signations of office. Those resignations were actually accepted, and the ministers departed from Windsor; but in the course of the night they were reinstated in office, having received from his Majesty the full authority which they required to proceed with the Relief Bill. Such were the circumstance under which they were precluded from entering into communications with their friends and supporters, whose confidence in many instances received an insurmountable shock by so sudden and unlooked-for a change of policy.

Having announced in a long letter to the Chancellor of the University of Oxford the reasons of his change of opinion, and the consequent resignation of his seat, Mr. Peel's re-election was opposed, and Sir Robert Harry Inglis was returned in his place by a majority of 146, Sir Robert polling 755 votes and Mr. Peel 609.

Mr. Peel re-entered the House of Commons as member for Westbury, through the influence of Sir Manasseh Lopes, and it was in that capacity that he proposed the Catholic Relief Bill, which received the royal assent on the 18th April, 1829.

On the 3d May, 1830, Mr. Peel succeeded his father in the dignity of a Baronet, and also as member for Tamworth, which he continued to represent in Parliament until his decease. On the 15th Nov. 1830, the administration were in a minority of 29 in the House of Commons, on the Civil List, and on the following day the House of Commons was informed by Sir Robert Peel that he and his colleagues had resigned office. The motive for doing so was not avowed at the time; but it was subsequently declared by Sir Robert Peel, that the Duke of Wellington and himself had decided to resign, not so much on account of having been in a minority on the question of the civil list, as from the anticipation of what would be the result of Mr. Brougham's motion for Reform in Parliament, which stood for the evening on which they announced their resignation.

Parliamentary Reform was one of the great changes of his time in which Peel had no share. It was carried by his rivals the Whigs, in spite of all the efforts he could make to oppose it. But the talent, the genius, and the courage which he manifested in the struggle won back for him the support, and restored to him the confidence, of many of those who had abandoned him, because they considered they had been betrayed by him in the passing of the Relief Bill, as well as in the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.

The first elections under Reform reduced the Tory party to a small minority; GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXIV.

Sir

the largest number they were able to collect upon any one occasion being 174, in opposition to the second reading of a bill introduced by Mr. Wood for the admission of dissenters to degrees in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. But it was wonderful in how brief a time Peel in some manner rallied his broken forces; either he or some of his political friends gave them the name of "Conservatives," and it soon appeared that the period of reaction was at hand. Every engine of party organization was put into vigorous activity, and before the summer of 1834 reached its close he was at the head of a compact, powerful, and welldisciplined Opposition. Such a high impression of their vigour and efficiency had King William IV. received, that when, in November of that year, Lord Althorp became a peer, and the Whigs thereupon lost their leader in the House of Commons, his Majesty, having taken the advice of the Duke of Wellington, sent to Italy to summon Sir Robert Peel to his councils, with a view to the immediate formation of a Conservative Ministry. Robert accepted this heavy responsibility, though he mistrusted the condition of the country and the chances of success. A new House of Commons was instantly called, and for nearly three months Sir Robert Peel maintained a gallant struggle against the most formidable opposition that any minister has been called upon to encounter. At no time did his command of temper, his almost exhaustless resources of information, his vigorous and comprehensive intellect, appear to create such astonishment, or draw forth expressions of such unbounded admiration, as in the early part of the year 1835. But, after a well-fought contest, he resigned office on the 8th of April, and retired once more into opposition until the close of the second Melbourne administration in 1841. Yet, so nearly balanced were parties at this period, that when Lord Melbourne was restored to power the continued enjoyment of office was not found to promote the interests of his party, and from various causes the power of the Whigs perceptibly declined. The commencement of a new reign gave them some popularity; but in the new House of Commons, elected in consequence of that event, the Conservative party had evidently gained strength. Still, after the failure of 1834-5, it was no easy task to dislodge an existing Ministry, and at the same time to be prepared with a Cabinet and a party competent to succeed them. Sir Robert Peel, therefore, with characteristic caution, "bided his time," conducting the business of Opposition throughout the

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whole of this period with an ability and .success of which history affords few examples. He had accepted the Reform Act as the established constitution of the legislature, and as the system upon which the country was thenceforward to be governed. He was willing to carry it out in its true spirit, but he would proceed no further. He marshalled his Opposition upon the principle of resistance to any further organic changes, and he enlisted the majority of the peers and nearly the whole of the country gentlemen of England in support of the principle of protection to British industry.

In 1839 the Whig ministry was reduced to a majority of five, and it resigned on the 7th of May, but it was restored on the 11th; Sir Robert Peel had been "sent for," had submitted to her Majesty the names of the principal officers that he would select, and these having been approved, he was yet surprised to find that the other terms required by him would not be acceded to. He demanded that certain ladies of the Bedchamber,-the near relatives of eminent Whig politicians, -should be removed from the personal service of the Sovereign. As this was refused, he abandoned for the time any attempt to form a Government, and his opponents remained in office till 1841. On the 27th May in that year he submitted to the House of Commons a vote of want of confidence in the ministry, which after eight nights' debate was carried by a majority of one. Still they did not resign for three months longer; but on the 30th Aug. Sir Robert Peel became First Lord of the Treasury, and the Duke of Wellington, without office, accepted a seat in the Cabinet, taking the management of the House of Lords. Sir Robert Peel's Ministry was formed emphatically on Protectionist principles, but before the close of its career his sense of public duty impelled him once more to incur the odium which attends a fundamental change of policy. It was his misfortune to encounter more than any man ever did of that most painful hostility which such conduct, however necessary, never fails to produce. This great change in our commercial policy, however unavoidable, must be regarded as the proximate cause of Sir Robert Peel's final expulsion from office in the month of June, 1846 when the Whigs defeated him on the Irish Arms Bill. His administration, however, had been signalized by several measures of great importance. Among the earliest and most prominent of these were his financial plans, the striking feature of which was the income-tax, and the relaxation of our commercial tariff.

In the course of his long and eventful life many honours were conferred upon Sir Robert Peel. Wherever he went, and almost at all times, he attracted universal attention, and was always received with the highest consideration. At the close of the year 1836 the University of Glasgow elected him their Lord Rector; and the Conservatives of that city in Jan. 1837, invited him to a banquet at which 3,000 gentlemen assembled to do honour to their great political chief. But this was only one among many occasions on which he was "the great guest." Perhaps the most remarkable of these banquets was that given to him in 1835 at Merchant Taylors' Hall by 300 members of the House of Commons.

On the night before the occurrence of the fatal accident which terminated the life of Sir Robert Peel, the House of Commons, which, for more than forty years, has witnessed his triumphs and reverses, was filled with an extraordinary assemblage anxious for the result of a great political crisis. Sir Robert addressed them with an ability and a spirit which recalled his more youthful efforts and more powerful days. He sat down amid "loud and long-continued cheering." Within a few hours the statesman who had commanded the applause of that listening senate was a wreck of life and strength, shattered, feeble, restless, and agonised.

On Saturday the 29th June, Sir Robert Peel had called at Buckingham Palace and entered his name in her Majesty's visiting book only a few minutes before the accident. Proceeding up Constitution-hill, he had arrived nearly opposite the wicketgate leading into the Green Park, when he met Miss Ellis, one of Lady Dover's daughters, on horseback, attended by a groom. Sir Robert had scarcely changed salutes with this young lady when his horse became slightly restiff, swerved towards the rails of the Green Park, and threw him on his left shoulder. He was immediately conveyed home in a carriage, and taken into his dining-room, which he never left alive. He suffered such extreme pain that the surgeons were unable to render him any relief. It appeared after his death, that not only had the clavicle of the shoulder suffered a comminuted fracture, but one of his ribs was also broken, and pressed upon the lung.

On the afternoon of Tuesday the 2d of July, the Bishop of Gibraltar (the Rev. Dr. Tomlinson), was summoned to his couch, and administered to him the holy communion. Sir Robert ceased to exist at nine minutes after 11 o'clock. Those present at his decease were, his three brothers, the Dean of Worcester, Colonel

Peel, Mr. Lawrence Peel (and his lady), three of his sons, Mr. F. Peel, M.P. Capt. W. Peel, R.N. and Mr. Arthur Peel; his son-in-law, Lord Villiers; Lord Hardinge, Sir James Graham, and the medical gentlemen in attendance. Sensibility to pain had ceased some time before death, and his last moments were not disturbed by any physical suffering.

For the last three years the present administration has received an efficient support from Sir Robert Peel. This support has been more than a mere parliamentary assistance the advice of the great statesman was constantly asked and freely given on the details of ministerial measures. The actual circumstances in which Sir Robert was placed rendered him, as an adviser, perhaps the most useful that any government ever yet possessed. To an experience singularly great and a mind pre-eminently practical he added the most entire disinterestedness. He had known enough of place and power. He was jealous of his influence, and cared for little beyond. Time had chastened the few prejudices he possessed, and his clear head was undisturbed by any of those clouds with which the passions or promptings of the heart obscure the judgments of most public men.

It has been remarked in The Times that Sir Robert Peel "died in harness. He never sought repose, and his almost morbid restlessness rendered him incapable of enjoying it. His was a life of effort. The maxim that if anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well, seemed ever present in his mind, so that everything he Idid or said was somewhat over-laboured. His official powers, as some one said the other day, were Atlantean, and his Ministerial expositions on the same gigantic scale. There was an equal appearance of effort, however, in his most casual remarks, at least when in public, for he would never throw away a chance; and he still trusted to his industry rather than to his powers. But a man whose life is passed in the service of the public, and whose habits are parliamentary or official, is not to be judged by ordinary rules, for he can scarcely fail to be cold, guarded, and ostentatious. What is a senate but a species of theatre, where a part must be acted, feelings must be expressed, and applause must be won? Undoubtedly the habit of political exhibition told on Sir Robert's manner and style, and even on his mind. His egotism was proverbial; but, besides the excessive use of the first person, it occasionally betrayed him into performances at variance both with prudence and taste. His love of applause was

closely allied to a still more dangerous appetite for national prosperity, without sufficient regard to its success and permanence. It was this that seduced him into encouraging, instead of controlling, the railway mania. Had the opportunity been allowed, we are inclined to think he would have falsified the common opinion as to his excessive discretion, and astonished mankind with some splendid, if successful, novelties. His style of speaking was admirably adapted for its purpose, for it was illuminous and methodical, while his powerful voice and emphatic delivery gave almost too much assistance to his language, for it was apt to be redundant and common-place. He had not that strong simplicity of expression which is almost a tradition of the old Whig school, and is no slight element of its power. We had almost omitted Sir Robert's private character. This is not the place to trumpet private virtues, which never shine better than when they are really private. Suffice it to say that Sir Robert was honoured and beloved in every relation of private life."

We extract from The Athenæum the following excellent remarks on Sir Robert Peel's patronage of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts:

"His title to the sympathy of literary men arises from the sympathy which he had with their cause and works-and the many ways and occasions which he took of showing it. He loved their society,understood and encouraged art,—and apprehended and appreciated the labours of the great scientific characters of his age.

"To Sir Robert Walpole Sir Robert Peel has been and will continue to be compared. Yet, how different were the sympathies for all that is elegant in literature and art of the Sir Robert of king William the Fourth's time from those of the Sir Robert of king George the Second's. Walpole encouraged no kind of literary talent. His bounty and his pensions were bestowed on the lowest pamphleteers of his day, and his time was passed with foxhunters and hard-drinkers,-not as Harley had passed his, with Pope and Swift, and Parnell, and Prior. Peel, on the other hand, delighted in the society of the really great men of his time. At his table might be seen many of the distinguished characters of whom posterity is likely to hear. Had he lived in the reign of Queen Anne he would have been fed with dedications, and would have divided the sympathies of men of genius with Dorset and Halifax. Had he flourished in the early part of the reign of George the Third, Goldsmith might have been saved by his timely interference from Newbery and

Griffiths, and Burns from gauging alefirkins and filling a premature grave.

"There had been a certain kind of patronage of literary men by the Prime Ministers of this country before Sir Robert Peel set an example which has since been imitated (though somewhat indifferently) by Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russell. But the patronage, though occasionally sound in kind, was often mistaken in principle, and little to the honour of literature and literary men. When Dr. Johnson received a pension from Lord Bute, Shebbeare and Mallet received pensions at the same time. This on the part of Lord Bute was only a cold fit of encouragement. Later in the century, when Addington drew Pitt's attention to the genius of Burns, the youthful Prime Minister admitted the truth of his friend's observation, promised that something should be done, and forgot the promise in a request that the bottle might not stop. All this was not lost on Sir Robert Peel. His father had risen from the ranks by the vigour of his mind and the sweat of his brow. The son had learned to sympathise with the necessities of literary men. He was their earnest advocate out of power, and their warmest suppporter when in power. We well remember a suggestion (it might have been a motion) made in the Commons in 1832, by Mr. Hume, that some ribbon of honour should be given by the State to men distinguished in literature and science. The suggestion was opposed by Sir Robert Peel. Mere symbols of distinction, he observed, were not what was necessary for the wants of literary men. 'Honours to a man in my situation,' said Goldsmith,' are like ruffles to a man who is in want of a shirt.' The more substantial approbation of the public should assume, he thought, the shape of public pensions for services rendered. When this was said, the statesman by whom it was uttered was not in power; but when two years afterwards he was in power, he nobly illustrated the sentiments announced on that occasion. Southey received a pension of 3007. a year, and was offered a baronetcy; Wordsworth received a pension of the same amount; 1507. a year was given to James Montgomery; and during Sir Robert's second administration 2007. a year was bestowed on Mr. Tytler, 2007. a year on Mr. Tennyson, 2007. a year on Mr. M'Culloch, and 1007. a year on the widow of Thomas Hood. Frances Brown, the blind poetess, received also a pension at his hands. His patronage was extended to the children of persons eminent in literature. For the sons of Mrs. Hemans he found places under

the Crown, which they still enjoy; and the first appointment of his first administration was given to a son of Allan Cunningham.

"Sir Robert's love of the fine arts was even more fervid than his predilection for literature. He materially assisted in the purchase for the nation of the Angerstein Collection; and when the National Gallery was established, he was always lending the weight of his influence to further acquisitions. Some of the most valuable of the recent purchases were made during his ministry. His own collection of Dutch and Flemish pictures was formed with the greatest taste and liberality, and will long be distinguished as one of the most important in the kingdom. His collection of English portraits is made in imitation, as we have heard, of the collection formed by Lord Clarendon and described by Evelyn. He invariably bought what was genuine and good. On the walls of his houses are still to be seen Cowley as a shepherd boy, by Sir Peter Lely; Wycherley, by Lely; Otway, by Mrs. Beale; Butler, by Soest; Pope, by Richardson; Dr. Johnson, by Sir Joshua; Burke, by Sir Joshua; Southey, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; Byron, by Phillips; and Wordsworth, by Pickersgill. The face of Sir Walter Scott is there represented in the bust by Chantrey; differing materially, and in some respects for the better, from the earlier marbles at Abbotsford and at Apsley House.

"His encouragement of native art was liberal and active. After king George the Fourth, he was the most munificent patron that Sir Thomas Lawrence ever had. Wilkie enjoyed his friendship; and the picture of John Knox Preaching,' one of the most important of the artist's works in his later style, was a commission of his giving. Nor was his encouragement restricted to one or two favourite painters only of the English school. Some of the largest and most valuable commissions received by Collins were of his giving. Roberts's large picture of the 'Departure of the Israelites' adorns the walls of Drayton Manor; and the picture by Mr. Clarkson Stanfield in the present Royal Academy Exhibition to which the place of honour has been assigned was expressly painted for Sir Robert Peel. When Drayton shall be visited hereafter -as it often will be for the sake of its founder-the portraits of Chantrey and Wilkie will be looked on with no less interest than the heads of Sir Robert Walpole, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Canning, and the Duke of Wellington; and whenever the history of art in this country shall be

written, and the fate of Haydon related, the timely relief which the sympathy and munificence of Sir Robert Peel extended in the hour of need to the pressing necessities of that clever but misguided artist will make a part of the narration.

"Sir Robert's appreciation of persons distinguished in the several paths of science was not less discriminating and sincere. For the place at Greenwich which Mr. Airy fills with so much honour to his country he is indebted to Sir Robert Peel. Mrs. Somerville and Mr. Faraday owe the pensions they enjoy to the same friendly minister; and the Deanery of Westminster was bestowed by him on Dr. Buckland."

Sir Robert was passionately fond of a country life, and withdrew to Tamworth after the fatigues of his Parliamentary services with all the keen enjoyment of youth. He not only liked the country for the pleasures it afforded, but for the business occupations which it also supplied. The pressure of public duties, great as it must have been, was not allowed to betray him into negligence of his private affairs, and the same industrious, investigating, and cautious spirit which he brought with him to the concerns of the nation he carried into the management of his estates. His principal property extends westward from the Manor-house, which is almost on its verge; but he has left detached estates all round the neighbourhood, besides that at Blackburn, in Lancashire. The inheritance which he has left to his children is a splendid one, but one which still remains to be filled up to the scale on which the purchases originally made were calculated. Wealth, however, he has not alone bequeathed to them--he has left them his great name and reputation to uphold, and his private virtues and patriotism, if not to rival, at least to imitate.

Sir Robert Peel married, on the 8th June, 1820, Julia, daughter of General Sir John Floyd, Bart. a lady immortalized by one of Sir Thomas Lawrence's most pleasing female portraits. Lady Peel survives him, having had issue five sons and two daughters: :-1. Julia Viscountess Villiers, married in 1841 to the eldest son of the Earl of Jersey, and has issue three sons and two daughters; 2. Sir Robert, born in 1822, who has succeeded to the baronetcy; he has been recently charge d'affaires in Switzerland, and is elected to succeed his father as M.P. for Tamworth; 3. Frederick, now M.P. for Leominster; 4. William, Capt. R.N.; 5. John Floyd, an officer in the Scots Fusilier Guards; 6. Arthur-Wellesley; and 7. Eliza, born in 1832.

The body of the deceased having been

conveyed to his mansion of Drayton Manor, near Tamworth, the funeral took place on the 9th July, at the church of Drayton Bassett. The order of procession was as follows:

Principal tenants on horseback.

1. Mourning coach, containing the Bishop of Gibraltar, who read the funeral service.

2. Mourning coach, containing the incumbents of Tamworth, Drayton, Nuneaton, and Fazeley.

3. Mourning coach, containing Sir Benjamin Brodie and Mr. Hodgson.

4 and 5. Two mourning coaches, containing the pall-bearers-Sir James Graham, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Hardinge, Sir F. Lawley, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. B. Denison, Sir George Clerk, and Mr. Hobhouse.

HEARSE.

6. Mourning coach.-Sir Robert Peel, Bart., Frederick Peel, esq., M.P., and Capt. Wm. Peel, R.N.

7. Mourning coach.-Arthur Peel, esq., Capt. John Peel, Scotch Fusilier Guards, and Lord Villiers.

8. Mourning coach.-The Very Rev. the Dean of Worcester, Col. Peel, M.P., and Lawrence Peel, esq.

9. Mourning coach.-The Right Hon. G. R. Dawson, the Very Rev. the Dean of York, Sir John Floyd, and Capt. Peel, 6th Enniskillen Dragoons, son of the late Right Hon. Wm. Yates Peel.

10. Mourning coach.-Capt. Edward Peel, 10th Hussars, (son of Edmund Peel, esq.,) Robert Peel, esq., (son of the Dean of Worcester,) Archibald Peel, esq., (son of Col. Peel, M.P.,) and Capt. Charles Lennox Peel, (son of Lawrence Peel, esq.) 11. Mourning coach. Robert Peel Dawson, esq., Lord Henley, Sir Hume Campbell, and General Yates.

12. Mourning coach, containing the house steward and butler.

The corporation of Tamworth, in five carriages.

The late Sir R. Peel's private carriage.

In the House of Lords, on the 4th of July, a feeling tribute to the loss the nation had sustained was made by the Marquess of Lansdowne; Lord Stanley, Lord Brougham, the Duke of Wellington, and the Duke of Cleveland, also addressed the house on the subject. The Duke of Wellington showed himself unusually affected, and testified in the strongest terms his admiration of the truthfulness and patriotism of the deceased.

In the House of Commons, on the same day, Lord John Russell expressed, not only his regret at the sudden loss of this great statesman, but the high estimate he entertained of his capacious intellect, his