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Peel and the Conservative Party: the Sugar Crisis of 1844 Reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

D. R. Fisher
D. R. Fisher
Affiliation:
History of Parliament
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Extract

The brief ministerial crisis of June 1844, precipitated by the defeat in the House of Commons of the government's proposals for the temporary adjustment of the duties on imported sugar, and resolved when Sir Robert Peel secured from the House what amounted to a reversal of the decision, has been scrutinized by two historians in recent years. In his earlier work, Dr Stewart cites with approval contemporary observations to the effect that Peel's authority was severely shaken by the affair, and remarks that ‘by 1844 the Tory, nationalist wing of Peel's party was beginning to unite in resistance to the progressive tendency of Peel's government. In 1844 they gave Peel a warning of what they might do.’ His second assessment is more emphatic. He interprets Conservative disaffection on the sugar issue, and on the factory bill three months earlier, as the ‘first challenge to Peel's leadership’, and argues that it revealed that ‘Peel's hold over a large section of his party was at an end, destroyed by his own methods’.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 279 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 Stewart, Robert, ‘The Ten Hours and Sugar Crises of 1844: Government and the House of Commons in the Age of Reform’, Historical Journal, XII, 1 (1969), 35–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and The Politics of Protection (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 15–22Google Scholar; Gash, Norman, Sir Robert Peel (London, 1972), pp. 445–53.Google Scholar

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11 Ibid. PP. 175–8.

12 Divisions 1843, pp. III–12.

13 Divisions 1844, pp. 157–9.

14 British Museum Add. MSS 40547, fo. 1, Bonham to Peel [16 June 1844].

15 During the Conservative squabble over the question of whether or not to oppose the re-election of the Speaker in the summer of 1841, for example, Bonham remarked that ‘the avowed malcontents, Blackstone, Tyrrell and co. are not worth conversation, for they will never be pleased’ (B.M. Add. MSS 40485, fo. 322, Bonham to Peel [July 1841]).

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24 See e.g. J. J. Allnatt at Wallingford, 20 Apr. (Morning Post, 21 Apr. 1843); J. Bell and Mr Rolfe at Aylesbury, 8 May (Ibid. 9 May 1843); T. Baker at Colchester, 6 May (Ibid. 11 May 1843).

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26 See W. S. Blackstone and Q. Dick at Wallingford, 20 Apr. (Ibid. 21 Apr. 1843).

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29 B.M. Add. MSS 40529, fos. 4–7, Sandon to Peel, 15 May 1843. William Yates Peel told Sir Robert that ‘all the Cons, want (but you know all this) to vote with the Govt, but they are afraid of offending their constituents’ (B.M. Add. MSS 40529. fo. 39).

30 B.M. Add. MSS 40529, fos. 8–9, Peel to Sandon, 17 May 1843.

31 B.M. Add. MSS 40436, fos. 304–5, Peel to the Queen, 20 May 1843.

32 For a detailed treatment of these problems see Fisher, D. R., ‘The Opposition to Sir Robert Peel in the Conservative Party, 1841–1846‘ (unpublished Cambridge University Ph.D. thesis, 1969), pp. 74–102, 112–68, 182–225, 323, 378–80, 402–3.Google Scholar

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40 Ibid. LXXV, 1047 (17 June 1844).

41 Ibid. LXXV, 1138.

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49 B.M. Add. MSS 40547, fo. 30, Christopher to Peel, 17 June 1844.

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61 Ibid. LXXV, 1164.

62 Ibid. LXXV, 1166.

63 B.M. Add. MSS 44777, fo. 195, Gladstone's memorandum, 20 June 1844.

64 The Conservative, George Smythe, was omitted in error from the original list of the minority in Divisions 1844, PP. 181–2 (see ibid. p. 187; The Times, 19 June 1844). While he was included in the revised list in 3 Hansard, LXXV, 1082–6, no other name was omitted, and the Hansard list therefore contains 236 names. For want of information as to the identity of the member who was wrongly recorded as voting with Miles, the latter figure has been used in calculations.Google Scholar

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87 Ibid. ix, 1103 (25 Feb. 1842). Cf. Tyrrell, 25 Feb. 1842 (ibid. LX, 1133); L. W. Buck, 9 Mar. 1842 (ibid. LXI, 311); R. Palmer, 7 Apr. 1842 (ibid. LXII, 50–1).

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91 See e.g. C. G. Round and Tyrrell at Chelmsford (Morning Post, 6 Apr. 1842); Turnor at Grantham (ibid. 26 Apr. 1843).

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101 See Richmond's speech at Steyning, 29 Jan. 1844 (Morning Herald, 30 Jan. 1844).

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108 B.M. Add. MSS 40433, fo. 240, Peel to Albert, 15 Feb. 1842.

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114 Ibid. LXXIV, 914 (10 May 1844).

115 Ibid. LXXIV, 1074 (13 May 1844). Cf. Monckton Milnes and Inglis, 22 Mar. 1844 (ibid. LXXHI, 1397, 1428–9).

116 B.M. Add. MSS 44777, fo. 195, Gladstone's memorandum, 20 June 1844.

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119 Ibid. LXXV, 1031.

120 Ibid. LXXV, 1047–8.

121 Ibid. LXXV, 1077.

122 B.M. Add. MSS 40483, fos. 134–5, Ashley to Peel, 19 June 1844.

123 B.M. Add. MSS 40483, fo. 136, Peel to Ashley, 20 June 1844.

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131 In a paper published after the completion of this article, Aydelotte provides statistical confirmation of this view of the disintegration of the Conservative party. His findings suggest that the schism in the party only began to emerge significantly in 1845, and that the actual rupture, which was relatively sudden, occurred in 1846 and not before. He argues, I believe correctly, that although there was a definite relationship between the split over repeal and disagreements on a variety of other issues, the break-up of the party is more likely to be satisfactorily explained in political than ideological terms. He evidently finds no meaningful relationship between the dispute over the sugar duties and the Corn Law split. See Aydelotte, William O., ‘The Disintegration of the Conservative Party in the 1840's: A Study of Political Attitudes’, in Aydelotte, William O., Bogue, Allan G. and Fogel, Robert William (eds.), The Dimensions of Quantitative Research in History (Princeton, 1972), pp. 319–46.Google Scholar