CHAPTER IV.

MR. PEEL'S ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE.

It was the great object of the first Sir Robert Peel's ambition, that his house should produce a statesman; having, as Cobbett used to say, "a presentiment that he should found a family." The talents of his eldest son, which were early developed, led him to hope that he might, in time, be the successor of Pitt, whom the worthy baronet firmly believed to have been the only pilot capable of weathering the storm of the French revolution; and he inspired the boy with an ambitious desire of emulating and imitating that minister. At an early age, young Peel was sent to Harrow, where he was the schoolfellow of Lord Byron, who was of the same age as himself. The noble poet has left us the following interesting account of his cotemporary student: "Peel, the orator and statesman,-that was, or is, or is to be,-was my form-fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove (a public-school phrase). We were on good terms, but his brother was my intimate friend. There were always great hopes of Peel amongst us all, masters and scholars, and he has not disappointed them. As a scholar, he was greatly my superior; as a declaimer and actor, I was reckoned at least his equal; as a school-boy out of school, I was always in scrapes, and he never; and in school, he always knew his lesson, and I rarely; but when I knew it, I knew it nearly as well. In general information, history, &c., I think I was his superior, as well as of most boys of my standing."

Having completed his studies at Harrow, Mr. Peel entered

Christ Church, Oxford, where he continued to be distinguished for his apt talent and steady application. When he took his degree, in 1808, he obtained double first-class honours, indicating the highest proficiency in classics and mathematics. Among his competitors, were Mr. Gilbert, who since rose to be Vice-Chancellor of the University; Mr. Hampden, now Professor of Divinity; and Mr. Whately, the present Archbishop of Dublin. It must be added, that Peel stood alone in the first class of mathematics and physics, and, also, that he was the first who obtained that rank since the institution of the system of examinations, in 1807.

As soon as Mr. Peel became of age, his father resolved to bring him into parliament, and, in 1809, purchased a seat for him, as representative of the borough of Cashel. Though Burke, Pitt, and Fox had passed from the stage, there were many eminent orators and statesmen then in the House of Commons: Grattan, who had "sat by the cradle, and followed the hearse," of the Irish constitution, remained as an unwearied advocate of the Catholic claims; Sheridan, a wreck of his former self, sinking deeper, every day into debt, difficulty and despondency, gave occasional glimpses of the eloquence which had charmed a past generation; Tierney, keen, vigorous, and sarcastic, was as stern an opponent of Percival as he had been of Pitt; Windham, a gentleman and a scholar, with high impulses and inveterate prejudices, obstinately opposed every form of innovation; Wilberforce persevered in his efforts to make piety and philanthropy the basis of legislation; and Whitbread, thoroughly English in all his feelings and principles, maintained, under all changes, what he believed to be the just rights of the people.

Among the younger men, the office which he held points out Percival as the first to be noticed. He had few eminent qualities as a statesman; he was bigoted, obstinate, and intolerant, incapable of enlarged views, and too ready to dis

cuss questions of policy with as close an adherence to precedent as if they had been questions of law; but he was thoroughly upright and conscientious, amiable in all the relations of domestic life; never was there a more affectionate husband, a more tender father, or a more sincere friend. He would have been an excellent clergyman; he was a miserable Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a worse Premier. Canning sat on the ministerial benches, in the vigour of life, and the maturity of his brilliant powers, but fettered by the obligations of party, and galled by being compelled to submit to men immeasurably his inferior. One of these sat beside him, Lord Castlereagh, whom he regarded with mingled jealousy and contempt. Castlereagh had been trained in a bad school, the Irish parliament, when its majorities were avowedly guided by wholesale corruption: he had thus served a long apprenticeship to ministerial jobbing; and though of unsullied honour in private life, his whole ministerial career proved that he had little regard for the purity of public principle. John Wilson Croker was as yet distinguished only for efficient aptitude; but higher hopes were entertained of Charles Grant, afterwards Lord Glenelg, than his future life fulfilled. Among the most eminent men in opposition, were Romilly, whose unswerving integrity, grave earnestness, and sincere anxiety to benefit mankind, rendered him the ornament of his profession, his party, and his country; Lord Henry Petty, afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne, firm in his support of the great principles of civil and religious liberty; Francis Horner, the best financier that his age produced; and Sir Henry Parnell, afterwards Lord Congleton, a clever thinker, but an inferior debater. Brougham entered public life at the same time as Mr. Peel; so likewise did Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Frederic Robinson, afterwards Earl of Ripon.

Such were the men whom Peel met at his entrance into public life: the time was somewhat important, but rather

inauspicious to one who appeared as a stanch adherent of the ministry. Wellington, indeed, had retrieved the character of the British army in the Peninsula; but from the incapacity, if not the treachery, of his Spanish allies, the victory of Talavera had been followed by all the consequences of a calamitous defeat. Austria, after numerous provocations, had rushed into war against France, without fit preparation for the contest, and had been crushed in a single campaign. The finest armament that ever left the shores of England had been sent, under the most incapable of generals, Lord Chatham, matched with an admiral, Sir Richard Strachan, a man utterly devoid of energy or enterprise, to the island of Walcheren, where it was wasted away by pestilential fevers, almost without ever being brought into collision with the enemy. This precious expedition was said to have been intended as a "diversion," and, as it was wittily said, our folly on the occasion afforded diversion to the whole of Europe. But it also produced some strange scenes at home: Canning, who was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, complained bitterly to the Duke of Portland, of the incapacity of Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary for War and the Colonics; threatening to resign, unless he were removed. The Duke of Portland, conscious of the weakness of his cabinet, was unwilling to lose the benefit of Canning's abilities, or of Castlereagh's dexterity in managing members; he therefore temporized, and left Castlereagh ignorant of the efforts made by his colleague to remove him from office. This secrecy, of which Percival always disapproved, could not long be maintained; Lord Castlereagh discovered the intrigue, and immediately challenged Mr. Canning, of whose conduct in the matter he had not the slightest reason to complain. Canning, instead of sending an explanation, accepted the challenge; the parties met, and Canning was wounded. The Duke of Portland, who died shortly afterwards, resigned, as did the rival secretaries. Spencer Percival became Premier,