Peel and the Party System 1830–50

Norman Gash

doi:10.2307/3678562

Peel and the Party System 1830–50

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

Norman Gash

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The relations between Peel and his party form a familiar theme, and even in this centenary year of his death there seems little to be gained from a restatement of the problem, or at least from a restatement in the old polemical terms. Yet in raking over the ashes of that controversy one must always be struck by the paradox inherent in Peel's position. If Peel destroyed his party, he destroyed his own handiwork. The man that twice ‘betrayed’ his followers ranks in British political history as the creator of the first modern parliamentary party. The contrast may be stated in the words of M. Halévy: ‘the statesman who ten years before had accomplished such an outstanding work of party organization by a most intelligible reaction had come to execrate the very notion of party politics’. Clearly if we accept the sharp contrast we must also accept the revulsion of feeling to which Halévy alludes. But another line of approach might be to inquire whether the Peel of the thirties was different in any essential aspect from the Peel of the forties. If the contrasting elements in Peel's career have been emphasized at the expense of the elements of continuity, the task is not so much to explain as to explode the paradox.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 1 , December 1951 , pp. 47 - 69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678562 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1951

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References

^{page 47 note 1} Halévy, E., The Age of Peel and Cobden, p. 115Google Scholar.

^{page 47 note 2} Lord George Bentinck (8th edn., London, 1872), p. 208Google Scholar.

^{page 48 note 1} Annual Register, 1838, p. 115Google Scholar.

^{page 48 note 2} Aspinall, A., Politics and the Press, pp. 336–40Google Scholar; Private Letters of Sir Robert Peel, ed. Peel, G., p. 134Google Scholar.

^{page 48 note 3} Herries, E., Memoir of J. C. Herries, ii. 160–2Google Scholar.

^{page 49 note 1} Bonham was first returned to parliament as member for Rye in the general election of 1830. In April of that year Peel, then on one of his frequent holiday visits to Brighton, gave a dinner at Orton House to which both Bonham and Joseph Planta, M.P. for Hastings and Secretary to the Treasury, were invited. In September, Bonham was guest at a dinner-party given by Mr. and Lady Jane Lawrence Peel; and in November he was presented at a levée at St. James's by SirPeel, Robert (Brighton Gazette, 22 April, 23 September, 18 11 1830)Google Scholar.

^{page 49 note 2} Greville Memoirs, ed. Strachey, L. and Fulford, R., ii. 92Google Scholar. The description of Bonham in this passage as a ‘stock-jobbing ex-merchant’ cannot be accepted without confirmation. The more reasonable presumption is that Greville was confusing F. R. Bonham with another Bonham (Henry) who was a well-known financial and commercial figure. Though no relative, Henry Bonham had sat for Rye until shortly before his death in April 1830. There is no evidence that Greville knew Bonham personally until 1835.

^{page 49 note 3} Correspondence of Charles Arbuthnot, ed. Aspinall, A. (Camden 3rd Series, lxv), p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 49 note 4} Peel to Sir George Clerk, 27 Dec. 1830 (Clerk of Penicuick Papers T/188/81, Register House, Edinburgh).

^{page 50 note 1} Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 40420, fo. 126.

^{page 50 note 2} The Hon. Robert Campbell Scarlett, M.P. for Norwich. 1835–7; he succeeded as 2nd Lord Abinger in 1844.

^{page 50 note 3} ‘His popularity at Norwich … enabled him to found a conservative Club at Norwich under the name of the Orange and Purple Club at the time of the Reform Bill and this club may fairly be said to have been the origin of all the rest, since it was at the suggestion of Mr. Beckwith that in 1835 I had the honour of proposing at a dinner given after the elections to Sir Thos. Cochrane at Westminster the general adoption of those societies, a proposition which was followed by the immediate adoption of one in Westminster and afterwards throughout the country:’ Scarlett to Fremantle, 6 Oct. 1841 (Clerk of Penicuick Papers, T/188/85).

^{page 50 note 4} Cf. Hill, R. L., Toryism and the People, pp. 43–7Google Scholar. Mr. Hill's generalizations on the question of Conservative party organization in the thirties follow the conventional line in attributing the initiative and the credit to Peel, though his detailed comments show an awareness that there is very little evidence for this view.

^{page 51 note 1} See my article on Bonham, F. R., Eng. Hist. Rev., lxiii. 511Google Scholar.

^{page 51 note 2} Peel Papers, ed. Parker, C. S., iii. 474Google Scholar.

^{page 51 note 3} ‘For the proof of this position we refer to any person who is acquainted with the undergraduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and likewise to the speech of Dr. Hawtrey with reference to the Eton boys’ (Westminster Review, xxvi (1837), 291)Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 1} Westminster Review, xxxvii. 406. Cf. also Annual Register, 1841, p. 143Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 2} Taylor, W. Cooke, Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel, iii. 26Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 3} Parker, , Peel, ii. 186Google Scholar.

^{page 53 note 1} I have reproduced the text given in the Mirror of Parliament (1833), i. 111Google Scholar, which is fuller and more reliable than that given in Hansard's Parl. Deb., 3rd Ser., xv. 384–6.

^{page 54 note 1} Private Letters of Sir Robert Peel, ed. Peel, G., p. 104Google Scholar.

^{page 54 note 2} Parker, , Peel, ii. 57Google Scholar.

^{page 54 note 3} Add. MS. 40403, fo. 252.

^{page 55 note 1} Taylor, Cooke, Peel, iii. 57Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 2} Parker, , Peel, ii. 247Google Scholar.

^{page 56 note 1} Parker, , Peel, iii. 364Google Scholar.

^{page 57 note 1} Peel, , Private Letters, p. 282Google Scholar; cf. Parker, , Peel, iii. 365Google Scholar.

^{page 57 note 2} Parker, C. S., Life and Letters of Sir James Graham, ii. 429Google Scholar.

^{page 57 note 3} Peel, , Private Letters, p. 273Google Scholar.

^{page 57 note 4} Parker, , Peel, iii. 473–4Google Scholar.

^{page 58 note 1} Cf. MrClark's, Kitson critical comments on this speech in his Peel and the Conservative Party, p. 379Google Scholar.

^{page 58 note 2} Parker, , Peel, ii. 428Google Scholar.

^{page 59 note 1} Add. MS. 40616, fo. 20.

^{page 60 note 1} Edinburgh Review, lxxi (1840), 303–4Google Scholar.

^{page 60 note 2} Hansard, 3rd Ser., lix. 186–7.

^{page 60 note 3} Taylor, Cooke, Peel, iii. 529–30Google Scholar.

^{page 60 note 4} Age of Peel and Cobden, p. 115.

^{page 60 note 5} Edinburgh Review, lxxi (1840), 304Google Scholar.

^{page 61 note 1} The usual party circular requesting attendance.

^{page 61 note 2} Add. MS. 40476, fos. 266–7, 345–6, 349. It will be borne in mind that the circular was a personal request from the party leader and implied therefore a degree of confidence in the person so addressed.

^{page 61 note 3} Parker, , Peel, iii. 144–7Google Scholar.

^{page 61 note 4} Hansard, 3rd Ser., li. 1036.

^{page 62 note 1} Hansard, 3rd Ser., lix. 428, 555.

^{page 62 note 2} E.g. Edinburgh Review, lxxi (1840), 495Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 3} Vyvyan was Tory M. P. for Helston. His Letter (London, 1842)Google Scholar, contained a general attack on Peel's policy and leadership of the party. See Quarterly Review, lxx (1842), 485Google Scholar, and Hill, , Toryism and the People, pp. 64–5Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 4} Quarterly Review, lxx (1842), 509Google Scholar.

^{page 63 note 1} Coningsby, Bk. v, ch. ii.

^{page 63 note 2} Cf. the Westminster Review, xl (1843), 309–10Google Scholar: ‘He has succeeded—under circumstances in which probably no other public man now living could have succeeded—in building up a “great Conservative party”, and in getting himself and his party floated into office, with a larger amount of parliamentary strength, for the short time it may last, than any British minister has wielded since the days of Pitt.’

^{page 63 note 3} Edinburgh Review, lxxi (1840), 313Google Scholar.

^{page 64 note 1} Edinburgh Review, lxxi (1840), 515–16Google Scholar.

^{page 65 note 1} Parker, , Peel, iii. 172Google Scholar.

^{page 65 note 2} The importance of Maynooth as a factor operating against the Peelites in the 1847 election has probably been under-estimated. Cf. Bonham to Peel 2 August 1847, ‘“Maynooth” has certainly destroyed several of our friends. “Free Trade” hardly any’ (Add. MS. 40599, fo. 122).

^{page 65 note 3} Parker, , Peel, iii. 173–6Google Scholar.

^{page 65 note 4} Add. MS. 40452, fos. 230, 270.

^{page 66 note 1} Add. MS. 40599, fos. 25, 45.

^{page 67 note 1} Parker, , Graham, ii, 53Google Scholar; Add. MS. 40452, fos. 188, 204. John Young (M.P. Co. Cavan 1831–55; succeeded his father as 2nd Bart. 1848; created Baron Lisgar 1870), was Conservative chief whip 1844–6, and after the disruption continued to act as the Peelite whip until his appointment as chief secretary for Ireland in 1852 under the Aberdeen ministry.

^{page 67 note 2} Add. MS. 40599, fos. 99, 121, 190.

^{page 67 note 3} Morley, , Gladstone (1912 edn.), i. 260Google Scholar.

^{page 67 note 4} Add, MS. 40602, fos. 399–400.

^{page 68 note 1} Parker, , Peel, iii. 533Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 2} At that date one of the secretaries to the Board of Control in Russell's first ministry.

^{page 68 note 3} Add. MS. 40452, fo. 266.

^{page 69 note 1} It will be recalled that shortly before Peel's death, Cardwell reminded him of a common belief that he would under no circumstances again take office. Peel replied, ‘I never said so’ (Parker, , Peel, iii. 534Google Scholar).

^{page 69 note 2} Cardwell Papers, Pub. Rec. Office G.D. 48/50, fo. 2.

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