ABSTRACT
The period 1832-46 is often called the Age of Robert Peel. At first sight, this seems paradoxical. He was in power for only a third of a period which began with Earl Grey passing a reform bill and ended with him losing office and breaking up his party. The Whigs were also in government for much longer than Peel's Tories: nine of the fourteen years. Viscount Melbourne's tenure as Prime Minister was also longer, at six years and ten months, than Peels, at five years and one month. Peel hoped that the new label would connote a party freed from the reactionary shackles of high or Ultra Toryism and not afraid to present sensible, and sometimes reformist, policies to the electorate. The aim was to conserve the essentials: defence of the nation; financial stability; government in the hands of, and elected by, property owners; an established Church.
