Manfred; king of Naples and Sicily) a claim to the crown of Sicily, and prepared an expedition to assert his right against Charles of Anjou. The massacre of all the French residents, known as the Sicilian Vespers, rendered it easy for him to obtain possession of the island. He succeeded in defending his own and his wife's patrimony against the united forces of France and Naples, until his death in 1285.—F. M. W.
PEDRO V. (Maria Fernando Miguel Raphael Gabriel Gonzague D'Alcantara), King of Portugal, was the son of Queen Donna Maria da Gloria and Ferdinand her husband, and was born in 1837. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his mother, in November, 1853, but was for two years under the regency of his father. In 1854 he paid a visit to England and several continental countries, accompanied by his brother, the duke of Oporto, when both won the respect of our public men, and the warm friendship of the queen. On assuming the reins of government he heartily adopted the constitutional system, and his successive ministries always governed by parliamentary majorities. Under his reign there were no court reserves, no secret combinations, no personal proscriptions, obstructing, embarrassing, and defeating the exertions of the representatives of the people. The commercial, civil, and penal codes were reformed, and the press was made free. The foreign relations of Portugal too were immensely improved, very much in consequence of Don Pedro's personal exertions. In 1857 the king married a princess of the house of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, whom he had the misfortune to lose in July, 1859. His behaviour during the fearful ravages made in his capital by yellow fever in the summer of 1857, gained him the cordial admiration and affection of his subjects. He recalled the archbishop and others who had fled the city in dread of the contagion, and braved it gallantly himself. He visited the hospitals at all hours of the day and night, to see that the attendants were at their posts; and went from ward to ward, encouraging the sufferers with a kind word, and inducing them to take the food and medicine which they had refused from the hand of the surgeon. He took under his own immediate protection the numerous orphans left by cholera and the yellow fever. One of the medals, struck to be worn by those physicians who had distinguished themselves during the prevalence of the epidemic, was awarded to Don Pedro by the municipality of Lisbon. He was exceedingly proud of the gift, and always wore it, saying it was the only "order" he had ever won. This benevolent and promising young sovereign was cut off by typhus fever in November, 1861, when he had only just entered on his twenty-fifth year. Enlightened and generous, modest and sincere, his untimely removal was deeply lamented not only by his own subjects, but throughout Europe. He left his kingdom peaceful and contented. He was succeeded Hy his brother Louis, duke of Oporto.—J. T.
PEEL, Sir Robert, first baronet, father of the eminent statesman, was born on the 25th of April, 1750, at Peel's Cross, near Lancaster. His father, the founder of the family, and whose name was also Robert, was originally a small yeoman in the neighbourhood of Blackburn. With a large family and some mechanical genius, the first Robert Peel turned his attention to manufacturing industry, and entered into the business of domestic calico-making. He prospered, and from making calico he proceeded to print it. Calico-printing was then in its infancy, and Peel's first experiments were made with a household pewter plate, on which he sketched a pattern, rubbed colour into it, and took his impression on calico with the aid of 'the common calendering machine of a humble female neighbour. "Such," says Mr. Smiles (Self Help) "is said to have been the origin of roller-printing on calico." Robert Peel shortly perfected his process, and the first pattern he brought out was a parsley leaf; hence he is spoken of in the neighbourhood of Blackburn to this day as "Parsley Peel." Sir Robert Peel, the first baronet, was the third of the many sons of "Parsley Peel." He lived with his father, whom he assisted in the printing business, until he was twenty, when he resolved to start for himself. With the aid of an uncle and of Mr. Yates, the son of a Blackburn innkeeper, whose name is now well known in the annals of English industrialism, he bought a ruined mill in the neighbourhood of Bury, and commenced calico-printing on a humble scale in a few wooden sheds, in 1770, adding to it afterwards the business of cotton-spinning. According to the author already quoted, Peel began by living with his partner William Yates, to whom he paid the magnificent sum of eight shillings a week for board and lodging, which after some controversy was increased to eight and sixpence. William Yates had a pretty little daughter of seven named Ellen, whom—she being then seventeen—after ten years, Peel married, and who became the mother of the prime minister of England. The firm from small beginnings grew to be the largest in the trade, with off-shoots in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Staffordshire. Sir Robert Peel "was to cotton-printing what Arkwright was to cotton-spinning," quick to appreciate the inventions of others, with great talents for business and industrial organization, sagacious and energetic. It is said that, in 1803, fifteen thousand persons were dependent on him, and he was always creditably interested and active in promoting the comfort of his work-people. One of the first legislative measures of the kind was the bill which he introduced into the house of commons "to ameliorate the condition of the apprentices in the cotton and woollen trades." He had entered parliament in 1790 as member for Tamworth, near which he had purchased a large property, and in 1780 he had published a pamphlet, "The National Debt productive of National Prosperity." He was a steady supporter of the policy of Mr. Pitt, and in 1797 he and his partner Mr. Yates are said to have subscribed £10,000 to the national voluntary subscription for the support of the war. Having the year before made a speech in favour of the union with Ireland—one which, being considered to represent the opinions of the manufacturing interest, strengthened the hands of the government—he was created a baronet in 1803. He retired in 1820 from the house of commons, where eleven years before he had been joined by his eldest son. He died at Drayton, immensely wealthy, on the 3d of May, 1830, having lived to see the son whom he had trained for a political career become secretary of state for the home department, and a leader of the great tory party in the house of commons. The first Lady Peel died in 1803. She was, says Mr. Smiles, "a noble and beautiful woman, fitted to grace any station in life. She possessed rare powers of mind, and was, in every emergency, the high-souled and faithful counsellor of her husband. For many years after their marriage she acted as his amanuensis, conducting the principal part of his business correspondence, for Mr. Peel himself was an indifferent and almost unintelligible writer. It is said that London life—so unlike what she had been accustomed to at home—proved injurious to her health; and old Mr. Yates was afterwards accustomed to say—"If Robert hadn't made our Nelly a lady, she might ha' been living yet." Sir Robert Peel's second wife, whom he married in 1805, and whom he survived six years, was sister to the rector of Bury.—F. E.
PEEL, Sir Robert, second baronet, one of the greatest of modern English statesmen, was born on the 5th of February, 1788, and, according to tradition, in a cottage adjoining Chamber hall, his father's house, near Bury in Lancashire, which happened to be then undergoing repair. He was the eldest son of the first Sir Robert Peel (q.v.), who is said to have vowed on hearing of his birth that "he would give his child to his country." He was carefully nurtured and trained under the eye of his proud and loving father, from whom he received his earliest lesson in the practice of public speaking—from the age of twelve being placed upon a table every Sunday and encouraged to repeat as much as he could of the sermon he had heard. He grew up a boy of excellent conduct and gentle manners, refined and rather sensitive; his cousin. Sir Lawrence Peel, has recorded that he would "walk a mile round rather than encounter the rude jests of the Bury lads." From home he was sent first to Harrow, where he had for "form-fellow" Lord Byron, who has left the following interesting and characteristic reminiscence of him there:—"Peel, the orator and statesman ('that was, or is, or is to be'), was my form-fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove, a public-school phrase. We were on good terms, but his brother was my intimate friend. There were always great hopes of Peel amongst us all, masters and scholars, and he has not disappointed them. As a scholar he was greatly my superior; as a declaimer and actor I was reckoned at least his equal; as a school-boy, out of school I was always in scrapes, and he never; and in school he always knew his lesson, and I rarely." From Harrow he proceeded to Christ church, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner, where he distinguished himself by his talents and application, being the first to take, under the new system of examination, a double first class in mathematics and in classics, and that in the year of Hampden and Whately. At college he was no mere closet-student, however; he was a keen boater and cricketer, and took care to be fashionably dressed.
