Robert Peel, Speech in the House of Commons [Jan 31 st 1840] on Sir J Yarde Buller’s Motion on Want of Confidence in the Government

John Yarde Buller, 1st Baron Churston (1799–1871), entered Parliament as MP for South Devon in 1835. On 28 January 1840, he put down a motion of no confidence in Melbourne’s government. Peel spoke on the fourth night of the debate and made clear his support for the motion:

I withhold my confidence from you on every ground on which confidence can be withholden – I withhold my confidence from you on the results of your public policy – on your own confessions of incompetence – on the testimony of your most valued friends – I withhold my confidence from you on account of the constitution of your Government, on account of your measures, and, above all, on account of the principles which you are now forced to avow, in order that you may retain your majority, and therefore your offices.

He proceeded to attack the government, noting its adoption of the ballot as an ‘open’ question on which both supporters and opponents would agree to differ whilst leaving open the possibility that it might become government policy. He went on to consider the state of the revenue and the internal peace and tranquillity of the country, reserving particular scorn for the government’s handling of both the Chartist and the Socialist movements.

The terms upon which Peel would form an administration, if the motion was successful, were outlined in later sections of the speech. This detailed his attitude to a wide range of issues, including parliamentary privilege (the Stockdale vs Hansard case), the Poor Laws, National Education, Parliamentary Reform, the Corn Laws, and the government of Ireland. In each case, Peel was concerned with refuting charges of inconsistency and lack of good faith. He restated his support for the Poor Laws and declared his opposition to a fixed duty on corn, because of the difficulty of calculating the appropriate amount to charge and the impossibility of maintaining it ‘under a very high price of corn, and that, once withdrawn, it would be extremely difficult to re-establish it’.

Peel also justified his conduct over Catholic Emancipation, given rumours then circulating that he was considering its Repeal. The speech closed with a characteristic statement of his determination to continue the same course, whether popular or not.

The motion of no confidence was defeated by 21 votes, with 287 MPs supporting and 308 MPs opposing it.