried to induce Peel to coalesce with the government on Lord Grey's resignation, but failed, and Lord Melbourne became prime minister. In November William IV abruptly dismissed Lord Melbourne and his colleagues. A romantic episode followed. The Mercury of the court, ‘the hurried Hudson,’ was sent to find Peel. He was found on 25 Nov. 1834 at Rome, at a ball of the Duchess of Torlonia, and he posted back to England to accept, on 9 Dec., the double office of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. He made his first appearance the next day, ‘full of spirits and cordiality,’ and at once took full responsibility for the king's action, although he disliked it. Then, having issued a manifesto to his Tamworth constituents in explanation of his past and future policy, he dissolved parliament, and thus added some hundred to the strength of his party. Toiling incessantly from seven in the morning till long past midnight, the minister prepared, against the meeting of the house, four great measures dealing with the church, three of which—the Dissenters' Marriage Bill, the English Tithe Bill, and the Irish Tithe Bill—were eventually carried, with additions, in 1836 and 1838 by the whigs. But the whig majority was merciless, and six times in six weeks Peel suffered defeat. At last, on 8 April 1835, having been outvoted on a resolution of Russell to appropriate the surplus revenues of the Irish church to non-ecclesiastical objects, the minister laid down his arms. As he announced his decision a tide of generous emotion swept through the ranks of his opponents. In his short term of office he had only actually done one thing: he had established the ecclesiastical commission. Yet he had proved himself, in the phrase of Guizot, ‘the most liberal of conservatives, the most conservative of liberals, and the most capable man of all in both parties.’ The shrewd remark of ‘old Sir Robert Peel’ was remembered, that his son would never display his talents in their fulness until he held the supreme place.

Peel now retired again into opposition and resumed his former attitude of ‘a great,