Page:Life of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel.pdf/7

Rh of the pilot, who does not always steer the same course to guard the ship from danger, but a different course under different circumstances, as they arise, in order to save the vessel from the very dangers which the captain and crew have most dreaded." The measure was carried triumphantly, and it was followed by another of great importance, viz., the establishment of a regular system of police in the metropolis to supersede the old plan of parochial watching. The rural districts and large towns were soon included in the general protection, and the working of this grand system has vindicated the policy which introduced it. On the death of his father, (3d May, 1830,) Mr. Peel succeeded to the baronetcy, and to one of the largest private fortunes possessed by any commoner in England.

The French revolution of 1830, occasioned a clamour for "Parliamentary Reform," which the Duke of Wellington and his colleagues were unable to control. Sir Robert Peel, as well as other leading statesmen of the time, was opposed to the extension of the representation. The House met on the 2d Nov., when the late Earl Grey urged the necessity of immediate reform in the representative system. The Duke of Wellington determined to oppose the measure, and the ministry, having been defeated in a question of confidence, in the House of Commons, resigned. It was succeeded by the celebrated "Reform Ministry," with Earl Grey at its head; and Sir Robert Peel became the leader of the Opposition. Although he strenuously resisted the Reform Bill in all its stages, and attempted to convince the House that it would not be productive of the benefits that so many imagined, he nevertheless acquiesced in the measure as soon as it become the law of the land; and laboured zealously, and in the end successfully, to construct a Conservative party. The first elections under the Reform Bill had reduced the Tory party to a very