ABSTRACT
In 1832, shortly before Robert Peel became its leader, the Tory party suffered the most comprehensive defeat in its history. The election victory of 1841 was the prelude to a five-year ministry in which the nation's finances were put to rights and sustained economic growth secured by policies of free trade and modest taxation. It is, of course, possible to personalise a historical period, but rarely sensible to do so. To call this the 'Age of Peel' is to ignore several salient points. In view of the cataclysmic events of 1845–46, it is worth also noting how much political opinion was swayed during the 1841 election by the issue of the Corn Laws. In administrative, though not political, terms Peel's government ranks alongside Gladstone's of 1868–74 as the ablest of the nineteenth century. Peel was responsible for several important legal and administrative reforms in the 1820s and served twice as prime minister.
