The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I, No. 7 | Page 6

performances. Still in the second year of his
parliamentary course he ventured to make a set speech, when, at the
commencement of the session of 1810, he seconded the address in
reply to the King's speech. Thenceforward for nineteen years a more
highflying Tory than Mr. Peel was not to be found within the walls of
parliament. Lord Eldon applauded him as a young and valiant
champion of those abuses in the state which were then fondly called
"the institutions of the country." Lord Sidmouth regarded him as the
rightful political heir, and even the Duke of Cumberland patronized Mr.
Peel. He further became the favorite eleve of Mr. Perceval, the first lord
of the treasury, and entered office as under-secretary for the home
department. He continued in the home department for two years, not
often speaking in parliament, but rather qualifying himself for those
prodigious labors in debate, in council, and in office, which it has since
been his lot to encounter and perform.
In May, 1812, Mr. Perceval fell by the hand of an assassin, and the
composition of the ministry necessarily underwent a great change. The
result, so far as Mr. Peel was concerned, was, that he was appointed
Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Mr. Peel had only
reached his 26th year when, in the month of September, 1812, the
duties of that anxious and laborious position were entrusted to his
hands. The legislative union was then but lately consummated, and the
demand for Catholic emancipation had given rise to an agitation of
only very recent date. But, in proportion to its novelty, so was its vigor.
Mr. Peel was, therefore, as the representative of the old tory Protestant
school, called upon to encounter a storm of unpopularity, such as not
even an Irish secretary has ever been exposed to. The late Mr.
O'Connell in various forms poured upon Mr. Peel a torrent of invective
which went beyond even his extraordinary performances in the science
of scolding. At length he received from Mr. Peel a hostile message.
Negotiations went on for three or four days, when Mr. O'Connell was
taken into custody and bound over to keep the peace toward all his
fellow-subjects in Ireland. Mr. Peel and his friend immediately went to
England, and subsequently proceeded to the continent. Mr. O'Connell

followed them to London, but the police were active enough to bring
him before the chief justice, when he entered into recognizances to
keep the peace toward all his majesty's subjects; and so ended one of
the few personal squabbles in which Mr. Peel had ever been engaged.
For six years he held the office of chief secretary to the lord-lieutenant,
at a time when the government was conducted upon what might be
called "anti-conciliation principles." The opposite course was
commenced by Mr. Peel's immediate successor, Mr. Charles Grant,
now Lord Glenelg.
That a chief secretary so circumstanced, struggling to sustain extreme
Orangeism in its dying agonies, should have been called upon to
encounter great toil and anxiety is a truth too obvious to need
illustration. That in these straits Mr. Peel acquitted himself with infinite
address was as readily acknowledged at that time as it has ever been
even in the zenith of his fame. He held office in that country under
three successive viceroys, the Duke of Richmond, Earl Whitworth, and
Earl Talbot, all of whom have long since passed away from this life,
their names and their deeds long forgotten. But the history of their chief
secretary happens not to have been composed of such perishable
materials, and we now approach one of the most memorable passages
of his eventful career. He was chairman of the great bullion committee;
but before he engaged in that stupendous task he had resigned the chief
secretaryship of Ireland. As a consequence of the report of that
committee, he took charge of and introduced the bill for authorizing a
return to cash payments which bears his name, and which measure
received the sanction of parliament in the year 1819. That measure
brought upon Mr. Peel no slight or temporary odium. The first Sir
Robert Peel was then alive, and altogether differed from his son as to
the tendency of his measure. It was roundly asserted at the time, and
very faintly denied, that it rendered that gentleman a more wealthy man,
by something like half a million sterling, than he had previously been.
The deceased statesman, however, must, in common justice, be
acquitted of any sinister purpose.
This narrative now reaches the year 1820, when we have to relate the
only domestic event in the history of Sir Robert Peel which requires
notice. On the 8th of June, being then in the 33d year of his age, he
married Julia, daughter of General Sir John