The general election of 1841

Both John Wilson Croker, a leading Tory writer of the 1830s and 1840s, and the historian Norman Gash believe that the credit for the Tory victory of 1841 lies with Robert Peel. Croker stated in The Quarterly Review that ‘Every Conservative candidate professed himself in plain words to be Sir Robert Peel’s man, and on that ground was elected’. Gash believes that the election, including ‘success in the urban constituencies’, was a tribute to Peel’s ability to broaden the Conservative appeal and ‘practical reward for all that he had worked for in the previous decade’.