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 challenge from the O'Donoghue, but the matter was brought before the commons on 25 Feb. and was adjusted. Although he took a warm interest in some Irish questions, especially higher education, which he had aided by a handsome contribution to the Queen's Colleges founded by his father, his career in Ireland was a failure. When the liberal government was reconstituted, after the death of Lord Palmerston, by Lord John Russell, to whom Peel's failings were peculiarly obnoxious, he was succeeded in the Irish secretaryship by Chichester Fortescue, and he did not again hold office. On 5 Jan. 1866 he was created G.C.B.

He continued to sit for Tamworth as a liberal, but was often a severe critic of Mr. Gladstone's policy. In 1871 he gave a remarkable proof of his eloquence by describing to the house the rout, which he had himself witnessed, of the French army of General Bourbaki, and its flight over the Swiss frontier in the depth of winter. In 1874 he for a second time christened himself a liberal-conservative; and when the eastern question, during Lord Beaconsfield's administration, came to the front, he wholly separated himself from the followers of Mr. Gladstone. He did not stand for Tamworth at the general election in 1880, but unsuccessfully contested Gravesend in the conservative interest; and his voice was often heard on conservative platforms, denouncing the action of the liberal administration in Egypt and Ireland. In the ‘Times’ of 8 May 1880 he published a letter, in which he recounted the offers from various governments of honours and offices which he had refused. On 21 March 1884 he was returned as a conservative member for Huntingdon. When that borough was disfranchised, he was, in November 1885, returned for Blackburn.

On the critical division on the second reading of the Home Rule Bill, on 7 June 1886, he abstained from voting. At the general election in the following July he contested the Inverness burghs, but was not successful. Subsequently, with characteristic impetuosity, he threw himself into the home rule agitation as a supporter of the Irish demands, and at a by-election in 1889 came forward as a candidate for Brighton in the home rule interest. He was hopelessly defeated, and his political career came to a disappointing close.

From about 1856 he was extensively engaged in racing under the name of Mr. F. Robinson; and later on had an establishment at Bonehill, near Tamworth, where he bred horses.

His father's fine collection of seventy-seven pictures and eighteen drawings, including the well-known ‘Chapeau de Poil,’ by Rubens, he sold to the National Gallery, in March 1871, for 75,000l. (Parliamentary Papers, 1872, No. 35). In later life his private circumstances were embarrassed, chiefly owing to his reckless extravagance, and he ceased to reside at Drayton Manor, Warwickshire. On 9 May 1895 he was found dead, from hæmorrhage on the brain, in his bedroom at 12 Stratton Street, London. He was buried at Drayton-Bassett parish church on 16 May.

By his wife, Lady Emily Hay, seventh daughter of George, eighth marquis of Tweeddale, whom he married on 13 Jan. 1856, he left Robert, born in 1867, who succeeded to the baronetcy, and three daughters.

[Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 14 March 1851, pp. 1375–84 et seq.; St. Stephen's Review, 9 May 1891, pp. 13–14, with portrait; Sporting Times, 1 May 1875, pp. 297, 300, with portrait; Illustr. London News, 29 March 1851, p. 254 (with portrait), 26 Jan. 1856, 18 May 1895 p. 606 (with portrait); Times, 10, 13 May 1895.] 

PEEL, WILLIAM (1824–1858), captain in the navy, third son of Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850) [q. v.], the statesman, was born on 2 Nov. 1824. He entered the navy in April 1838 on board the Princess Charlotte, carrying the flag of Sir Robert Stopford [q. v.] as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean; and in her was present at the several operations on the coast of Syria in 1840. He was afterwards in the Monarch with Captain Chambers, and in the Cambrian in China with Captain Henry Ducie Chads [q. v.], returning to England in the Belleisle troopship, with Captain John Kingcome, in September 1843. In November he joined the Excellent gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, and in May 1844 passed his examination with ‘a brilliance that called forth a public eulogium from Sir Thomas Hastings [q. v.], and a very flattering notice from Sir Charles Napier in the House of Commons’ (, 16 May). On 13 May Peel was promoted to be lieutenant of the Winchester, flagship of Rear-admiral Josceline Percy [q. v.] at the Cape of Good Hope. It does not appear that he joined the Winchester, being appointed in June to the Cormorant in the Pacific. From her he was moved to the Thalia, and afterwards to the America, from which he was sent with despatches overland from San Blas to Vera Cruz, and thence to England. In February 1846 he was appointed to the Devastation at Woolwich; in May to the Constance at Plymouth; and on 27 June 1846 he was promoted to the rank of commander. In 1847–