with the outgoing ministers should be superseded, the queen declined to entertain the proposal, and Lord Melbourne and the whigs resumed office. Peel held that his view was not only constitutional, but also that the whigs had hitherto been so much in favour with the court that some overt act was needed to inform the public that the conservatives enjoyed an equal measure of the royal confidence. The ‘bedchamber question’ was settled in 1841 by the intervention of Baron Stockmar, who supported the view of Sir Robert Peel, and by the mediation of Prince Albert.
It is important to trace the steps by which Peel at length attained power. At the commencement of 1841 it appeared that the coming financial year, 1841–2, would result in a large deficit. It was proposed to avert this deficit in two ways. Firstly, the timber and sugar duties were to be modified in the direction of free trade. Further, a fixed duty of 8s. a quarter on wheat was to be substituted for the existing sliding scale of duties. But the opposition defeated the former proposal by carrying an amendment against the reduction of the sugar duties, on the ground that this step would encourage the production of slave-grown sugar. The government, though the budget was ruined, did not resign; but before their second proposal as to the corn law could be reached, Peel himself moved and carried a vote of want of confidence. The ministers dissolved, and were returned in a minority of upwards of ninety. They met parliament in August, were defeated on an amendment to the address, and at once resigned. Thereupon Peel formed a ministry.
The new government had to face difficulties in all directions. A war with China and an invasion of Afghanistan were in progress. The late administration had drifted into serious antagonism with France, Canada was at open enmity, and the United States were contemplating active hostilities. But the domestic affairs of the country were no less critical. There was the open feud between the two houses. Two great organisations, the anti-corn law league and the chartists, were thundering against established laws. Deficits had become as annual as the harvest. There was intense distress among the working classes. Worst of all, the British government was discredited abroad.
The party that now found itself in power under Peel's guidance contained political talents unparalleled for splendour and promise. It could show seven men who had been or were to be prime ministers—Peel himself, Wellington, Ripon, Stanley, Aberdeen, Gladstone and Disraeli. It possessed five future viceroys of India—Ellenborough, Hardinge, Dalhousie, Canning, and Elgin. But all these looked to the leader alone for a policy. His career up to 1841 may be divided into two unequal parts. From 1810 to 1832 it had been an attempt on a great scale to maintain and justify the aristocratic system of government. That attempt, though nominally foiled by the passing of the Reform Bill, had resulted in catholic emancipation, a revised penal code, an excellent police system, and a restored currency. After 1832 he had worked for a new object. Perceiving that the whigs depended for place, and therefore to some extent for policy, on the Irish repealers and on the radicals, and desiring to defeat the aims of the two latter parties, he had organised conservatism. Hitherto that party had confined itself to defending the constitution; henceforth it was to be the instrument of a series of great social reforms.
The cabinet was formed of fifteen members, too large a number in Peel's opinion for the proper despatch of business. But the effectual ruler was the premier himself, assisted by his two especial allies, Sir James Graham as home secretary, and Lord Aberdeen as foreign minister, with Lord Lyndhurst as lord chancellor. Peel held no post beyond that of first lord of the treasury. But in the general direction of finance he superseded Goulburn, the chancellor of the exchequer, and himself introduced the great budgets of 1842 and 1845. Further, the position of foreign affairs was so critical that it was arranged that Peel should fulfil in the House of Commons the duties of an undersecretary in that respect. He had also an intimate acquaintance with the business of the home office and with Irish policy. Thus nothing of importance escaped him; it was, in Mr. Gladstone's phrase, ‘a perfectly organised administration.’
In the house he at once assumed a supreme position. His main principle of conduct, constantly avowed both in and out of office, was that on entering into power he ceased to represent a party because he represented a people. Thus in 1829, for example, he said: ‘As minister of the crown I reserve to myself, distinctly and unequivocally, the right of adapting my conduct to the exigency of the moment, and to the wants of the country.’ He held that a statesman is bound to study the new sources of information open to him as minister, and is not less bound to modify previous opinions if circumstances should warrant or demand it. Accordingly, during the brief autumn session of 1841 he declined to declare his policy until he had devoted
