Why is Robert Peel important?

Hello. I'm Jeremy Black.

I was professor of history at University of Exeter,

and I'm talking today about politics after the great reform

act. And before the mid nineteenth century crisis, this

what we call chartism.

And usually,

we might jump straight from the great reform act to chartism.

The policies and the details of the administration of the

Melbourne government in the,

eighteen thirties and then the peel government in the 1840s

might seem to be overly detailed for most people. But

in fact, their interest thing because what they show us is

how a society which was rapidly industrializing,

an experience we can see in much of the world today,

adapted or sought to adapt to the problems of social

management and public order.

And So Robert Piel was very much a central figure in this.

He was a central figure, not simply,

as prime minister for the touries in the 1840s and as

such responsible for major legislation,

but also because of his earlier roles, which included most

famously home secretary when he had been responsible for the

establishment of the Metropolitan Police in eighteen

twenty nine and then subsequently his key role as

the leader for the Torres in the House of Commons in the

Resistence to an opposition towards the both the whig

policies, but also the whig ideology.

And as such, appeal is significant.

For helping to develop tory ideology,

and in particular a notion of what we might call one nation conservatism.

So Peal is one of the figures that is trying to adapt

to taking the legacy of William Pitt the younger and the Earl

of Liverpool into a new world, a world that is very

unsettling for peeling his supporters because of the way

in which the, as it were tory hegemony that had prevailed,

or over four decades had been sort of ruptured, in the

early eighteen thirties, and with concern following as to

what this might lead to and what this might cause.

And I think if we put peel as somebody in that context,

one among a number of people that is trying to adapt

to a new political age, but whilst maintaining aspects of

the previous age, we can see him as contesting against

three different groups, the radicals,

who are those who want really substantial change the system, the whigs,

who have won power in the early third eighteen thirties,

want major change, but nevertheless,

do not want a radical transformation.

And thirdly, and actually, in some respects,

most significantly,

other potential conservative voices arguing for different

courses for tourism

because one of the facts that the Tory party had shown repeatedly

from the eighteen twenties onwards and very much so in the

early eighteen thirties is its capacity to fracture and its

capacity to disagree. And these create enormous problems and

enormous issues for peel.

Now what I want to try and do is to keep our focus on

those, issues.

I want to start off by discussing peel and the Metro

politton police because I think that's very interesting for

what it tells us about both him and about the problems

for appeal and conservatism

Then I want to talk about PEel and his period as opposition

leader because I think that again is very important.

And then I want to move into peel in his leadership and office.