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...if wheat were at this moment subject to a duty of twenty shillings the quarter, and if Indian corn were virtually excluded, next winter would not … - Robert Peel
" "...if wheat were at this moment subject to a duty of twenty shillings the quarter, and if Indian corn were virtually excluded, next winter would not pass without a convulsion endangering the whole frame of society, without the humiliation of constituted authorities forced to yield after a disgraceful struggle...if their [the Protectionists'] advice had been taken, we should have had famine prices for many articles, and a state of exasperated public feeling and just agitation, which it would require wiser heads than theirs to allay. So far from regretting the expulsion from office, I rejoice in it as the greatest relief from an intolerable burden. To have your own way, and to be for five years the Minister of this country in the House of Commons, is quite enough for any man's strength. He is entitled to his discharge, from length of service. But to have to incur the deepest responsibility, to bear the heaviest toil, to reconcile colleagues with conflicting opinions to a common course of action, to keep together in harmony the Sovereign, the Lords and the Commons; to have to do these things, and to be at the same time the tool of a party—that is to say, to adopt the opinions of men who have not access to your knowledge, and could not profit by it if they had, who spend their time in eating and drinking, and hunting, shooting, gambling, horse-racing, and so forth—would be an odious servitude, to which I will never submit. I determine to keep aloof from party combinations.
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About Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834-1835) and twice as Home Secretary (1822–1827 and 1828–1830). He is regarded as the father of modern English policing, owing to his founding of the Metropolitan Police Service. Peel was one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party.
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet
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Sir Robert Peel
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Peel Collection [2nd Bart.]
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2nd Bart. Sir Robert Peel
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Robert, Sir, 2nd Bart. Peel
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Robert, 2nd Baronet Peel
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Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt
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Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850)
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Robert, Sir Peel
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Robert Peel (1788-1850)
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2nd Baronet Peel
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Additional quotes by Robert Peel
[T]he Conservative party...cannot deny that Trade is prosperous, That the people are contented, That the Labourer has a greater Command than he ever had over the Necessaries and Comforts of Life.
That Chartism is extinguished, or at least fast asleep.
That the Church is stronger than ever it was except for its own internal stupid differences & Controversies.
That any wish for organic Change in the Constitution, for addition to popular privileges, is dormant.
That the Revenue is so prosperous that our calculations of deficiency are certainly baffled.
That our monetary system is sounder than it has ever been, and yet that there has been boundless activity in commerce and in all speculations of gain.
That even Land is increasing in value in consequence of the prosperity of Commerce.
But we have Reduced protection of agriculture, and tried to lay the foundation of Peace in Ireland, and these are offences for which nothing can atone.
Let us recollect, that, under the constitution which we have derived from our ancestors, we have enjoyed more liberty, we have acquired more glory, we possess more character and power, than has hitherto fallen to the lot of any other country on the globe; and if there be any man yet undecided on this question, I entreat him that he will give the benefit of his doubt to the existing order of things,—and, that, before he gives his vote to a measure, of the consequences of which he is at least uncertain, he will weigh the substantial blessings which he knows to have been derived from the government that is, against all the speculative advantages which he is promised from the government that is to be.
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They propose no encroachments upon civil liberty, no extension of executive authority, no rash subversion of ancient institutions, no relinquishment of what is practically good, for the chance of speculative and uncertain improvement. "The work which I propound," as lord Bacon says, "tendeth to pruning and grafting the law, and not to plowing up and planting it again; for such a remove I should held indeed for a perilous innovation."
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