PEEL, Arthur Wellesley (1829-1912), of The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire

The youngest son of the prime minister Sir Robert Peel and namesake of the first duke of Wellington, his godfather, in his own words Peel gave ‘loyal, but independent, support’ to the Liberal leadership in this period, the beginning of a distinguished political career, which culminated in the speakership, 1884-95.1Hansard, 1 June 1866, vol. 183, c. 1746.

Peel lost to an ‘out-an-out Tory’ at the rowdy 1863 Coventry by-election, a surprise result given the constituency’s electoral history, but which was attributed to the depression in the local riband trade, widely blamed on the Cobden-Chevalier treaty.2The Times, 10 Oct. 1863. As a result the free trade views of Peel, who declared himself an ‘advanced Liberal’, found little favour, and he also expressed support for a non-interventionist foreign policy and extension of the franchise.3The Times, 9, 10, 14 Oct. 1863; Birmingham Daily Post, 8 Oct. 1863.

However, an early and vigorous campaign secured Peel’s return in second place for Warwick at the 1865 general election.4D. Paterson, A Victorian election: Warwick 1868 (1982), 21-2; The Times, 20 June 1865, 13 July 1865. In his first major speech, 13 Mar. 1866, on the Liberal government’s reform bill, Peel deprecated the emphasis on statistics in the debate, which he insisted was a ‘constitutional question’ and rejected the view that the working classes would act ‘as one great and united body’ if they were enfranchised.5Hansard, 13 Mar. 1866, vol. 182, cc. 179-80. Although Peel continued to support to the government’s reform scheme, 1 June 1866, he was uneasy about their capitulation to their opponents demand for a parallel redistribution, and was unimpressed with the hastily-concocted grouped borough plan.6Hansard, 1 June 1866, vol. 183, cc. 1746-8. In the same year Peel welcomed the settlement of the ‘interminable question of church rates’, supporting the unconditional abolition of the levy, which he felt would help to reconcile Dissenters and Anglicans and reduce religious tensions.7Hansard, 1 Aug. 1866, vol. 184, cc. 1853-5 (at 1853). In 1867, Peel welcomed the Conservative government’s commitment to reform, and supported enfranchising clauses in the debates on the representation of the people bill, although he successfully resisted an attempt to reduce Warwick’s representation, 5 July 1867.8Hansard, 5 July 1867, vol. 188, cc. 1236-7, 1250. However, the following year he expressed some support for the boundary commissioners’ proposal, rejected by a select committee, to add the unenfranchised town of Leamington to the Warwick constituency.9Hansard, 18 May 1868, vol. 192, c. 430.

A second theme of Peel’s early parliamentary career was his interest in agricultural issues. His first spoken intervention was on the cattle plague, 16 Feb. 1866, he later drew attention to the poor state of education in agricultural areas and seconded Henry Fawcett’s bill on the subject, 31 July 1867 although it was later withdrawn.10Hansard, 16 Feb. 1866, vol. 181, c. 606; 2 Apr. 1867, vol. 186, cc. 1014-16; 31 July 1867, vol. 189, cc. 493-4, 518. A member of the 1868 select committee on the malt tax, Peel opposed the majority view which favoured repeal as, following Gladstone’s line on the subject, he supported the retention of the duty for revenue purposes.11PP 1867-68 (420), ix. 237-40, 245.

Re-elected at the 1868 general election, Peel held a number of ministerial offices in Gladstone’s first government, before becoming Liberal chief in 1873, a difficult post in the circumstances, which he relinquished after the party’s defeat at the general election, Feb. 1874. Peel briefly served in Gladstone’s second ministry before ill-health forced his resignation and became speaker in 1884, at a time when the obstructionism of Parnell’s Irish party was contributing to an already rancorous parliamentary scene, but exercised his role with considerable authority. He resigned in 1895, by which time he was nominally a Liberal Unionist, and was ennobled shortly after.12H.C.G. Matthew, ‘Peel, Arthur Wellesley, first viscount Peel (1829-1912’, www.oxforddnb.com. His eldest son William Robert Wellesley Peel (1867-1937), was Liberal Unionist MP for Manchester South 1900-6, and for Taunton from 1909 until succeeding to the Lords on his father’s death in 1912. As a peer he held ministerial office under Lloyd George, Bonar Law, and Baldwin, and briefly served in the National government formed in 1931, having been raised to an earldom two years before.13A. May, ‘Peel, William Robert Wellesley, first earl Peel (1867-1937)’, www.oxforddnb.com.