The son of a wealthy textile manufacturer and politician, Peel was the first prime minister from an industrial business background. He earned adouble first inclassics and mathematics fromChrist Church, Oxford. He entered theHouse of Commons in 1809 and became a rising star in theTory Party. Peel entered theCabinet as Home Secretary (1822–1827), where he reformed and liberalised the criminal law and created the modern police force, leading to a new type of officer known in tribute to him as "bobbies" and "peelers". After a brief period out of office he returned as Home Secretary under his political mentorthe Duke of Wellington (1828–1830), also serving asLeader of the House of Commons. Initially a supporter of continued legal discrimination against Catholics, Peel reversed his stance and supported theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and the 1828 repeal of theTest Act, writing, "thoughemancipation was a great danger, civil strife was a greater danger".[1]
Peel often started from a traditional Tory position in opposition to a measure, then reversed his stance and became the leader in supporting liberal legislation. This happened with the Test Act, Catholic emancipation, the Reform Act, income tax and, most notably, the repeal of the Corn Laws. The historianA. J. P. Taylor wrote: "Peel was in the first rank of 19th-century statesmen. He carried Catholic Emancipation; he repealed the Corn Laws; he created the modern Conservative Party on the ruins of the old Toryism."[2]
The family's history dates back to the17th century, where it descends fromyeomen inLancashire. In 1731, a certain William Peele, bought a little estate called Peelfold which it was later inherited by his father. It was the elder Robert who changed the family name from "Peele" to "Peel", remarking that 'it was of no use as it did not add to the sound.'[6] The family moved fromLancashire toDrayton Manor nearTamworth, Staffordshire; the manor house has since been demolished, and the site occupied byDrayton Manor Theme Park.[7]
Before the end of the year, Peel was motherless and according to historianNorman Gash "the warmth and care that a mother, or even in happier circumstances a stepmother, might have given them." Peel's father placed high standards for his children and raised the Peel boys on a discipline of hard work and proper duty.[3] It was said that during the younger Peel'sbaptism, his father got down on his knees and dedicated his son's life to the country's service.[8] From an early age, it was apparent that Robert was “the ablest of the family.” His father once asked a tutor if his son would become a “William Pitt,” to which the tutor replied, “I hope so… but Robert Peel will be Robert Peel.” He would later recall his father saying, “Bob, you dog, if you are not prime minister some day, I’ll disinherit you.”[9]
Peel received his early education from a clergyman tutor in Bury and at a clergyman's local school in Tamworth.[1] There he was schooled in classical studies and emerged as a brilliant student among his peers. The broad park and surrounding countryside of Drayton instilled in Peel a love for the outdoors and led Peel to take up shooting.[10] He may also have attendedBury Grammar School orHipperholme Grammar School, though evidence for either is anecdotal rather than textual.[11] In Bury, Peel was exposed to "ridicule and jealousy" due to the family's standing and according to his brother, Lawrence, Robert 'would walk a mile around rather than encounter the rude jests of the Bury lads'.[10] Peel senior knew the value of elite education and social networks and was “too shrewd not to see the advantages of coming into contact at an impressionable age and on equal terms with the future governing class of England."[9] Accordingly, Robert was sent to Harrow in 1800 at the age of twelve, making him the first of his siblings to leave home. He started atHarrow School in February 1800.[12]
At Harrow he was a contemporary ofLord Byron, who recalled of Peel that "we were on good terms" and that "I was always in scrapes, and he never".[13] On Harrow's Speech Day in 1804, Peel and Byron acted part ofVirgil'sAeneid, Peel playingTurnus and Byron playingLatinus.[1][14]
Christ Church, Oxford, which Peel attended 1805–1808, graduating with a double first. He was later MP for the university, 1817–1829.
Peel firmly opposedCatholic emancipation, believing that Catholics could not be admitted to Parliament as they refused to swear theOath of Allegiance tothe Crown.[28] In May 1817 Peel delivered the closing speech in opposition toHenry Grattan's Catholic emancipation bill; the bill was defeated by 245 votes to 221.[29] Peel resigned as Chief Secretary and left Ireland in August 1818.[1]
Peel was considered one of the rising stars of the Tory party, first entering the cabinet in 1822 ashome secretary.[32] As home secretary, he introduced a large number of important reforms to British criminal law.[33]
In one of his policies, he reduced the number of crimes punishable by death, and simplified the law by repealing a large number of criminal statutes and consolidating their provisions into what are known asPeel's Acts. He reformed the gaol system, introducing payment for gaolers and education for the inmates in theGaols Act 1823 (4 Geo. 4. c. 64).[34]
In 1827 the Prime Minister,Lord Liverpool, became incapacitated and was replaced byGeorge Canning. Peel resigned as Home Secretary.[35] Canning favouredCatholic emancipation, while Peel had been one of its most outspoken opponents (earning the nickname "Orange Peel", with Orange the colour of the ProtestantOrange Order).[36] George Canning himself died less than four months later and, after the brief premiership ofLord Goderich, Peel returned to the post of Home Secretary under the premiership of his long-time allythe Duke of Wellington.[37] During this time he was widely perceived as the number-two in the Tory Party, after Wellington himself.[38]
TheTest and Corporation Acts required many officials to be communicants in the Anglican Church and penalised both nonconformists and Catholics. They were no longer enforced but were a matter of humiliation. Peel at first opposed the repeal, but reversed himself and led the repeal on behalf of the government, after consultation with Anglican Church leaders.[39] TheSacramental Test Act 1828 passed into law in May 1828. In future religious issues he made it a point to consult with church leaders from the major denominations.[40]
The1828 Clare by-election returned the Catholic Irish nationalist leaderDaniel O'Connell. By autumn 1828 the Chief Secretary for Ireland was alarmed by the extent of civil disorder and the prospect of a rebellion[41] if O'Connell were barred from Parliament. Wellington and Peel now conceded the necessity of Catholic emancipation, Peel writing to Wellington that "though emancipation was a great danger, civil strife was a greater danger".[1]
Peel drew up the Catholic Relief bill. He felt compelled to stand for re-election to his seat in Oxford, as he was representing the graduates of Oxford University (many of whom were Anglican clergymen), and had previously stood on a platform of opposition to Catholic Emancipation.[42] Peel lost his seat in a by-election in February 1829 toUltra-ToryRobert Inglis, but soon found another by moving to arotten borough,Westbury, retaining his Cabinet position.[43] He stood forTamworth in thegeneral election of 1830, representing Tamworth until his death.
Peel guided the Catholic Relief (Emancipation) bill through the House of Commons, Wellington through the House of Lords. With manyUltra-Tories vehemently opposed to emancipation, the bill could pass only with Whig support.[44]
Wellington threatened to resign ifKing George IV did not giveroyal assent;[45] the King finally relented, and theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829 became law in April. Peel's U-turn cost him the trust of many Tories:[46] according to the historianNorman Gash, Peel had been "the idolised champion of the Protestant party; that party now regarded him as an outcast".[47][48]
Burking Poor Old Mrs Constitution. This satirical 1829 cartoon byWilliam Heath depicted the Duke of Wellington and Peel in the roles of the body-snatchersBurke and Hare suffocating Mrs Docherty for sale to Dr. Knox; representing the extinguishing by Wellington and Peel of the 141-year-oldConstitution of 1688 by Catholic emancipation.
It was in 1829 that Peel established the Metropolitan Police Force for London based atScotland Yard.[49] The 1,000 constables employed were affectionately nicknamed 'bobbies' or, somewhat less affectionately, 'peelers'. Although unpopular at first, they proved very successful in cutting crime in London,[50] and, by 1857 all cities in Britain were obliged to form their own police forces.[51] Known as the father of modern policing, Peel is thought to have contributed to the Metropolitan Police's first set of "Instructions to Police Officers", emphasising the importance of its civilian nature and policing by consent. However, what are now commonly known as thePeelian Principles were not written by him but were instead produced byCharles Reith in his 1948 book,A Short History of the British Police, as a nine-point summary of the 1829 "Instructions".[52]
The middle and working classes in England at that time, however, were clamouring for reform, and Catholic emancipation was only one of the ideas in the air.[53] The Tory ministry refused to bend on other issues and were swept out of officein 1830 in favour of theWhigs.[54] The following few years were extremely turbulent, but eventuallyenough reforms were passed thatKing William IV felt confident enough to invite the Tories to form a ministry again in succession to those ofLord Grey andLord Melbourne in December 1834.[55] Peel was selected as prime minister but was in Italy at the time, so Wellington acted as a caretaker for three weeks until Peel's return.[56]
Following the resignation of the former prime ministerCharles Grey, because of an issue regarding Ireland's conciliatory reform and at the invitation of William IV, Peel became prime minister in early December 1834. Peel formed his own government, though it was a Tory government that was a minority government and depended on Whig goodwill for its continued existence. Parliament was dissolved in late December 1834 and a general election was called. Voting took place in January and February 1835, and Peel's supporters gained around 100 seats, but this was not enough to give them a majority.[57]
As his statement of policy at the general election of January 1835, Peel issued theTamworth Manifesto.[58] This document was the basis on which the modernConservative Party was founded. In it Peel pledged that the Conservatives would endorsemodest reform such as reforms concerning economic and financial affairs, free trade and factory workers' rights.[59]
The Whigs formed a compact withDaniel O'Connell's Irish Radical members to repeatedly defeat the government on various bills.[60] Eventually, after only about 100 days in government, Peel's ministry resigned out of frustration and the Whigs under Lord Melbourne returned to power.[61] The only real achievement of Peel's first administration was establishing theEcclesiastical Commission to review the governance of theChurch of England. This ecclesiastical commission was the forerunner of theChurch Commissioners.[62]
Despite the1835 general election in January, from which Peel attempted to consolidate his party's majority in Parliament, the Conservatives still remained a minority. This made Peel's position in the Commons precarious from the start.[63]
The immediate cause of Peel's downfall was a debate over theChurch of Ireland. On 7 April 1835 the Whig MPRalph Bernal brought forward a report critical of Peel's administration of the Church of Ireland's revenues and proposed reforms. The report was passed in the Commons by a vote of 285 to 258, signifying a lack of confidence in Peel's government. This defeat underscored the government's inability to secure enough support to govern effectively.[64][65]
This loss led to Peel's resignation the following day, on 8 April 1835. The passing of thevote of no confidence highlighted the conditions in British politics at the time in aparliamentary system. After Peel's resignation, William IV invited Lord Melbourne to form a new government, allowing the Whigs to return to power.[64]
In May 1839 Peel was offered another chance to form a government, this time byQueen Victoria.[66] However, this too would have been a minority government, and Peel felt he needed a further sign of confidence from the Queen. Lord Melbourne had been Victoria's confidant since her accession in 1837, and many of the higher posts in Victoria's household were held by the wives and female relatives of Whigs;[67] there was some feeling that Victoria had allowed herself to be too closely associated with the Whig party. Peel, therefore, asked for some of this entourage to be dismissed and replaced with their Conservative counterparts, provoking the so-calledBedchamber Crisis.[68] Victoria refused to change her household, and despite pleadings from Wellington, relied on assurances of support from Whig leaders. Peel refused to form a government, and the Whigs returned to power.[69]
Peel finally had a chance to head a majority government following the election of July 1841.[70] Peel came to office during an economic recession which had seen a slump in world trade and a budget deficit of £7.5 million run up by theWhigs. Confidence in banks and businesses was low, and a trade deficit existed.
To raise revenue Peel's 1842 budget saw the re-introduction of theincome tax,[71] removed previously at the end of theNapoleonic Wars. The rate was 7d in the pound, or just under 3 per cent. The money raised was more than expected and allowed for the removal and reduction of over 1,200tariffs on imports including the controversialsugar duties.[72] It was also in the 1842 budget that the repeal of thecorn laws was first proposed.[73] It was defeated in a Commons vote by a margin of 4:1.
The economic historianCharles Read has analysed Peel's economic policies as:
(i) Fixing the value of British currency to agold standard, with the paper pound currency freely convertible to gold.
A Board of Supervision was established, and two measures passed, under which county asylums were erected and prompt medical treatment was ensured. In addition, it was provided "that a certificate of insanity, signed by two disinterested doctors, had to be presented before any person was confined to an asylum." According to one study, "the whole treatment of lunacy was humanised and lifted out of the atmosphere of profits into that of curative effort and civic responsibility."[75]
Peel's promise of modest reform was held to, and the second most famous bill of this ministry, while "reforming" in 21st-century eyes, was in fact aimed at the reformers themselves, with their constituency among the new industrial rich. TheFactory Act 1844 acted more against these industrialists than it did against the traditional stronghold of the Conservatives, thelanded gentry, by restricting the number of hours that children and women could work in a factory and setting rudimentary safety standards for machinery.[76] This was a continuation of his own father's work as an MP, as the elder Robert Peel was most noted for the reform of working conditions during the first part of the 19th century. Helping him wasLord Shaftesbury, a British MP who also established thecoal mines act.
In 1843 Peel was the target of a failed assassination attempt; a criminally insane Scottish woodturner namedDaniel M'Naghten stalked him for several days before, on 20 January, killing Peel's personal secretaryEdward Drummond thinking he was Peel,[77] which led to the formation of the controversialcriminal defence of insanity.[78]
The 1815 Corn Laws, first introduced by the Tory government ofLord Liverpool, the then–prime minister. This law was made to amend the laws for regulating the importation of corn. This act was still in effect by the time Peel became prime minister himself in 1841.
The most notable act ofPeel's second ministry, however, was the one that would bring it down.[79] Peel moved against the landholders by repealing theCorn Laws, which supported agricultural revenues by restricting grain imports.[80] This radical break with Conservativeprotectionism was triggered by theGreat Irish Famine (1845–1849).[81] Tory agriculturalists were sceptical of the extent of the problem,[82] and Peel reacted slowly to the famine, famously stating in October 1846 (already in opposition): "There is such a tendency to exaggeration and inaccuracy in Irish reports that delay in acting on them is always desirable".[83]
His own party failed to support the bill, but it passed with Whig and Radical support. On thethird reading of Peel's Bill of Repeal (Importation Act 1846) on 15 May, MPs voted 327 votes to 229 (a majority of 98) to repeal the Corn Laws. On 25 June Wellington persuaded the Lords to pass it. On that same night Peel'sIrish Coercion Bill was defeated in the Commons by 292 to 219 by "a combination of Whigs,Radicals, and Tory protectionists".[84] Following this, on 29 June 1846, Peel resigned as prime minister.[85]
Though he knew repealing the laws would mean the end of his ministry, Peel decided to do so.[86] It is possible that Peel merely used the Irish Famine as an excuse to repeal the Corn Laws as he had been an intellectual convert to free trade since the 1820s. Blake points out that if Peel had been convinced that total repeal was necessary to stave off the famine, he would have enacted a bill that brought about immediate temporary repeal, not permanent repeal over a three-year period of gradual tapering-off of duties.[87] Peel's support for free trade could already be seen in his 1842 and 1845 budgets;[88] in late 1842Sir James Graham wrote to Peel that "the next change in the Corn Laws must be to an open trade" while arguing that the government should not tackle the issue.[89] Speaking to the cabinet in 1844, Peel argued that the choice was the maintenance of the 1842 Corn Law or total repeal.[90] The historianBoyd Hilton argued that Peel knew from 1844 he was going to be deposed as the Conservative leader. Many of his MPs had taken to voting against him, and the rupture within the party between liberals and paternalists, which had been so damaging in the 1820s but masked by the issue of parliamentary reform in the 1830s, was brought to the surface over the Corn Laws. Hilton's hypothesis is that Peel wished to be deposed on a liberal issue so that he might later lead a Peelite/Whig/Liberal alliance. Peel was magnanimous towards Irish famine and permitted quick settlements of disputes at frontiers in India and America (Treaty of Amritsar (1846) on 16 March 1846 andOregon Treaty on 15 June 1846) in order to repealCorn Laws on 29 June 1846.[91][92] As an aside in reference to the repeal of the Corn Laws, Peel managed to keep minimum casualties ofIrish Famine in its first year, Peel did make some moves to subsidise the purchase of food for the Irish, but this attempt was small and had little tangible effect. In the age oflaissez-faire,[93] government taxes were small, and subsidies or direct economic interference was almost nonexistent. That subsidies were actually given was very much out of character for the political times; his successor,Lord John Russell, received more criticism than Peel on Irish policy, the worst year being 1847, despite all of Peel's efforts, his reform programmes had little effect on the situation in Ireland.[94] Russell could not manage public distribution system duringIrish Famine even though subsidized food from the United States was made available in Ireland. The repeal of the Corn Laws became more political than humanitarian.[95]
Peel did, however, retain a hard core of supporters, known asPeelites,[96] and at one point in 1849 was actively courted by the Whig/Radical coalition. He continued to stand on his conservative principles, however, and refused. Nevertheless, he was influential on several important issues, including the furtherance of Britishfree trade with the repeal of theNavigation Acts.[97] Peel was a member of the committee that controlled theHouse of Commons Library, and on 16 April 1850 was responsible for passing the motion that controlled its scope and collection policy for the rest of the century.
St Peter Church,Drayton Bassett, where Sir Robert Peel is buried in the churchyard
Peel was thrown from his horse while riding onConstitution Hill in London on 29 June 1850. The horse stumbled on top of him, and he died three days later on 2 July at the age of 62 due to abroken collarbone rupturing his subclavian vessels.[98]
His body was buried in the churchyard of St Peter Church,Drayton Bassett. Inside the church is a memorial tablet which reads "In Memory of / The Rt Hon Sir Robert Peel, Bart. / to whome the People / have raised Monuments /in many places. / His Children / erect this in the place / where his body / has been buried".
Peel became engaged toJulia Floyd (1795–1859) (daughter of GeneralSir John Floyd, 1st Baronet, and his first wife Rebecca Darke) in March 1820; they married on 8 June 1820.[101] They had seven children:[102]
Julia Peel (30 April 1821 – 14 August 1893). She marriedGeorge Child Villiers, 6th Earl of Jersey, on 12 July 1841. They had five children. He died in 1859, and she married her second husband, Charles Brandling, on 12 September 1865.
Frederick Peel (26 October 1823 – 6 June 1906). He married Elizabeth Shelley (niece of the poetPercy Bysshe Shelley through his brother John) on 12 August 1857. She died on 30 July 1865. He was remarried to Janet Pleydell-Bouverie on 3 September 1879.
William Peel (2 November 1824 – 27 April 1858), a captain in the Royal Navy.
John Peel (24 May 1827 – 21 April 1910). He married Annie Jenny in 1851.
Arthur Peel (3 August 1829 – 24 October 1912). He married Adelaide Dugdale, daughter of William Stratford Dugdale and Harriet Ella Portman, on 14 August 1862. They had seven children. He was createdViscount Peel in 1895; his eldest sonWilliam was createdEarl Peel in 1929.
Lady Peel died in 1859. Some of their direct descendants now reside in South Africa, the Australian states ofNew South Wales,Queensland, Victoria andTasmania, and in various parts of the United States and Canada.
In his lifetime many critics called him a traitor to the Tory cause, or as "a Liberal wolf in sheep's clothing", because his final position reflected liberal ideas.[103] Others idealised Peel in heroic terms;Thomas Carlyle referred to him as a "reformingHercules" inLatter-Day Pamphlets (1850).[104]
The latter would become the consensus view of scholars for much of the 20th century. HistorianBoyd Hilton wrote that he was portrayed as:
The great Conservative patriot: a pragmatic gradualist, as superb in his grasp of fundamental issues as he was adroit in handling administrative detail, intelligent enough to see through abstract theories, a conciliator who put nation before party and established consensus politics.[105]
The biographerNorman Gash wrote that Peel "looked first, not to party, but to the state; not to programmes, but to national expediency".[106] Gash added that among his personal qualities were, "administrative skill, capacity for work, personal integrity, high standards, a sense of duty [and] an outstanding intellect".[107]
Gash emphasised the role of personality in Peel's political career:
Peel was endowed with great intelligence and integrity, and an immense capacity for hard work. A proud, stubborn, and quick-tempered man he had a passion for creative achievement; and the latter part of his life was dominated by his deep concern for the social condition of the country. Though his great debating and administrative talents secured him an outstanding position in Parliament, his abnormal sensitivity and coldness of manner debarred him from popularity among his political followers, except for the small circle of his intimate friends. As an administrator he was one of the greatest public servants in British history; in politics he was a principal architect of the modern conservative tradition. By insisting on changes unpalatable to many of his party, he helped to preserve the flexibility of the parliamentary system and the survival of aristocratic influence. The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 won him immense prestige in the country, and his death in 1850 caused a national demonstration of sorrow unprecedented since the death of William Pitt in 1806.[108]
A study in 2021 inThe Economic Journal found that the repeal of the corn laws adversely affected the welfare of the top 10 per cent of income-earners in Britain, whereas the bottom 90 per cent of income-earners gained.[110]
From 1820 Peel began amassing a major art collection, acquiring works by Dutch and FlemishOld Masters. He also commissioned a number of paintings by contemporary British artists includingA Frost Scene byWilliam Collins,Napoleon Musing at St Helena byBenjamin Robert Haydon andJohn Knox Preaching Before the Lords of Congregation byDavid Wilkie.[114]
The biggest commissions Peel handed out were toSir Thomas Lawrence, thePresident of the Royal Academy, who painted fifteen portraits for him between 1820 and his death in 1830. This made Peel Lawrence's greatest patron after George IV. The works Lawrence produced featured leading politicians and prominent figures of literature as well as portraits of Peel's family, notably his 1827Portrait of Julia, Lady Peel.[115] Peel displayed his Old Masters in his London residence at Whitehall Gardens, while Lawrence's portraits were located in a dedicated gallery at Drayton Manor.[116] Many of these works were then sold by his son to theNational Gallery in London in 1871.
The Sir Robert Peel Hotel (colloquially known as "The Peel"), a gay bar and nightclub located at the corner of Peel and Wellington Streets in the Melbourne suburb ofCollingwood, in Australia.
The Sir Robert Peel Hotel on the corner of Queensberry Street and Peel Street in the Melbourne suburb ofNorth Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia.
A British steamer named SSSir Robert Peel, based in Canada, was burned by American forces on 29 May 1838, at the height of American-Canadian tensions over theCaroline affair.
Tamworth-raised musicianJulian Cope sings "the king and queen have offered me the estate of Robert Peel" on the song "Laughing Boy", from his 1984 LPFried.
The right wing of theTrafford Centre is called Peel Avenue, named after Robert Peel.
The official mascot ofBury Football Club is Robbie the Bobby, in honour of Sir Robert Peel.
Robert Peel is a secondary character in the novelDodger byTerry Pratchett.
Peel is an unseen nemesis ofHarry Flashman in the humorousFlashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser. A young Flashman regularly battled with Peel's nascent London police force.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, pp. 28–30; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, pp. 103–104; Read,Peel and the Victorians, p. 18.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 45–50; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 136–41.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 51–62, 64–90, 129–43, 146–77, 193–201; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 179; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 66.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 196–97, 199; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 66–67.
^The Routledge Dictionary of Modern British History, John Plowright, Routledge, Abingdon, 2006, p. 235.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 210–15; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 184; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 12; 69–72.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 227; 229–35; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 185–87; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 71–73.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 250–54, 257–61; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 188–92; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 74–76.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 224–26.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 417–18; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 206.
^Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 416–17; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 206–07.
^Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 207–208; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 89.
^Adelman,Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850, 23; Clark,Peel and the Conservatives: A Study in Party Politics 1832–1841, 419–26; 448; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 208–09; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 89–91.
^Adelman,Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850, 24.
^Adelman,Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850, 35–36; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 227; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 112.
^Adelman,Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850, 37; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 235; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 113–14.
^Adelman,Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850, 35–36; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 112–13.
^Read, Charles (2022).The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain's financial crisis. Woodbridge. p. 71.ISBN978-1-80010-627-7.OCLC1365041253.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Conservative social and industrial reform: A record of Conservative legislation between 1800 and 1974 by Charles E. Bellairs, p. 13.
^Adelman,Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850, 40–42; Ramsay,Sir Robert Peel, 302–05; Read,Peel and the Victorians, 125; 129.
^"Bobby".Britannica.Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved12 February 2021.Bobby, slang term for a member of London's Metropolitan Police derived from the name of Sir Robert Peel, who established the force in 1829. Police officers in London are also known as "peelers" for the same reason.
^Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1836). "poetical illustration".Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837. Fisher, Son & Co. p. 10.Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved6 December 2022.
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Cragoe, Matthew (2013). "Sir Robert Peel and the 'Moral Authority'of the House of Commons, 1832–41".English Historical Review.128 (530):55–77.doi:10.1093/ehr/ces357.
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Lentz, Susan A.; Smith, Robert H.; Chaires, R. A. (2007). "The invention of Peel's principles: A study of policing 'textbook' history".Journal of Criminal Justice.35:69–79.doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.11.016.
Loades, David Michael (2003).Reader's guide to British history. Vol. 2. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
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