ABSTRACT
This pamphlet offers a critical view of Sir Robert Peel and his minority government of 1834–1835. It was written by the editor of The Globe, a Whig-supporting newspaper which was established in 1803. John Gorton was the editor of The Globe until early-1835 when he was succeeded by a Mr Wilson. The pamphlet was published after Peel’s minority government had fallen and he had made speeches at a series of Conservative events, including at the Merchant Tailor’s Hall in London and at Tamworth.
Wilson attacked Peel for the frequency of his speeches throughout this period, commenting that they afforded the opportunity for ‘self-adulation under the guise of self-defence’. He criticised Peel not only for misrepresenting the nature and potential of his government but for suggesting that the opposition to it was factional and disunited.
The editor was keen to point out the hollowness of Peel’s rhetoric in suggesting that it had offered new solutions for the pressing issues of tithe, church, and Municipal Corporation reform. He countered the view that Peel’s opponents were a disreputable coalition of temporary allies, noting that the defeat of the government owed as much to its loss of support in the country at large (as registered in the General Election of 1835) and the dissident votes of Conservative MPs in the House of Commons, as it did to the Whigs and Irish MPs.
Peel’s defence of the House of Lords, and its right to hold the government to account, was also attacked. According to Wilson, Peel confused calls to reform the chamber with its destruction as a legislative chamber. He was also unconvinced by Peel’s reference to the history of France and the United States of America, in terms of their representative institutions.
