Reform As Peel example essay topic

297 words
Sir Robert Peel, son of a leading cotton magnate, was brought up with the hope of leading a political life and so the basic principles of 'pittie' Toryism were instilled into him from childhood. This family background affected his later political developments and influenced him greatly throughout his life. Peel, familiar with life in an in an industrial town, appreciated the problems and outlooks of the new class of wealthy industrialists. Peel, like many sons of this new class, recieved an expensive education, at Harrow and Oxford, which had previously been the reserve of the aristocracy.

This provided Peel with a training which fitted him for the political life he hoped to follow. After leading an illustrious political career from 1812, Peel got his chance of Prime Minister in 1834 when Earl Grey resign from essay bank. co. uk ed. The King asked Peel to form a government just 2 years after the passage of the reform act which he had so vigorously opposed. Here, Peel had a chance to make public his attitude towards the act and towards the whole political life it had created. These attitudes were best reflected in his Tamworth manifesto of 1835 which provided the Tory party with a new philosophy, and what later became the foundation of the modern Conservative party.

In this document we have the foundations of a new philosophy for the Tory party which had veered from repression to liberal reform and back to opposition to much needed change. This charter meant that the party was prepared to reform, as Peel was to do in the fields of health, factories and mines, but which was also quick to conserve what they felt was good in the existing system.