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The Man
Robert Peel was born on 5
th February 1788 the third child of Robert Senior and Ellen Peel
who lived at Chamber Hall near Bury Ground. In 1798 Roberts father,
having made his fortune from his cotton printing business, moved
his family to Drayton Manor in Staffordshire, leaving his business
interest in Bury in the hands of managers and entered politics.
With wealth came a new found responsibility and he involved himself
in the issue of child labour, helping bring about a reduction
in the working day of children to 12 hours a day.
Robert was educated at Harrow
at the same time as Byron. After leaving Harrow, during the winter
of 1804, he accompanied his father and experienced at first hand
the working of the House of Commons. In 1805 Peel became an undergraduate
at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he studied for a Double
First in Classics and Maths which included Greek, Latin, Rhetoric,
Moral Philosophy, Mathematics and Physics.
In April 1809 through the
influence of his father, who was determined to see him become
Prime Minister, he entered politics and became MP for the Irish
seat of Cashel City, Co Tipperary, a borough with only twenty-four
voters. He was only 21. A year later he became Under-Secretary
for War and the Colonies in the Tory government and working under
Lord Liverpool he helped to direct the military operations against
the French.
In 1812 he became the MP for
Chippenham and was appointed chief secretary for Ireland. In
this role he became popular in England for taking a firm line
on law and order, and unpopular in Ireland for opposing catholic
emancipation.
In 1818 he retired from his
post in Ireland and became MP for Oxford University.
In 1820 he found time to marry
Julia Floyd.
In 1822 he became Home Secretary
in the Duke of Wellington’s Government. In this position
he reduced the number of trivial offences for which capital punishment
was the sentence. He also improved prison conditions and in 1829
formed the Metropolitan Police Force also known as "Peelers"
or Bobbies". The new uniformed police were separate from
the military and were armed only with staves which was a great
improvement and a popular move. Before the formation of the Met
crime detection rates were very low and punishment was brutal.
The idea of an organised independent police force gradually spread
throughout the country with uniformed police arriving in Bury
in February 1840.
In 1829 Peel was forced to
support Catholic Emancipation. He had no other option than to
resign from his seat at Oxford. He was not out of Parliament
for long for in the same year he became MP for Westbury in Wiltshire.
In 1830 a general Election
was called because of the death of George IV. Peel returned to
the Commons as the MP for the family seat of Tamworth and for
the first time he was now a member of the opposition party. During
1830 his father died and Robert inherited the baronetcy. The
Peel family coat of arms acquired in 1792 had the red hand of
Ulster added by Sir Robert.
On Wednesday 15th September
1830 Sir Robert joined other dignitaries and the Boroughreeves
of Salford and Manchester for the journey from Liverpool to Manchester
marking the official opening of the Railway.
Peel was offered the job of
Prime Minister, but declined. In 1834 he was offered the job
again and accepted. Unfortunately he lacked a parliamentary majority
and was forced to resign after four months. Peel’s Second
Term as Prime Minister was between 1841 and 1846.
1842 saw the second chartist
petition containing 3.3 million signatures for giving the vote
to all adult males. This coincided with a period of much working
class discontent over conditions and wages. Peel’s reaction
was to promote limited reforms and, with the
help of the new police forces, imprison or deport many of the
protesters.
Under pressure from the Christian
reformer Ashley, Peel’s government passed the 1842 Mines
Act which made it illegal to employ women and boys under 10 in
mines. The 1844 Factory Act reduced the working hours of children
in factories from 9 to 6 and a half hours and those of women
and children aged 13 - 18 to 12 hours. Ashley pushed for 10 hours,
but Peel argued that Britain would not survive foreign competition
on a 10 hour day.
The 1844 Bank Charter Act,
which limited the issue of bank notes to the value of the banks
gold reserves, helped make London the world’s financial
centre.This was restrictive on credit but produced long term
security.
The campaign for the repeal
of the Corn Laws was gathering pace led by the industrialists
Cobden from Stockport and Bright from Rochdale. Import duties
on agricultural produce raised the price of food but Peel was
under pressure from landed Tories to
retain the duties to protect the prices of home-grown produce.
Peel was gradually converted to the cause of repeal but hoped
to put it off until after the next election. However, in 1845
potato blight struck in Ireland, rain devastated the grain harvest
and in the face of famine Peel decided the duties on imported
grain had to go in order to lower the price of bread. Strong
objectors to repeal remained amongst the Tories so Peel offered
his resignation to the Queen. The Whigs were just as divided
on the issue, so Peel shuffled his Cabinet and managed to get
enough support from two divided parties to get the Repeal Bill
through in June 1846. To replace the revenue lost from import
and export duties Peel introduced, for the first time in peace
time, income tax. The potato famine led to a crime wave in Ireland
and the Government introduced a Coercion Bill to deal with it.
The Bill was defeated by a coalition of Whigs, Radicals and disgruntled
Tories and Peel resigned.
On 29th June 1850 while riding
up Constitution Hill Sir Robert was thrown from his horse and
badly injured. He died three days later on 2nd July 1850. Sir
Robert was buried in St Peter's Church, Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire. |
