Page:Life of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel.pdf/4

4 Having completed his education, his father procured for him a seat in Parliament, and, in 1809, when only 21 years of age, he was returned for Cashel, and took his seat in the House of Commons for that borough. He delivered his maiden-speech in the year 1810, seconding the address to the throne; the modesty and ability he displayed were deservedly admired, and he was generally regarded as one of the most promising young statesmen of the day.

After having acted for some months, as under Secretary of State in the colonial department, Mr. Peel was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, in Sept. 1812, and held that office till the year 1818, when he resigned. His Irish administration was not very popular; he was identified with the high Protestant party, and his conciliating manners, though combined with unimpeachable personal conduet, did not save him from the severe animadversions of his political opponents. Mr. Peel was early attacked by Mr. O'Connell, particularly on occasion of the veto project,—one of Mr. Pitt's schemes for consolidating the Union of England and Ireland, to concede a qualified emancipation of the Catholics, provided the crown should have a vote on the appointment of Catholic Bishops. This arrangement was approved of at Rome, but Mr. O'Connell denounced it as a disgraceful compromise of an indefeasible British right." "And whom," said he, "are we to have at the head of this commission? Why, that ludicrous enemy of ours, who has got, in jest, the name he deserves in earnest, 'Orange Peel,' a raw youth squeezed out of the workings of I know not what factory in England." On Sir Henry Parnell's motion, in favour of the Catholic claims, Mr. Peel revenged himself for this sarcasm, by quoting several violent passages from Mr. O'Connell's speeches, interspersed with some cutting remarks of his own. Mr. O'Connell was very wroth, and the next time he spoke in public, made