THE PEELS AS POLITICIANS.
THE Peels, unlike the Peelites, are politically failures, and that in the face of circumstances more favourable than have ever surrounded any similar clan. The strong national feeling in favour of Sir Robert, which had grown in spite of all party hatreds from the day when he broke all ties to carry the repeal of the corn laws, culminated at his death, and from that day to this there has been a curious longing in the -country to discover some one in his family worthy to inherit his fame. His connections had the grand start in life which English manners still concede to the eldest sons of great houses, and which is equivalent to the labour of fire and twenty years. Even• among the Tories, who have in this matter a faint regard for decency never exhibited by the old Whigs, Lord George Bentinck stepped at a bound into the position which Mr. Disraeli had won by years of successful toil. There was scarcely a constituency in the kingdom which would not have considered that relationship to a great Frcetrader was a sufficient ground on which to ask its suffrages. The middle class in particular looked upon Sir f tobert as their especial hero, while the lower orders have scarcely yet forgotten the man to whom they owed cheap bread. In addition to this advantage—ono of enormous extent in a country in which it is so difficult to obtain a political start, they had the additional one of one sure -seat at Tamworth, and the possibility, by the use of those popular arts which come to some men like the habit of smiling or the tendency to blush, of a fair hold over the other. Once in Parliament, the connection once more ensured the difficult official start, for Sir Robert Peel, with few friends, had some staunch allies, and many devoted worshippers. There was, too, no public surprise to overcome at their elevation,—an obstacle which seems absurd, but which so many aspirants know to be so terribly real. If a Peel, being competent, had been introduced at a step into the Cabinet, many might have -criticized, but no one would have stared. Add to these immense favours of fortune considerable wealth, and the fact that one son of the founder had illustrated evr n his name, and made it one which sailors repeated with every variety of loving and applausive nickname, and we have a possibility of careers such as has seldom dawned upon a political clan.
They have not been opened. Lord Russell's Government, in 1851, took the very first opportunity of introducing one of the -family into official life, and for an instant the country half hoped he might wear his father's mantle. It was soon perceived, 'however, that the old wine had lost its body. Mr. Frederick Peel was as grave as his father, but not with the weight of thought ; as formal, but not as accurate ; as full of self-con- fidence, but without the administrative ability, which, more than his many other capacities, justified Sir Robert Peel in refusing any place less than the first. A manner which annoyed all who assailed or criticized his department increased the disfavour, members voted him pedantic, and outsiders discovered that there was nothing beyond routine work to be expected from the member for Bury. Still they turned with some hope to the elder son, the member for Tamworth. He, at least, was no prig, and though clubs talked, clubs always talk, and a man's youthful history is, in politics, very seldom indeed recorded against him. Sir Robert spoke brusquely, his enemies said insolently, but what he said was often forcible, and he had the courage to say very frequently things which wanted saying, but which everybody else had shirked. The outside world, at all events, did not wonder when Sir Robert Peel was made Secretary for Ireland, and a cool defiance to a Catholic Archbishop, under circumstances in which a severe set-down was the one thing required, gave him a momentary popularity. Every month, however, diminished his political status. The scene with the O'Donoghue 'annoyed the House, and the speeches in which the partial dis- tress of Ireland was palliated or denied wearied all who were conscious of the real state of affairs—a weariness which rose to disgust when Mr. Gladstone flatly contradicted all the smooth things put forward by the Irish Department. Blunders in Ireland, however, rarely attract even their due attention, far less excessive obloquy; and it was not till the Tamworth elec- tion that Sir Robert's total unfitness for office became manifest to the world. There can, however, be no further disguise. Wholly apart from his action as member and landlord, Sir Robert Peel has broken all those official etiquettes which have the force of laws, and are usually far more important. Ministers, we all know, do influence elections, and one Minister, at least, in the Cabinet holds his post by grace of his skill as an electioneering agent. So do Peers, though they are forbidden by law to interfere in any way, but the open interposition of a member of the Govern- ment in any election but his own is as unusual as it is inexpedient. Sir Robert Peel, however, not only broke through the useful and decorous rule of reticence, but actually entered into a contest with refractory electors, almost com- manded his audience to support Lord Palmerston's stepgrand- son, and told an interpellant in the crowd that, " if he could get at him, ho would soon let him know who he was," and, despite the great influence of his family, lost the seat to his party by a majority of fifty-seven. It is true that Mr. Peel promises to " support Lord Palmerston," but so will Mr. Walpole, and scores of Tories of the true narrowminded stamp ; and everybody understands that the seat is lost to the Liberal party, which, and not Lord Palmerston's personal sway, is the real object of interest to English liberal men. Wholly apart from all questions of personal taste, and poli- tical propriety, and official decorum, that result is a failure, and escapades are forgiven only when they succeed. A scene like that at Tamworth election never increases English respect for its actors, but when it results in defeat scorn deepens very rapidly into active annoyance. Had Sir Robert Peel done what any other Minister would have done, accepted a Peel as candidate with pleasure, but deprecated family mono-, poly; left a shrewd agent to conciliate votes, but kept himself wholly out of the fray ; there was strength enough in the old organization, backed by Raynham and Diayton Manor, to have carried the " Liberal " candidate. It must be added that Mr. Cowper helped his friends as little as he well could. He did not, of course, conciliate Tories, and genuine Liberals are sick of this repetition of "Palmerston," as an equivalent for a Liberal creed, this eternal demand for homage instead of alliance. Mr. Cowper had, however, nothing better to offer, did not propound a doctrine or express an opinion which gave him any character whatever except that of the Premier's relation. The result is that with votes becoming of vital im- portance, and a rising feeling that the Liberal cause is still worth strong exertion, the Liberal papers all over Great Britain are exulting in the loss of one sent for Tamworth, simply because they hope that it may end in the ultimate loss of the other. Sir Robert Peel himself admitted that his own seat would be attacked, and the strongest friends of the Ministry cannot honestly hope that his apprehension may be unfounded.
Mr. Arthur Peel failed also at Coventry, though in a very different way. It was no fault of his that the " freemen " dominate over that borough, or that the freemen fancied they had a right to tax every ribbon weaver in England for the benefit of their own pockets, or that ho was opposed by a candidate able to chime in with the local absurdity of the hour. But it was his fault that going down as a Liberal can- didate he found nothing whatever to say beyond the old stock phrases, nothing to prove that he thought Liberalism anything more than a party badge, nothing to touch that real and deep- seated thirst for progress before which local grievances, and discontents, and small imbecilities generally, vanish like weariness before music. His real plea was simply that he was the son of his father, and that plea, ten years ago so powerful, has to day lost all its force. Englishmen, so far as logic is concerned, might, we dare say, be brought to believe in here- ditary membership as well as hereditary monarchy ; but they must be first convinced that the first will work as well as the second.
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