ABSTRACT
Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) was one of the most significant political figures in nineteenth-century Britain. He was also one of the most controversial. In this new, three-volume edition, Dr Richard Gaunt, an authority on Peel’s life and work, brings together a range of contemporary perspectives considering Peel’s life and achievements. From the first observation of Peel’s precocious talent as an Oxford undergraduate to his burgeoning reputation as a cabinet minister, the volumes draw together sources on Peel’s forty-year political career. The edition pays particular attention to the most controversial aspects of his political life – the granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, his ‘founding’ of the Conservative Party during the 1830s and the achievements of his landmark government of 1841-6, culminating in the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. It also considers Peel’s post-1846 career, and the unusual position he occupied in British politics before his untimely death in 1850. Combining perspectives from different parts of the political spectrum, the collection will be of use to a wide range of researchers, with interests in history, politics, religion, economics and political biography.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|44 pages
The Maynooth Grant, 1845
chapter 1|6 pages
Maurice Fitzgerald, A Letter to Sir Robert Peel on the endowment of the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland
chapter 2|14 pages
‘A Watchman’, An answer to the speeches Sir Robert Peel and W. E. Gladstone on the Bill for endowing the Jesuit College of Maynooth, in an address to my countrymen
chapter 3|8 pages
Reverend William Nicolson, A warning to the rulers of this land, specially addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, with reference to the proposed endowment of Popery
chapter 4|14 pages
Sir Robert Peel the greatest radical of the age, and the best friend of O'Connell
part 2|59 pages
The Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846
chapter 5|9 pages
John Francis Byrne, Four letters on the Corn Laws, addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel
chapter 6|13 pages
Charles Cavendish Fulke GREVILLE, Sir Robert Peel and the Corn Law Crisis, 2nd Ed.
chapter 7|21 pages
Corn and consistency. A few remarks in reply to a pamphlet entitled, ‘Sir Robert Peel and the Corn Law Crisis’
chapter 8|14 pages
Letter to Sir Robert Peel on the mode of meeting the present crisis. From M.P., a supporter hitherto of the League
part 3|104 pages
Peelite politics, 1846–1850
chapter 9|46 pages
‘Reflections suggested by the career of the late Premier’, Blackwood's Magazine
chapter 10|39 pages
J. C. Colquhoun, The effects of Sir Robert Peel's administration on the political State and prospects of England
chapter 11|13 pages
Physiology of the Peel Party; or an inquiry into the nature of the new neutral policy
part 4|42 pages
Death and legacy, 1850