Robert Peel: Encyclopedia II - Robert Peel - Political career

Robert Peel - Political career

The young Peel entered politics at the young age of 21 as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel City, Tipperary. With a scant twenty-four voters on the rolls, he was elected unopposed. More importantly, his sponsor for the election (besides his father) was Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, with whom Peel's political career would be entwined for the next twenty-five years. His maiden speech in the Commons was a sensation, and famously described by the Speaker of the House of Commons as "the best first speech since that of William Pitt".

For the next decade he occupied a series of relatively minor positions in the Tory governments of the time (Undersecretary for War, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and chairman of the Bullion Committee charged with stabilizing British finances after the end of the Napoleonic Wars). He also changed seats twice, first picking up another rotten borough, Chippenham, then becoming MP for Oxford University in 1817.

He later served as MP for Tamworth from 1830 until his death. His home was Drayton Manor.

He was considered one of the rising stars of the Tory party, and first entered the cabinet in 1822 as Home Secretary, in which capacity he introduced a number of important reforms of British criminal law. It was in this capacity that he is probably best remembered for his creation of the Metropolitan Police Force (Metropolitan Police Act 1829) which created 1000 constables (affectionately nicknamed 'Peelers' or 'Bobbies') charged with the prevention and investigation of criminal activity in the London area. As a result crime plummeted in London and soon local councils all over Britain were copying this initiative. His changes to the Penal code resulted in fewer crimes being punished by death. He also reformed the gaol system with payment for gaolers and education for the inmates. This idea was first used when Peel set up the Royal Irish Constabulary in Ireland in 1814. This was effectively the first police force and, since it was made up of mostly Protestants, the Catholic population hated Peel and called him 'Orange Peel'. This originated from William of Orange who effectively ended Catholic rebellion in Ireland by defeating James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

He resigned from this position after the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, was incapacitated, leading to his replacement by George Canning; Canning favoured Catholic Emancipation, and Peel had been one of its most outspoken opponents. Canning himself died less than four months later, and after the brief premiership of Lord Goderich, Peel returned to the post of Home Secretary under the premiership of his long-time ally the Duke of Wellington. During this time he was widely perceived as the number two man in the Tory Party after Wellington himself.

But the forces being exerted on the new Ministry by advocates of Catholic Emancipation were too great, and a Bill to that effect was passed the next year. Peel felt compelled to resign his seat at Oxford, as what had made him attractive to that constituency in the first place was his opposition to it (in 1815 he had, in fact, challenged to a duel the man most associated with emancipation, Daniel O'Connell). He instead moved to another rotten borough, Westbury, and retained his Cabinet position.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Political career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki