ABSTRACT
The election dinner for Tamworth’s Conservative MPs offered Peel an opportunity to make his first public address since speaking at Glasgow. Peel used the occasion to note the success of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, noting its rise from approximately 140 MPs at the start of the 1833 parliamentary session to over 300 after the elections of 1835 and 1837. He condemned the Whigs for their widespread use of the Queen’s name during the General Election and quoted Burke’s description of Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) in praise of the new monarch: ‘glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendour, and joy’.
Peel proceeded to read out Daniel O’Connell’s letter to the electors of Kildare denouncing his fellow Repealer, Edward Ruthven, and Ruthven’s reply, which charged O’Connell with having offered him financial inducements and the promise of a colonial position in return for quitting the contest. Peel used this to denounce the government’s reliance upon Irish support.
The speech also showed Peel’s hostility to further constitutional change, including triennial parliaments, the secret ballot, and household suffrage, describing them as threats to the security of the aristocracy, the monarchy, and the House of Lords. However, the speech is largely remembered for Peel’s closing peroration in which he urged Conservatives to stand in readiness for an election at any time, and encouraging them to ‘Register, Register, Register’.
