In October 1805 he entered Christ Church, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner. At the time Cyril Jackson [q. v.] was dean. His tutor was at first Thomas Gaisford [q. v.], and subsequently Charles Lloyd (1784–1829) [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Oxford, who was always his closest friend. Oxford had recently awakened from that lethargy which is the theme of Gibbon, and under the new system of 1807 Peel won, in 1808, a double first class in classics and mathematics, his viva voce examination being the first of his public triumphs. After he had taken his degree his father bought him the seat of Cashel in Tipperary, and he entered the House of Commons in April 1809, at the age of twenty-one. A tory ministry, with the Duke of Portland as prime minister, was in power, and the whigs, utterly wrecked since the death of Fox, were in opposition. Peel, fresh from a tory home and a tory university, naturally gave his support to the government. In 1810 he seconded the address, in a speech of about forty minutes, which the speaker (Charles Abbot, afterwards Lord Colchester) and others judged to have been ‘the best first speech since that of Mr. Pitt.’ Soon afterwards he accepted the under-secretaryship for war and the colonies. The secretary of state was Lord Liverpool, and the main business of the office was to direct the military operations against the French. According to the testimony of Lord Liverpool, Peel acquired in this post ‘all the necessary habits of official business,’ and showed ‘a particularly good temper and great frankness and openness of manners.’ Upon Perceval's murder in May 1812 Lord Liverpool became premier, and Peel accepted the post of chief secretary for Ireland in July. At the same time he exchanged the seat of Cashel for Chippenham.
Peel held the Irish office for six years, until 1818, and served under three viceroys—the Duke of Richmond, Lord Whitworth, and Lord Talbot. The duties were threefold. He had in the first place to administer the patronage of Ireland on behalf of the English government. Here his principle was to yield as little as possible to the influence of powerful individuals, to consult always the interests of his government, and never his own. He made no distinction between catholics and protestants in appointments open to both, and opposed the practice of selling public offices and of dismissing civil servants for political action. The success of the government in the Irish elections of 1812 and 1818 was ascribed to his vigour and prudence in distributing patronage. Secondly, he was bound to maintain order in Ireland. The young minister had to meet the Goliath of agitation, O'Connell, who in 1811 had organised the catholic board, and was rapidly ousting Grattan from popular favour. It was Peel's general desire to rule by the existing law, but disorder rose to such a height that in June 1814 he had to suppress the catholic board, and immediately afterwards carried two acts, one reviving in part the repealed Insurrection Act of 1807, and the other establishing the peace preservation police, vulgarly termed ‘Peelers,’ a body afterwards consolidated into the royal Irish constabulary. These measures were successful, and Ireland sank into an uneasy repose. Thirdly, Peel had to maintain in parliament the cause of protestant ascendency. Those who favoured catholic emancipation comprised the whig party and a section of the tories, led by Canning and Wellesley, besides Vansittart and Castlereagh in the English cabinet, and within the Irish government itself William Vesey Fitzgerald (afterwards Lord Fitzgerald and Vesey) [q. v.], the Irish chancellor of the exchequer, and Charles Kendal Bushe [q. v.], the solicitor-general. Four times in three months during 1813 did the House of Commons resolve that concessions should be made. But Peel was too firm, O'Connell too virulent, and the catholic party too divided on the question of imposing the royal veto on the appointment of bishops for anything to be done. In 1817 Peel sealed the victory by his first really great speech delivered on 9 May against the catholic claims.
Peel's policy did not solve the Irish question, but he ruled Ireland. Throughout his tenure of office O'Connell pursued him with excessive rancour, and in the course of 1815 Peel challenged the agitator to a duel. He crossed to Ostend to meet his opponent, but O'Connell was arrested in the Strand [see O'Connell, Daniel].
Among the whigs Peel's attitude to Irish questions at the same time gained him the reputation of being the ‘spokesman to the intolerant faction.’ The stalwart tories viewed his conduct with unbounded favour. In 1817 Oxford acknowledged his services to protestantism by making him her member, an honour that Canning himself had coveted in vain. In the same year fifty-nine Irish members signed a remarkable memorial urging him not to retire from a post which he had administered with masterly ability. But he was weary of the work, and on 3 Aug. 1818 laid down his office and quitted Ireland.
From 1818 to 1822 Peel was a private member. He married in 1820, and both in that year and in 1821 he declined offers of cabinet rank. But within this period falls one great political achievement. In 1819
