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

Floyd, who had then

attained the age of 25.
Two years afterward there was a lull in public affairs, which gave
somewhat the appearance of tranquillity. Lord Sidmouth was growing
old, he thought that his system was successful, and that at length he
might find repose. He considered it then consistent with his public duty
to consign to younger and stronger hands the seals of the home
department. He accepted a seat in the cabinet without office, and
continued to give his support to Lord Liverpool, his ancient political
chief. In permitting his mantle to fall upon Mr. Peel, he thought he was
assisting to invest with authority one whose views and policy were as
narrow as his own, and whose practise in carrying them out would be
not less rigid and uncompromising. But, like many others, he lived long
enough to be grievously disappointed by the subsequent career of him
whom the liberal party have since called "the great minister of
progress," and whom their opponents have not scrupled to designate by
appellations not to be repeated in these hours of sorrow and
bereavement. On the 17th of January, 1822, Mr. Peel was installed at
the head of the home department, where he remained undisturbed till
the political demise of Lord Liverpool in the spring of 1827. The most
distinguished man that has filled the chair of the House of Commons in
the present century was Charles Abbott, afterward Lord Colchester. In
the summer of 1817 he had completed sixteen years of hard service in
that eminent office, and he had represented the University for eleven
years. His valuable labors having been rewarded with a pension and a
peerage, he took his seat, full of years and honors, among the hereditary
legislators of the land, and left a vacancy in the representation of his
_alma mater_, which Mr. Peel above all living men was deemed the
most fitting person to occupy. At that time he was an intense tory--or as
the Irish called him, an Orange Protestant of the deepest dye--one
prepared to make any sacrifice for the maintenance of church and state
as established by the revolution of 1688. Who, therefore, so fit as he to
represent the loyalty, learning, and orthodoxy of Oxford? To have done
so had been the object of Mr. Canning's young ambition: but in 1817 he
could not be so ungrateful to Liverpool as to reject its representation
even for the early object of his parliamentary affections. Mr. Peel,
therefore, was returned without opposition, for that constituency which
many consider the most important in the land--with which he remained

on the best possible terms for twelve years. The question of the repeal
of the penal laws affecting the Roman Catholics, which severed so
many political connections, was, however, destined to separate Mr.
Peel from Oxford. In 1828 rumors of the coming change were rife, and
many expedients were devised to extract his opinions on the Catholic
question. But with the reserve which ever marked his character, left all
curiosity at fault. At last, the necessities of the government rendered
further concealment impossible, and out came the truth that he was no
longer an Orangeman. The ardent friends who had frequently supported
his Oxford elections, and the hot partisans who shouted "Peel and
Protestantism," at the Brunswick Clubs, reviled him for his defection in
no measured terms. On the 4th of February, 1829, he addressed a letter
to the vice-chancellor of Oxford, stating, in many well-turned phrases,
that the Catholic question must forthwith be adjusted, under advice in
which he concurred; and that, therefore, he considered himself bound to
resign that trust which the University had during so many years
confided to his hands. His resignation was accepted; but as the avowed
purpose of that important step was to give his constituents an
opportunity of pronouncing an opinion upon a change of policy, he
merely accepted the Chiltern Hundreds with the intention of
immediately becoming a candidate for that seat in parliament which he
had just vacated. At this election Mr. Peel was opposed by Sir Robert
Inglis, who was elected by 755 to 609. Mr. Peel was, therefore, obliged
to cast himself on the favor of Sir Manasseh Lopez, who returned him
for Westbury, in Wiltshire, which constituency he continued to
represent two years, until at the general election in 1830 he was chosen
for Tamworth, in the representation for which he continued for twenty
years.
The main features of his official life still remain to be noticed. With the
exception of Lord Palmerston, no statesman of modern times has spent
so many years in the civil service of the crown. If no account be taken
of the short time he was engaged upon the bullion committee in
effecting the change in the currency, and