putting himself forward with premature haste. He endured with dignity and modesty the unpleasantness of his position beside Mr. Canning; more than once, perhaps, wounded and grieved in spirit, but calm, patient, and persevering, as becomes a man of honest and sensible ambition in a free state." The home office was an admirable arena for the display of Peel's indefatigable industry, punctuality, tact, temper, and courtesy. Here again, with his usual eye for practical and practicable improvement, he accepted the principles and results of the efforts of such political opponents as Mackintosh and Romilly, for the improvement of criminal law, and mitigation of the penal code. The great monument of his home-secretaryship is the Five acts, comprised in one small volume, which consolidated what was spread over one hundred and thirty acts of parliament, and which at once simplified and humanized the criminal law of England. Nor was it only the criminal law which he improved. On reviewing his home-secretaryship, he could say with truth, "Every law found on the statute-book when I entered office, which imposed any temporary or extraordinary restraint on the liberty of the subject, has been either repealed or suffered to expire." Peel's first home-secretaryship came to an end with the fatal illness of the premier. Lord Liverpool, early in 1827, A tory ministry, with Canning in opposition, was felt to be impracticable, and Canning considered himself entitled to the premiership. He received it, reckoning on some support from the liberals; and Peel, with the duke of Wellington and others, at once resigned. Peel's own explanation of this step was, that he could not serve under a premier pledged to concede catholic emancipation. It was not long, however, before he felt himself compelled by circumstances to accept this very position. The Canning ministry was soon terminated by the death of its head, and the continuation of it under Lord Goderich lasted only a few months. In January, 1828, was formed the duke of Wellington's ministry, in which Peel was again home-secretary. In little more than a year, the speech from the throne, 5th February, 1829, drawn up by the ministry of which Peel was a member, invited parliament to consider the propriety of removing the catholic disabilities. The party which had looked upon Peel as their Abdiel, threw him off with indignant invectives against his treachery. He resigned at once his seat for Oxford, and offered himself for re-election, but was rejected in favour of the late Sir R. H. Inglis, and took refuge in the borough of Westbury. On the 5th of March, 1829, Mr. Peel introduced the Roman catholic disabilities removal bill, in a long and remarkable speech; supported as it was by two such former opponents of its principle as Wellington and Peel, it became the law of the land. Its policy is no longer a matter of question. It had become a question of concession or civil war, and civil war for a cause which the house of commons itself had condemned. In Peel's conduct the only doubtful point is whether he should not have resigned, and given the measure his support in a private, not a public capacity. The apology in Sir Robert's own memoirs is, that he not merely offered but pressed his resignation upon the duke of Wellington, and only withdrew it when assured by the duke that the assent of the king and of the house of lords to the measure was very doubtful, if he insisted on resigning.
The emancipation of the catholics weakened the Wellington-Peel ministry, by alienating many of its stanchest supporters, and the opposition was proportionally strengthened and encouraged to press the demand for parliamentary reform, which before long was supported by the voice of the nation. George IV. died, 26th June, 1830, and the accession of William IV. was followed by a dissolution of parliament. The duke of Wellington made his celebrated declaration against reform, and the days of his ministry were numbered. Tory malcontents joined the liberal opposition in voting for Sir Henry Parnell's motion for a revision of the civil list (15th November, 1830); and defeated by a majority of twenty-nine, the ministers resigned. Sir Robert Peel, as he now was, for his father had died in the preceding May, quitted the home secretaryship, during his second tenure of which he had, in spite of much clamorous opposition, passed the new metropolitan police act (10th George IV., c. 44). This useful measure substituted for the inefficient watchmen of the old system appointed by each parish, a well-organized and efficient body of policemen (nicknamed after the author of the act "Peelers"), the whole body being controlled by commissioners directly responsible to the home secretary. With the fall of the Wellington-Peel ministry came the long battle of parliamentary reform. In this fierce conflict catholic emancipation was forgotten, and Sir Robert Peel once more led his party united in the war against parliamentary reform. He gave the whig measure a steady and zealous, but not a violent opposition. With his usual prudent discernment of the signs of the times, he declined to aid the duke of Wellington in forming a ministry when Lord Grey resigned (May, 1832), after his defeat on Lord Lyndhurst's motion for postponing the disfranchisement clauses of the reform bill. It became the law of the land, and its passing was followed by a dissolution of parliament. The first reformed parliament was opened on the 29th of January, 1833, and Sir Robert Peel took his seat as member for Tamworth, which he continued to represent until his death. Sir Robert at once accepted the reform bill as a final settlement of the question not to be disturbed, and set to work to re-organize his party and strengthen its influence in the country. Under his auspices, toryism now became conservatism. He gave a cordial support to the ministers when they were urged forward by their radical allies. So keenly was his policy appreciated by William IV., that when after Lord Grey's resignation in July, 1834, Lord Melbourne was sent for by the king, that nobleman was directed by his sovereign (a secret first made public in Sir Robert's own memoirs) to enter into negotiations with the duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel for the formation of a coalition ministry. Neither Lord Melbourne nor Sir Robert Peel was prepared for this course; and when Lord Althorp was called to the upper house in the following November by the death of his father, the king, alarmed at the Irish church policy of his ministers, resolved on a new Wellington-Peel administration. Sir Robert was absent in Italy, and the duke of Wellington acted as provisional minister until his return, having advised the king to make Peel, and not himself, premier. On his return, Sir Robert Peel took the offices of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, with the duke of Wellington for foreign secretary. Parliament was dissolved; and in a letter to the electors of Tamworth the premier announced his policy to be one of moderate and practical reform. The result of the general election was to place the new ministry in a minority of ten on the election of speaker, a very small minority compared with that in which the conservative party was left after the dissolution following the reform bill. As a proof of his reforming tendencies, even in the matter of the church. Sir Robert procured the appointment, in February, 1835, of the now well-known ecclesiastical commission. The Times newspaper gave him its powerful support, and he received the unofficial co-operation of Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, who had declined to enter his ministry in the meantime. Sir Robert, in a minority, struggled bravely on until April, 1835. Three resolutions were then passed, on the motion of Earl Russell, the chief of which (April 3) affirmed the policy of appropriating the surplus revenue of the Established Church of Ireland to general education—the famous appropriation clause. The three resolutions were carried by majorities of thirty-three, twenty-five, and twenty-seven, and the Peel ministry resigned 8th April, 1835. But the ability and tact which Sir Robert Peel had displayed as premier impressed even his opponents with respect, and strengthened the confidence of the growing conservative party in their leader. The recalled Melbourne administration through various circumstances grew weaker and weaker, until in the first days of May, 1839, it had only a majority of five on a question of first-rate importance, the suspension of the constitution of Jamaica; and on the 7th of May it resigned. Sir Robert was sent for, but her majesty declining to accede to his proposal to remove and replace the ladies of her bedchamber. Lord Melbourne returned to office. For two years the resuscitated Melbourne ministry continued to exist, until on the 27th of May, 1841, it was defeated by a majority of one on a motion of want of confidence. Lord Melbourne appealed to the country, and in the new house of commons, on the 27th of August, an amendment to the address was carried by a majority of ninety-one, and Sir Robert Peel became once more premier, holding the one office of first lord of the treasury. He entered on office with a working majority, and with a ministry which included statesmen both of proved ability, such as Lord Lyndhurst, Sir James Graham, Lord Stanley, and Lord Ellenborough, and rising young politicians such as Mr. Gladstone and the present duke of Newcastle, "Never, perhaps," says M. Guizot, "had a first minister united at his accession so many elements and guarantees of a safe and
