Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/479

Rh Robert proposed to his cabinet the repeal of the corn laws. Lord Stanley and the duke of Buccleuch dissented, and Sir Robert resigned. But Lord John Russell failed to form a new Government. Sir Robert again came into office; and now, with the consent of all the cabinet but Lord Stanley, who retired, he, in a great speech on 27th January 1846, brought the repeal of the corn laws before the House of Commons. In the long and fierce debate that ensued he was overwhelmed, both by political and personal enemies, with the most virulent invective, which he bore with his wonted calmness, and to which he made no retorts. His measure was carried; but immediately afterwards the offended protectionists, goaded by Lord George Bentinck and Disraeli, coalesced with the Whigs, and threw him out on the Irish Coercion Bill. He went home from his defeat, escorted by a great crowd, who uncovered as he passed, and he immediately resigned. So fell a Conservative Government which would otherwise have probably ended only with the life of its chief. Those who overthrew Sir Robert Peel have dwelt on what they naturally believe to have been the bitterness of his fall. It is certain that he was deeply pained by the rupture with his party, but it is doubtful whether otherwise his fall was so bitter. For evening had begun to steal over his long day of toil; he had the memory of immense labours gone through, and of great things achieved in the service of the state; he had a kingly position in the country, great wealth, fine tastes, and a happy home.

Though out of office he was not out of power. He had "lost a party, but won a nation." The Whig ministry which succeeded him leant much on his support, with which he never taxed them. He joined them in carrying forward free-trade principles by the repeal of the navigation laws. He joined them in carrying forward the principle of religious liberty by the bill for the emancipation of the Jews. One important measure was his own. While in office he had probed, by the Devon commission of inquiry, the sores of Ireland connected with the owner ship and occupation of land. In 1849, in a speech on the Irish Poor Laws, he first suggested, and in the next year he aided in establishing, a commission to facilitate the sale of estates in a hopeless state of encumbrance. The Encumbered Estates Act made no attempt, like later legislation, to secure by law the uncertain customary rights of Irish tenants, but it transferred the land from ruined landlords to solvent owners capable of performing the duties of property towards the people. On the 28th of June 1850 Sir Robert Peel made a great speech on the Greek question against Lord Palmerston s foreign policy of interference. This speech, being against the Government, was thought to show that he was ready to return to office. It was his last. On the following day he was thrown from his horse on Constitution Hill, and mortally injured by the fall. Three days he lingered in all the pain which the quick nerves of genius can endure. On the fourth (2d July 1850) he took the sacrament, bade a calm fare well to his family and friends, and died; and a great sorrow fell on the whole land. All the tributes which respect and gratitude could pay were paid to him by the sovereign, by parliament, by public men of all parties, by the country, by the press, and, above all, by the great towns and the masses of the people to whom he had given "bread unleavened with injustice." He would have been buried among the great men of England in Westminster Abbey, but his will desired that he might be laid in Drayton church. It also renounced a peerage for his family, as he had before declined the garter for himself when it was offered him by the queen through Lord Aberdeen.

Those who judge Sir Robert Peel will remember that he was bred a Tory in days when party was a religion; that he entered parliament a youth, was in office at twenty-four and secretary for Ireland at twenty-five; that his public life extended over a long period rife with change; and that his own changes were all forwards and with the advancing intellect of the time. They will enumerate the great practical improvements and the great acts of legislative justice of those days Catholic emancipation, freedom for dissenters, free trade, the great reforms in police, criminal law, currency, finance, the Irish Encumbered Estates Act, even the encouragement of agricultural improvement by loans of public money and note how large a share Sir Robert Peel had, if not in originating, in giving thorough practical effect to all. They will observe that of what he did nothing has been undone. They will reflect that as a parliamentary statesman he could not govern without a party, and that it is difficult to govern at once for a party and for the whole people. They will compare his administration with those that preceded and those that followed, and the state and fortunes of his party when he was at its head with its state and fortunes after his fall. They will consider the peace and goodwill which his foreign policy diffused over Europe. They will think of his ardent love of his country, of his abstinence from intrigue, violence, and faction, of his boundless labour through a long life devoted to the public service. Whether he was a model of statesmanship may be doubted. Models of statesman ship are rare, if by a model of statesmanship is meant a great administrator and party leader, a great political philosopher, and a great independent orator, all in one. But if the question is, whether he was a ruler loved and trusted by the English people, there is no arguing against the tears of a nation.

Those who wish to know more of him will consult his own post humoushumorous [sic] memoirs, edited by his literary executors Earl Stanhope and Viscount Cardwell; the four volumes of his speeches; a sketch of his life and character by Sir Lawrence Peel; an historical sketch by Lord Dalling; Guizot's Sir Robert Peel (1857); Künzel's ''Leben und Reden Sir Robert Peel's (1851); Disraeli's Life of Lord George Bentinck (1858); Morley's Life of Cobden''; and the general histories of the time. (G. S.—C. S. P.)

 PEELE, (1558-1598), was one of the group of university poets with whom entered into competition at the beginning of his career. His exact age has been ascertained and the facts of his life diligently searched out by, the editor of his works. It appears from a deposition made by him at Oxford that he was twenty-five years old in 1583. He took his bachelor's degree at Oxford in 1577, and his master's degree two years afterwards. Before he reached middle age, Peele was "driven to extreme shifts" for a living, and he became so notorious for disreputable practical jokes that a body of "merrie conceited jests" was fathered upon him; but he began life brilliantly. He was "a noted poet at the university." He married a woman of property. When a distinguished foreigner was entertained at Christ Church with elaborately-mounted plays and pageants, Peele was entrusted with the superintendence of the show. He was complimented in Latin pentameters on his translation of one of the plays of. He wrote The Arraignment of Paris, a bright little comedy with pretty songs, for representation before Queen Elizabeth. This was published in 1584; and in 1587 his friend declared him to be "the chief supporter of pleasance now living, the atlas of poetry, and primus verborum artifex." From this brilliant height the reckless poet quickly slid down to a much less respectable position, and acquired renown of a different kind by his clever tricks on creditors, tavern-keepers, and "croshabells." He began to write for the common players, whose ingratitude to gentlemen of education was bitterly deplored by his friend. Of XVIII.—58