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Robert Peel: life of the week
00:48:03
Richard Gaunt revisits the eventful parliamentary career of 19th-century politician and prime minister Robert Peel
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Podcast Host
Hello and welcome to Life of the Week, where leading historians delve into the lives of some of history's most intriguing and significant figures. From ancient Egyptian pharaohs and medieval warriors to daring 20th century spies. He established the Metropolitan Police, became embroiled in years of bitter disputes over the Corn Laws, and was vilified for his political U turns. During his political career in the first half of the 19th century, including two tenures as prime Minister, Robert Peel didn't always have an easy ride. But as historian and biographer Richard Gaunt tells Ellie Cawthorn in this Life of the Week episode. Peel's political impact can still be felt today.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Today we're gonna be talking about Robert Peel. Before we get into his life and his legacy. Can you give us, Richard, a short introduction to Peel? Why are we talking about him all these years on?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
Well, Robert Peel was probably one of the more consequential of 19th century British Prime Ministers. He had a long political career. He was in parliament for 40 years and he performed in some of the biggest offices of state. So he was a really important Home secretary during the 1820s, introduced major reforms, including the police force that we're used to today. And then in the 1840s, his government was seen as crucial because of the things it did and introduced legislation to do with the economy, taxation and affecting Ireland. And so these are really big, important issues and we're still living with some of the consequences of those changes today.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Yeah, we'll get into some of those consequential issues and legislation throughout this conversation. But before we get into Peel's political career, tell us about his early life. What do we know about his background?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
He has a very interesting background because he ends up being the defender of the establishment. So he's quite traditional in many of his political views, but actually his background is a bit more varied. So he is the son of a man who makes himself very rich and very influential in the Industrial Revolution because he's a cotton and calico manufacturer. And Robert Peel, who we're interested in, was actually the third Robert Peel. He was the third eldest son, but he was clearly groomed for a political future. He had no real interest in going into manufacturing and industry. But his family's financial fortune actually made that political career possible, really, because it bought him the best education. He went to Harrow and then from there to Christchurch at Oxford. So he had a very privileged upbringing, but he was always seen as something of. As an outsider amongst social contemporaries. And so, for example, he was born in Lancashire and he retained something of his Lancastrian accent for all of his career. And this was sometimes used against him by critics who were a bit snobbish about this man who'd come from middle class wealth and was making his way into sort of great political events of the day.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So he was seen a bit as new money, is that right?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
Very much seen as new money, but lots of it. So, I mean, in simple terms, we can regard him as a millionaire. So he was comfortably off. He could pretty much afford to take up a political career or not. At a time when politicians weren't paid, so there were no salaries for members of Parliament. But certainly, yes, he was regarded as what would be called nouveau riche, new money entering into the portals of sort of ancient political wisdom.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So when did he enter into those portals of ancient political wisdom? What era are we talking about when we see his emergence and his rise into politics?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
Well, he was born in 1788 and he enters Parliament very quickly, so he's literally coming up to his 21st birthday. So in 1809, he enters parliament for what was regarded as a pocket borough. So what we mean by that is a borough that has very few voters and is very susceptible to what we might think of as corruption, patronage or influence. So basically, money was paid to assure him a seat, and it was an Irish constituency because Ireland was returning members of Parliament after to Westminster. So he literally comes into politics at the time of his 21st birthday and within a year he's also a junior Minister. So it's a really precocious rise and he rises through the ranks progressively from that point onwards.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Wow. It's quite impressive to think of him coming in that young. What kind of positions did he take on as a junior Minister and there onwards?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
Well, really, he starts off he's in a sort of correspondent secretary role, if you like, but he has to answer to. To a brief in Parliament, which is for the Secretary of State for Colonies, War in the Colonies, and he's the Under Secretary from the age of 22 to 24, and his departmental senior is Lord Liverpool, and they get on well. And in 1812, Lord Liverpool then ascends and becomes Prime Minister. So he's looking around for a new Chief Secretary to Ireland, and that is an administrative role. So basically it's the person who answers in the House of Commons for what the government's policy is in Ireland. So Peel is young, he's got the energy and the enthusiasm, so he's shuttling, not necessarily on a regular basis, but he has to have periods of time in Ireland as Chief Secretary, administering Affairs, and then back in London answering and taking questions about what he does. And that really eats up, if you like, the next few years of his life. So he's Chief Secretary from 1812 to 1818. He then retires, and then the period for which he's better known is he returns in 1822 as home secretary, and with a very short break, he's pretty much Home Secretary right through until 1830, when the ministry, the overall government of the day, collapses and resigns at the end of 1830. So he's in office as a minister more than he's out of it, and that's really crucial in terms of how he is formed as a political figure.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So it's this really impressive rise from that. I would gather that he was quite an able political manoeuvrer. But is that accurate? What can we say about what he was like as a politician? What was his style?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
He was very good at getting up his brief and at debating his brief. The charge which was later made that he wasn't really an original or creative thinker is not completely unjustified. He was often better at dealing with the policy brief in front of him and answering to it and rationally rationalising it, than perhaps in engaging in cut and thrust. He wasn't a sort of great parliamentary orator in terms of wit and sarcasm and so forth. He didn't necessarily deploy humour, but as an administrator, as someone who knew the policy detail and could answer to it and justify it, he's got a prodigious memory, and that's really important in a minister, but he's not necessarily got that sort of dazzling, sparkling witness. Having said that, in private, he's quite popular. He gathers a number of young politicians as friends around him and he's clearly praised and valued for being an able person at a time when, you know, many people in Parliament are sent there because it's expected of them. They're the sons of aristocrats or members of the gentry, but they don't necessarily have the skills and capabilities to do government business. So this is a strange mixture. He's not necessarily a witty, charismatic man, but he can take a brief, you can trust business to him and he will get it done.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
An able and reliable pair of hands, then, rather than a dazzling showman. But tell us a bit more about his political attitudes. He was a Tory, but what else do we know about his principles and his political ideals?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
The key thing that really raises him to political prominence is his defence of the union between Britain and Ireland, and particularly his Protestantism. That's not completely surprising, because most of his tutors were members of the Anglican Church. So it's not surprising in some ways. But he'd really established himself through his service in Ireland as the defender of the Protestant constitution and the opponent of what was called Catholic emancipation. So what had happened in 1800, at the time of the act of Union, is that the government had sort of promised, in return for abolishing the Irish Parliament, that in exchange for that, Catholics would be allowed to vote unfortunately, the King, George III, wouldn't allow that to happen. And he could still veto things because the power of the monarch to do that was still very great. And so you'd got this strange situation where you'd actually got a union, but you got a lot of disgruntled, discontented Catholics, who were, of course, the vast majority Irish population, and they continued to campaign for emancipation. That's important because it really defines Peel's first half of his career. And in fact, in 1817, he's seen as such a strong, staunch defender of the Protestant establishment that he's actually invited by the University of Oxford to become one of its MPs. So at this time, universities actually had some parliamentary representation. And so this is a massive honour. You know, he's a graduate of the University of Oxford, he's still only a young man, he's only just short of 30. And he's becoming the MP largely on the basis that the university authorities know that when emancipation proposals come before the House of Commons, he can be relied on to defeat them or to oppose them. So he has principles, but they will come back to bite him later when situations change.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Well, maybe we'll stay on that Catholic question for a moment longer, because, as you say, this does come back to bite him. And later on, he has a real U turn on the question of Catholic emancipation. Why did he change his mind about it after so many years of being an opponent?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
This is one of those questions that historians are debating still to this day. I think the basic way of thinking about it is that opinion had moved on in general throughout the 1820s, and certainly in the House of Commons, the majority in favour of Catholic emancipation was starting to grow. So Peel was looking increasingly anomalous. What really changed things, I think, was in 1828, by this time, the Duke of Wellington was the Prime Minister, Peel was second in command, he was still the Home Secretary, he was the leader in the House of Commons. And the great campaign for Catholic emancipation had been led by Daniel o' Connell and the Catholic association. And Peel and o' Connell had got form going right back to when Peel was chief secretary. And in 1828, O' Connell fought an election, a by election that came up and he won it. And this created a massive dilemma for the government because technically that election was invalid. O' Connell was a Catholic and so wouldn't be allowed under the current legislation, to sit in Parliament. But there was a very severe danger of civil unrest and a massive campaign, potentially of civil disobedience, if Parliament didn't Wake up to the reality of the situation. So there were months of wrangling behind the scenes. Peel, I think, did genuinely wrestle with his conscience because he knew full well he'd always been the defender and in many respects he'd not been converted. He just saw it as a practical necessity in some respects, although there's been some suggestions made that he was starting to intellectually convert to the. The case for Catholic emancipation. And he eventually says, well, I will support it, I will, you know, follow it through. And he actually does, in a sense, sacrifice himself because rather than resigning, which would probably have been the sensible thing to do, and supporting it as a backbencher, Wellington makes the case and says, I can't get this through the Commons without you, because you're so essential, such a good debater, all the rest of it. And so Peel actually is then put in this invidious position of having once been the great opponent of this measure and he now actually proposes it and sees it through. And so he gets it through Parliament. And of course that has massive consequences, not the least of which is that he actually resigns as EMP for Oxford University because his views have changed and fights the candidacy on his new thinking and he gets roundly defeated. So he actually gets thrown out of Parliament by the very electors who'd always seen him as the great safe pair of hands. And he does get back in again through one of these deals that you could do in the age of, you know, pocket borrowers and rotten boroughs, and a seat is found for him. So within a couple of days of being defeated by Oxford, he's back in Parliament introducing this measure. And although this adds to the sort of popular disquiet about him, plagues him really for the rest of his political career.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So it wasn't seen that he had flexibility and, you know, realpolitik. It was seen that he was weak willed or couldn't live up to his ideals. Is that right?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
He was damned on both counts, really, because the outright, you know, opponents of emancipation just saw him as a turn crow and a rat and a betrayer of the cause. And even the sort of more liberal minded, even they were a bit suspect about Peel's change of heart because they either put it down to political, you know, pragmatism on his part or they sort of thought, well, yes, you can change your view, but why do you have to be the person then to see it through? The consequence of being the person to see it through was partly that Peel actually helped to shape the legislation and in his view he shaped it in a way that removed some of the more objectionable things that could have happened or the more impractical things. So his argument, and it's not for the first time in his career, is, you know, all right, I've changed my mind. But I know both sides of the argument. You can entrust me to find the best solution through this, and if you're going to receive it from anyone's hands, better from me than from someone else. But you know, that's not an argument that necessarily lands well with people who believed that he believed in their cause and then found that he'd turned and gone the other way.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
It'd be very interesting to see him grilled by Jeremy Paxman on that, wouldn't it?
- [16:23]
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
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- [17:15]
Historian Richard Gaunt
There.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Let's talk about a different issue that Peel was involved in in his time as Home Secretary. So he was responsible for a lot of innovations and reforms of the criminal justice system and law and order, and I think probably most famously for creating the Metropolitan police service in 1829. So was he personally really passionate about this and driving this forward, or was it more that he just happened to be in power as Home Secretary when this came up as an idea?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
He was really personally committed to it. I think this is one thing you can say he he was in the advance of public opinion. So as had been appointed home secretary in 1822 he made it clear that he wanted to tackle the policing, particularly of London. The metropolis policing was very disoriented. It was disconnected, it was organised on a parish level, it was often voluntary, unpaid, part time. It wasn't seen as satisfactory. It introduced something not dissimilar. In Ireland, he'd introduced something called the Peace Preservation Force as Chief secretary, and critics of that had called them peelers. This was the origin of the phrase peelers. So he sort of had that in his mind. And what had worked and what hadn't worked, select committee in Parliament, famously, in 1822, said it was alien to the English concept of liberty. It was a foreign imposition, it would be expensive, unpopular and all the rest of it. So he sort of binds his time. He knows he's not going to win that debate at that time, and he sort of lays the groundwork quite patiently and actually is in his second period as home secretary, from 1828, when he comes back into office and there's another select committee who, interestingly, they've changed. So in a way, they've caught up with Peel on this. It's not always that Peel's in reverse of opinion. He's sometimes ahead on some issues and he's got the political groundwork to back him and he introduces it. So in September 1829, the first Metropolitan policemen, his policemen at that time, are introduced onto the streets of London. They quickly get called bobbies after Robert Peel. They are very unpopular still. But the idea is that you have a preventive police force. They're not detecting crime, they are providing a sort of deterrence. In a sense, it's different from sending in military force. They're not armed. The only weapon as such they have is their truncheon. They have a blue uniform rather than a sort of military red coat or anything like that. So he's trying to get people associated with the idea that, you know, the people are the police and the police are the people. There's a sort of collective community spirit to all this. He establishes two commissioners, the first two commissioners of the Metropolitan Police, and they are centred on the old Scottish Embassy, so they're centred in Scotland Yard. So that's the origins of why the police are centred in Scotland Yard. And it's worth remembering that this is the sort of the first step. So it's not that nationwide policing has happened, but you do it in the metropolis, which is seen as having a particularly high rate of crime and a particular set of problems about, you know, preventing robbery, vagrancy and all the rest of It.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
It's interesting that they were unpopular to begin with, but obviously Peel's idea did win out in the end. So at the end of 1834, Peel was appointed as Prime Minister for the first time. But he didn't come to power in a necessarily easy transition and he didn't have an easy run of it, did he? Can you tell us about the circumstances that he came to power in?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
Yes. So 1830, the Tory government falls, resigns. Peel's quite relieved after all the fallout from Catholic emancipation, everything else. You then go through a very important period where Peel's in opposition, but you pass the Parliamentary Reform Act. But Peel's sort of seen as slightly away from it, putting himself slightly aloof from parliamentary leadership. And by 1834, everyone's looking to him to lead what is starting to be called the Conservative Party. So this is a group of politicians of largely similar views who aren't very happy at the pace of reform being introduced by the Whigs. But they're doubtful about trusting this new conservatism with power because of the experience of what had happened previously, particularly with Catholic emancipation. Peel goes on holiday to Italy, one of the few holidays he takes during the autumn of 1834. And at this very moment, the Whig leader of the House of Commons, Lord Althorp, is raised because his father dies and he succeeds as Earl Spencer in the House of Lords. He's removed to the upper chamber. Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister proposes a replacement to the King. The King has to approve all appointments. The King isn't happy with the appointment of Lord John Russell and does basically dismisses his ministers, calls for the Duke of Wellington, says, will you come back into my service? And Wellington says, well, partly as a result of the reformat, you need someone who's based in the House of Commons, partly for other reasons, like he didn't feel at his age and with his experience again, he wanted to be Prime Minister again. Call for Robert Peel. So they dispatch a messenger all the way across Europe, catches up with Peel in Rome. Peel gets the commission from the King and then has to take another 10 days getting back to London. So he becomes prime minister in December 1834, and really the gauntlet is laid down, but it's also thrust on him. Likelihood is Peel would have become leader and Prime Minister at some point, but in a way, the King and the Duke of Wellington between them make him the leader of the Conservative Party, because he'd been a little bit ambivalent about whether he wanted to do this, given all that was entailed and so at that point, he becomes Prime Minister. And the really crucial thing is that he feels he needs to make a public statement of his principles, of what he supports and all the rest of it, because the King has dismissed the government. It's not a general election that's done this. And so he issues this groundbreaking document called the Tamworth Manifesto, named after his own constituency because it was a letter to his own supporters in Tamworth. And it lays down this very important Conservative idea that they're not outright opposed to all reforms, but they will consider them considerately, carefully. A careful review of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, and the reform of proved abuses. They're the two sort of key phrases from the text. So it really sets the parameters for his government. You know, we're not reactionaries. We're not going to try and undo the Reform act from 1832. We're going to govern in the sort of national interest. And issue by issue, it does lead to a general election in which the Conservatives double, but they'd had such a massive defeat in 1832 that it was going to take a long time for them to get back anywhere near a majority. So Peel actually governs as a minority prime minister for about 100 days. He's harried by the opposition. Everything he wants to do is pretty much voted down because they've got the numbers. But it's a good time for him, funnily enough, because it seemed that he conducts himself with dignity, is statesmanlike. He resigns at about the right time before it becomes too problematic to keep being defeated in this way, and his prestige is raised and it's established him basically, as the coming man who will be Prime Minister one day, just when the majority is with him in Parliament.
- [25:06]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Yeah. It's a strange set of circumstances, then, that he has to resign to kind of maintain his reputation, to then become Prime Minister again in 1841. So what had changed by this point and what were some of the main challenges on the agenda when he became Prime Minister for a second time?
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Historian Richard Gaunt
Six years passed before this great victory in 1841, and the Whig government. I mean, historians vary in their, you know, appreciation of that government under Lord Melbourne, but they see it as sort of running out of energy, not being quite so dynamic, perhaps a little unfair on that government, which was still doing a lot of useful things, but certainly it was being harried by its own support quarters and its internal divisions. So Peel can play a waiting game, pretty much. There are various elections. The Conservatives keep doing better, but not well enough. They Tried to make an attempt in 1839 when the new young Queen Victoria prevented Peel becoming Prime Minister because she refused to sort of give a vote of confidence in him by changing some of the ladies of her bedchamber, which was seen as a sort of political sign of confidence in him. So he holds back by 1841, the government in a deep economic crisis. And this sets the agenda for what Peel will inherit. There've been a rebellion in Canada, there's the Chartist movement who are campaigning for a greater degree of parliamentary democracy, particularly for working people who didn't get the vote in 1832. So there's a whole raft of policies and issues. And the Conservatives have done a really good job of organising themselves, being efficient, getting people on the new register of electors that will support them, and they really sort of are ready for power. So in 1841, Peel puts down at the right time again a vote of no confidence in the government after it introduced budget proposals to slash the duties. The amount that was paid on imports of a range of raw materials, particularly sugar, timber, and the crucial one was corn. And so the government get defeated by one vote. In the House of Commons, there's a general election and Peel and the Conservatives are returned with something like a majority of 76 seats over all of the parties. So that's over the Whigs and their allies, the Irish MPs. So it's a waiting game, it's a patient game. But Peel has a massive raft of really difficult issues in his inbox when he finally becomes Prime Minister with a majority in 1841.
- [27:36]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Well, you mentioned corn, so let's start with that. I mean, it's never an easy gig being Prime Minister, but one of the issues that really plagued Peel throughout his time was his campaign to repeal the Corn Laws. So for people who maybe have heard that term in school, but they don't really know what it's about, can you just explain the Corn Laws very briefly to us and give us Peel's take on them?
- [27:58]
Historian Richard Gaunt
So after the end of the wars in 1815 with France, there was strong pressure on the government of Lord Liverpool to introduce some protection, agricultural protection, because in wartime farmers had expanded, they'd taken more land under cultivation and they'd become reasonably prosperous as a result of wartime conditions and the lack of international competition, because we were closed off from a lot of markets being at war. So in 1815, a corn law passed through Parliament which set a new minimum rate price level, basically at which British goods would allow competition from foreign grown wheat. So that's the 1815 Corn Law. It was always very popular. It was seen as a sort of piece of class legislation because it favoured the agricultural, the landed interest. And so there was a constant battle about the Corn Laws. This picks up with force from the 1830s and the late 1830s with the introduction of a group called the Anti Corn Law League. They really campaigned hard and made the case that this was impoverishing working people, because very often it was seen that there was a connection between wage levels and the price of bread, and the price of bread was directly affected by the price of the corn that was brought into the country. So it was seen as. Simplistically, it was seen as a battle between the big loaf and the small loaf, the small loaf under protection and the big loaf that you'd get if you had what was called free trade. So open competition. So the Tories under peel fight the 1841 general election on defending the Corn Laws against the Whigs, who'd introduced a proposal to change the basis of taxation. So there was just a small fixed duty, just a standard payment on corn. But within a year, Peel's already unsettling some of his backbenches by introducing a revised Corn Law. So he changes the scale of duties and it's seen as reducing the amount of protection that's being given and that's already worrying farmers and backbenchers. And so there's always this constant suspicion that Peel is going to do another Catholic emancipation on corn. And this continues through the rest of the government, really down to the unexpected potato famine in Ireland at the end of 1845, which really brings the future of this sort of legislation into shop focus. Because, you know, how can you have a famine in somewhere as big and important as Ireland and maintain legislation which might prevent foodstuffs from coming in on the basis of a sort of artificial price level? So that's really the background to it. And in terms of why it became more important over the course of his.
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Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Ministry, how did the famine in Ireland change public opinion about the Corn Lords? Did more people side with Peel that they needed change and they needed to repeal them?
- [30:51]
Historian Richard Gaunt
Yeah, it sort of. It sort of crystallized opinion. So by then, I think the issue with the Corn Laws is that you'd got fairly entrenched views. So the agriculturalists and the people who were supporters of what was called the Anti League, the group that was set up to oppose the Anti Corn Law League, said that nothing had really changed because you'd actually got what was called a sliding scale under the corn Law of 1842. So Peel's own Corn Law was never tested. So the argument was, well, that provided enough security and enough safeguard, just because the way the scales of duties operated, it would have accommodated, if you like, these sorts of shocks to the system. So they sort of said, well, the solution's already there. But people, and Peel was amongst them, had already, I think, started to be intellectually converted and. Or the tenor of his policy otherwise was towards greater free trade. He'd abolished duties on so many other goods. The Corn Laws were a bit of an anomaly, I think, at the time. He'd already put down enough markers to show that he was moving towards repeal. It's just, again, the famine in Ireland moved that agenda forward for him, so he had to react more quickly, rather like it had to with Catholic emancipation. So he's sort of catching up with what other people are saying, but he's still holding onto the fact that he is a supporter of the landed constitution and the farming interest and agriculturalists. So he's going to have to find a solution that isn't punitive towards them at the same time as trying to help everybody else.
- [32:25]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So after years of this debate kind of rumbling on, eventually the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. I mean, was that a victory for Peel or was it just a kind of an uncomfortable conclusion to that debate?
- [32:40]
Historian Richard Gaunt
It was a victory of sorts, but it was bought at a very high price, I think, for Peel personally and certainly for his Conservative followers. So what happened was, at the end of 1845, he put a proposal to the Cabinet for a graduated repeal of the Corn Laws, not instantaneous, and he couldn't win his Cabinet over. You know, even people who sort of could see the logic thought that politically, you know, it would destroy them and it would destroy any reputation for consistency that politicians would have, because only four years before they'd fought on a platform of protection. So Peel resigns, no one else is able to form a government. You know, there were genuine attempts. So he comes back and I think that is when the switch clicks in his mind. And I think that makes him realise that he can be the settler of this question. And in some respects, I mean, my personal view on this is that he's less bothered about party unity from that point on, because I think he thinks he's fought that battle and tried to fight it and accommodate his supporters. So he's less worried about the argument that this might destroy the Conservative Party. He's not going out there to destroy the Conservative Party, but he sees the bigger issue being he's got to get the Corn Laws repealed, he's got to get this emergency legislation in place to relieve the Irish and he's got to make sure that such stability as there is in government is retained. So he gets his way. He faces major opposition from within his own ranks, from the likes of Benjamin Disraeli, of course, and Lord George Benting, who both criticise him mercilessly for political inconsistency and for being heedless of the dictates of party classic U turn with major political ramifications. He gets his way, he gets his legislation through, but it's seen as very costly. So the party basically splits, with about a third following Peel and two thirds opposing him. And that rancour exists for a long time afterwards. So the Conservatives don't actually form a government again with a majority until 1874. They have spells in government between before that, but they're always in a minority because really it's changed the dynamics of party politics. So, yes, it was a victory. It was something that he claimed was the most conservative act of his life, because had you held that against repeal, you would have actually brought into play more anti aristocratic feeling. It would have made the aristocracy seem even more cut off. And he could point to things like the fact that in 1848, when lots of European monarchists were subjected to revolution and republics were formed and all this thing, Britain relatively kept above the fray. And you could argue that it was partly because Peel had shown that governments were responsive and were not cut off and were not just about upholding certain sectional interests. But certainly it comes at a great cost and it's certainly the end of his political career. And it's hard to see how he could have returned in any way, shape or form to high office, because this was two major U turns in his political career. And it's a law of diminishing returns. You know, you can only do that so often without your supporters finally losing their patience with you.
- [35:56]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So that's Peel kind of done in Parliament. But before we move on, let's talk about some stuff that's not to do with the Corn Laws. What were some of the other most influential legislation of his tenure?
- [36:08]
Historian Richard Gaunt
The really important stuff for which Peel's remembered, I think, is largely economic. So he reduces a load of duties on imported goods, on manufactured goods, on raw materials. So he's got a major economic policy underlying everything else. On top of that, he's got something which sounds very technical, called the bank charter Act of 1844, which actually is Peel's attempt to secure financial stability. So back in 1819, he'd headed a commission which had returned Britain to the gold standard. So in other words, that had prevented banks from just issuing currency without having sufficient monetary value backing it. And the 1844 Bank Charter act sort of reinforced that by changing the terms on which the bank of England in particular could issue paper currency. So it could only issue currency to a certain limit without it being backed by the credit of the British government or by gold bullion. There are other things which Peel was less closely personally identified with, things like the Mines act of 1842, the Factory act of 1844, and that sort of more humanitarian, sort of Tory radical type view that triumphs there.
- [37:22]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
And so those Acts, the Mines Acts and the Factory act, they were about improving conditions for workers, is that right?
- [37:28]
Historian Richard Gaunt
Yeah, absolutely. So the Mines act of 1842 limits the amount of child labour in mines. And the 1844 Factory act brings in a modest restriction on the hours of work that people could operate in factories. And also tightened up some of the regulations about education, particularly for underaged workers. Now, today we say, you know, they're no brainers, why would anyone oppose those? But at the time it's, it's caught up with all these sorts of debates about productivity and, you know, the appropriate limits of the state and so forth. So those are some of the major pieces of legislation, really important foreign policy. Peace with France, peace with the United States over some pretty major boundary issues. After quite a few tensions during the 1840s, end of a war in China, end of a war in Afghanistan, although there were flare ups in India. So it's a really crucial period. And in addition to repealing the Corn Laws because of the Irish Potato Famine, a whole raft of initiatives to try and bring the Irish to a more peaceful condition. Some of those bore fruit and were successful, sometimes again at the cost of party unity. So Peel introduced an increased grant for a Catholic training seminary at Maynooth on the outskirts of Dublin, which was deeply divisive, but he got it through and he introduced things like a land commission to look into land tenure in Ireland, gave more rights to Catholics to leave bequests for Catholic education, tried to establish middle class university education for Catholics in Ireland. So there was a whole range of activity for which I think the Peel government should be remembered as innovative and really consequential.
- [39:15]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
So much there. Peel must have been exhausted by the end of his tenure. I mean, he leaves under this cloud to do with the Corn Laws. What did he do afterwards?
- [39:25]
Historian Richard Gaunt
He has this sort of strange position in British political life, you know, what happens to ex Prime Ministers in Britain is an interesting topic. He is nominally the head of a group of followers who claim his name. So the Peelites operate, as it were, as an unofficial group, a third party, if you like, in politics. There's about 90 returned at the 1847 election. But they're in a bit of a difficult position because they won't realign with the sort of Conservatives who are protectionist in their views under Disraeli and Lord Stanley. In the House of Lords, there's still a lot of rancour over Corn Law repeal, and there's a real danger that a Conservative government under Disraeli and Stanley might repeal the repeal. So the Peelites tend to end up supporting the Whigs under Lord John Russell, not always comfortably, but appeals to this sort of senior figure who is brought in at moments of crisis to sort of adjudicate. But he makes it quite clear he's not going to actively encourage or determine what the Peelites do. He's not going to lead them again. And there's no sense that he would have taken up the premiership, but, you know, who knows what might have happened? And he's still in this position in 1850. Interestingly, and perhaps fittingly, the last speech he makes and the last vote he gives in Parliament is actually as part of a united Conservative opposition. This was against the actions of Lord Palmerston in sending in some gunboats to settle the issues of a British citizen called Don Pacifico in Greece. And then, tragically, the next day, 29th of June, 1850, Peel's Riding Home from a meeting of the Great Exhibition commissioners who planning the big exhibition in crystal palace for 1851, and his horse throws him, Peel is thrown on the ground, the horse falls on top of him, causes catastrophic internal injuries and Peel is taken home and three days later he dies. So, you know, the great what if of what he would have done had he lived is really unanswerable and people debate still, would he have gone back as a Prime Minister? Would he have become a fully fledged Liberal? We really don't know. There are straws in the wind in all directions, but it's hard to come down definitively on one side on that.
- [41:40]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
Really interesting to consider the possibilities, though. But if you reflect on his whole political career, what would you say were some of his greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses?
- [41:53]
Historian Richard Gaunt
Greatest strengths of Robert Peel are he had a direction of policy and he followed it, to use a later phrase of Tony Benn's actually be a signpost, not a weathercock or a weather vane, because the weathercock, weathervane will just follow the fashions and the signpost will lead direction. And although it's completely outside that timeframe, I think in some ways you can say Peel was a signpost and he signposted his followers down a particular line. It's an interesting line because it's one which says we want to maintain the established institution in church and state, territorial aristocracy, landed wealth and all the rest of it. But at the same time, we must accommodate that. The country has changed, gone through massive changes, major population increase. We've become more manufacturing, commercial, productive income. And wealth isn't just about the amount of land you hold. So he's having to balance all that with lots of followers who basically quite traditional in their outlook. So I think he is a signpost towards a form of conservatism which is still fought over, which is, you know, you can establish certain things that are essential and unchangeable, but that doesn't mean you put your face against any change. And it means you have to think carefully and moderately about that change and, you know, measure it markedly and guardedly. So I think that's probably his strength and I think he was actually incredibly loyal to those who he gathered around him. And there's lots of acts of kindness and friendship which have really only been discovered after his death. Weaknesses were probably that you. You couldn't really escape the fact that, you know, he had turned tale, as it was said twice, on really definitive things, principle things. And, you know, for all those principled politicians who'd fought valiantly for emancipation and not seen it happen in their mature lifetime and had been criticized by Robert Peel, and then for all those that said in advance Corn Laws had to be repealed, you know, it comes quite hard then if your major opponents and they say, well, actually, I've been won over to you, that's incredibly difficult. And I think the other thing is that I think Peel could be quite egotistical as well, so he could see himself as the solely competent person to settle these issues. I mean, Disraeli famously says, I think towards the close of 1845, Peel fancies he can settle all the great issues of the day and rule sort of resplendent over Parliament, but you can't do that in a party system. And there was a degree of sort of slightly looking down on older people who claimed equal competence or alternative views. I think he had a strong sense of his own capabilities. But again, that might have masked some still lingering uncertainties about his own slightly unusual way into politics as this sort of nouveau riche figure who was never really quite accepted by, you know, the aristocrats and the great and the good. I think it's not unsurprising that Peel never took a peerage, he never went to the House of Lords. He could be a bit disdainful about the aristocracy on that level, even at the same time as he believed that, you know, you can't have a British parliamentary system without the aristocracy playing some part in it. So an interesting mix of positives and negatives, I think.
- [45:20]
Interviewer Ellie Cawthorn
And finally, Richard, we've had an overview there of so many different things. The establishment of the Metropolitan Police, the repeal of the Corn Laws, economic innovations. But if I had to pin you down and ask what you think Peel's biggest legacy was, what would you say?
- [45:36]
Historian Richard Gaunt
I think if you're a partisan, you'd probably still say he was the founder of the Conservative Party, even though people still dispute that, because I think the Tamworth Manifesto establishes conservatism at an important time. I think as a basic citizen of the United kingdom in the 21st century, it's hard to escape Peel as the founder of the Metropolitan Police Force. You know, we still call him Bobby's. Not everyone perhaps realises why his bust is still proudly displayed outside the police headquarters in London. Quite rightly, I think, I suppose I'd like to think that, you know, Peel represents some of the better parts of political integrity. It's unfortunate that he also can be used as a good case study of, you know, inconsistency and the perils of the political u turn. And that's universal. Politicians to this very day are still finding out that, you know, if you stake your claim on things very hard, it comes a bit hard then to suddenly be flexible and pragmatic and compromising without some of that then casting itself back on you. So I think it's just the nature of Peel, that it can be used to fit different things, I think, different moulds. And that's just as true today as it was in his own lifetime.
- [47:00]
Podcast Host
That was Dr. Richard Gaunt speaking to Ellie Cawthorn. Richard is Associate professor at the University of Nottingham and the author of Sir Robert Peel the Life and Legacy. Thanks for listening to today's Life of the Week. Be sure to join us again next time to learn about another fascinating figure from the past.
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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Historian Richard Gaunt
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