SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

POLMCS AND HISTORY,

Sir Robert Peel and his Era: being a Synoptical View of the chief Events and Measures of his Life and Time Cotes.

TRAVELS,

Lite in Mexico, during a Residence of Two Years in that Country. By Madame C— de in II—. With a Preface. by W. H. Prescott. Author of "The History of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain." Part I. [Foreign Library.] Chapman and Hall.

Marion,

Forest Days; a Romance of Old Times. By G. P. R. lames. Esq. Author of " Morley Ernsteio," " The Robber," &c. In three volumes .Saunders and Otley.

SIR ROBERT PEEL AND THE QUESTIONS OF HIS AGE.

THIS is an able and timely publication ; much more able, indeed, than publications that take up the topic of the time as an at- traction generally are. The writer is a man of quick, searching, and independent mind : he is well-informed upon the events of his age, which have not been allowed to pass without reflection : he is well read upon the questions he discusses, and, what is more to the purpose, he has digested his reading : his style is rapid, vigorous, and striking; and, either from labour upon his work, or, as we infer, from habitual practice in seizing the salient and telling points of a topic, he exhibits much strength and close- ness of composition. This brings with it an analogous defect,— occasionally too much of striving after force in his style, and too much of dogmatism if not of swagger in his manner. In one case, we are reminded of those players who show their anxiety to make their points tell ; the other suggests the article-writer, who feels no hesitation in deciding knotty points by a touch of his grey goose-quill.

The plan of Sir Robert Peel and his Era is, to exhibit the family and biography of the Premier, and to trace the rise and progress of the great questions with which he has been conspicuously connected; displaying in the investigation, the public career of Sir ROBERT PEEL from the time when the narrative connects him with a particular question until it is set at rest. The book begins with "Sir Robert Peel's Parentage, [and Parent,] and Entrance on Public Life." A series of chapters on Currency, Catholic Eman- cipation, Improvement of the Civil and Criminal Law, and Parlia- mentary Reform, successively exhibit the history of those questions, and the part Sir ROBERT took in more or less completely settling them. "Reign and Ruin of Whig-Radicalism," and "Restoration of the Conservatives to Power," sketch the history of the last ten years, including the Premier's Corn-law, Tariff, and Income-tax. A chapter entitled" Population and Production—Corn and Currency," exhibits the writer's own views upon the most important questions that are now engaging the minds of men ; the result of those views being, that during the cycle of prosperous years, our currency ought to he steadily restrained, so RS to check instead of stimulating Spe- culation, and that the best arrangement of the existing Corn-law would be a sliding scale for Europe and a fixed duty for America. The book ends with "A Night in the House of Commons " ; con- taining a series of sketches of our principal Senators, by means of a look-in upon the Lords. The personal character of this chapter gives it an interest, but its framework is somewhat arti- ficial, and the sketches are not so forcible or so felicitous as the other parts of the work.

Apart from its temporary interest, the book has some value by presenting in a compact and readable form an historical view of the chief political and economical subjects that have engaged the attention of the country for the last sixty or seventy years, and in the case of Catholic Emancipation for the last hundred and fifty. Nor would the plan of Sir Robert Peel and his Era be a bad one for a compendious history of opinions ; for it affords the means of introducing, as in a portrait-gallery, the most eminent individuals who have taken a part in the subject ; while the questions them- selves admit of fuller display, and produce a greater impression than when mixed up with a crowd of characters and discordant events. In the work before us, temporary circumstances, and the purpose of the author in addressing a purchasing public, may have given a greater prominence to Sir ROBERT PEEL than historical criti- cism would award. Still, in looking over the different questions, this fact impresses the mind, that it was PEEL who settled them, so far as they have been settled—that, in common parlance, he is the man to do business. The analytical inquirer may say, and with truth, that the original movers had done their allotted task, and formed the minds of the rising generation ; that much of the personal and merely prejudiced opposition had died away ; and that the ques- tions were ripe for practical adjustment : but there stands the fact of atccess, that PEEL did practically deal with them, whereas, on Catholic Emancipation, PITT, Fox, BURKE, CANNING, and CASTLE. REAGH, had laboured without direct result, and left the Currency to itself. He effected the arrangement, too, by a sagacious estimate of latent means and a resolute determination to use them ; for he was not, like the Whigs with their Reform Bill, forced to move by the pressure of a nation. On the contrary, PEEL often had little popular support, and sometimes much risk of opposition, especially of that kind of opposition which few men like to encounter. The politics of an author have nothing to do with the literary merit of his book ; but if we were asked what are the political prin- ciples of the author of Sir Robert Peel and his Era, we could scarcely say. He is no particular favourer of his hero, but tells his story with unmoved calmness, almost with indifference. He is not a Whig; he is certainly not a "rampant Radical," scarcely perhaps a Radical at all : as little is he a Tory, or even a Conservative. He blames and praises all round. He ridicules, almost bitterly, PITT's Rank Restriction Act, and VANSITTART*8 value-pledge of the one- pound-note ; he goes with the Tories of the last century in their then opposition to Reform, as having probably saved the country from subjugation by NAPOLEON, but thinks their opposition in 1830 was a ruinous folly ; he appears to hold that PITT was right in the principle of his Continental wars ; and he advocates what may be called Free Trade opinions. If he follows anybody, it is BURKE : and perhaps he belongs to that class which the miserable mismanagement and the proved hollowness of high- sounding professions during the last ten years may have rendered pretty numerous—politicians whose abstract convictions are in favour of movement, as their reason convinces them of its certain advance, but who in immediate practice incline to those things which the temper of the times and the nature of the case render urgent and practicable, rather than desire like CATILINE the "irn- nioderata, incredibilia, nimis alta " ; who discard prejudices in forming their conclusions, but are not so ready to throw over pro- bability; and think substantial results are of more consequence than the consistency of following bad men through bad measures by bad means. In exhibiting samples of this work, we shall not aim at con- veying any idea of the questions handled in it,—which, indeed, must be read as a series of articles,—but rather quote miscella- neous passages, as examples of the author.

THE PEEL FAMILY.

Among the noticeable names associated with the rise and growth of our modern manufacturing system, is that of Peel—or Peele, in its primitive form. The final and superfluous letter has been long since discarded, but we find it occasionally used down to a late period ; and even on the entrance of the present Sir Robert Peel into public life, though the newspapers give his name in its present form, the "Parliamentary History" and the "Annual Register" an- nounce him as Mr. Peek: and, trifling as is the alteration, one is apt for a moment to question the identity of the individual, doubting if he be the same with the present Prime Minister of the empire. The grandfather of Sir Robert Peel is said to be traditionally known in Lan- cashire as " Parsley Peele," from the circumstance of his having used a pars- ley-leaf as a pattern in his first experiments in calico-printing. Be this as it may, his third son, Robert Peel, became the founder of the Peel family. The present Sir Robert thinks that his father was born at Peelfold, near Black- burn : more recent and personal inquiry throws doubt on this supposition, and affirms that Robert Peel, the great manufacturer, the Member of Parliament, and the first Baronet, was born in Blackburn. Born, however, he was ; in the year 1750, it seems ; and his earlier days were passed in industrious obscurity. LLB first success in life was in calico-printing, that now wonderful and inter- esting branch of our manufactures, to which has been brought the application of the most ingenious chemical research and the nicest mechanical skill. From Blackburn, Robert Peel removed to Bug, establishing print-works on an ex- tensive scale, and ultimately embarking in the cotton-spinning.

THE FIRST SIR ROBERT.

Robert Peel, having acquired wealth, sought distinction. He entered Par- liament, supported the Pitt Ministry, was created a Baronet, and, after a long and active life, died in 1830, leaving behind him a good name and a plentiful estate.

Old Sir Robert Peel was a practical man—preEminently a practical man. Practical men differ considerably in the extent of their range. Same soar almost as high as a theoretical man, or in other words approach to the disco- verer himself. They have but to get a hint, and they will work out the hint ; but to get a hint of a principle, and they not only comprehend it but seize it. But the larger number of practical men stand on a lower platform. They sel- dom can reach to the appreciation of a scientific principle; they have not strength of wing to rise high above the surface of every-day life, or power to ascend Mount Pisgah, and survey the "goodly land"; but they are admirably adapted for the valley below. Put your discovery into shape, and they will give it "a local habitation and a name "; hammer out your principle, and they will hammer it into practice. To be sure, Watt and Arkwright were practical men ; but all inventors have not the rare faculty of being able not only to construct a theory but to work it out in ordinary detail.

• • • Sir Robert Peel was a practical man of the lower clefs: not a discoverer himself, be had quickness, energy, and tact, to apply the inventions of others to the realization of an honestly and creditably acquired fortune. Old Sir Robert Peel was a profound admirer of the character of Pitt ; truly and religiously believing him tu have been "the pilot that weathered the storm." Practical as were his notions, carefully and successfully as he directed kis numerous sons into the paths of honest industry, he yet bad a strong desire that his house should produce a statesman - having, as coarse Cobbett used to banter him, "a presentiment that he should found a family." On his eldest son, therefore, he fixed his shrewd eye, and resolved to make him a successor of Pitt.

THE FAMILY FAITH IN VAN'S "VALUE."

Among pledgers of their belief were the Peels, father and son. The old

man pledged his belief in perfect sincerity, and maintained his pledge and his belief to the last. Not only did old Sir Robert Peel regard Pitt as the greatest Minister this country ever produced, but he regarded his policy in the matter of Bank-restriction as the wisest policy ever that great man adopted. The old man had made his fortune during a truly remarkable time. He had seen the very soil becoming prolific at the touch of science, and art clothing even our bleak- est districts with populous towns and a busy people. Coal and iron were lodged in ample stores within our own domain : the steam-engine and the spin- 'ing-jenny were filling the world with the products of our genius and skill. 'therefore he believed that our " internal resources" were inexhaustible, and that, to call them out in endless profusion, it needed but the additional aid of an ample supply of the "circulating medium." Having faith himself, our kindhearted energetic utilitarian and contracted baronet thought that it only required faith in others; gold was unnecessary if paper would do. So to the last hour of his public life he stood firm and fast by the faith that " Pitt and Paper-money " bad saved this country from " becoming a colony of France," and had made us the great people we were : this he avowed even in the face of sneer and ridicule ; and when his son—he whom he had fondly designed as a successor to Pitt, departed in 1819 from this cardinal point in Pitt's policy—a policy he thought not only good for Pitt's time hut good for all time—he mourned over him, "more in sorrow than in anger."

THE REFORM BILL GERMINATING IN A SEARCH AFTER TEE BRITISH • CONSTITUTION.

The great change in our social condition, which began shortly after the middle of the last century, early manifested itself in the tone and temper of the people. Our manufactures and our commerce, suddenly expanding with

the new powers which chemical science and mechanical skill placed in our bands, caused our population to gather and concentrate themselves in localities favourable for cart) mg on that combined industry which is the peculiar charac- teristic of our modern manufacturing system ; and while ancient boroughs, once in their time important, were sicking into decay, and their privilege of sending Members to the House of Commons had become a nominal right, really and actually vested in the lord of the manor or great landed proprietor of the locality, 10W118 were rising in importance and population which had no right to return Representatives. People began to inquire where was the Con- stitution ? what was it like ? in what form was it written down ? and in what custody was the precious document kept ? Reply was made, and Magna Charm, the Bill of Rights, and the Revolution of 1688, were pointed to. But this did not salit.fy our matter-of-fact politicians, who wanted the con- stitution to be produced for their inspection, that they might judge of it as they would judge of the model of a steam-engine, on which was labelled the maker's name and the date of its construction. This inquisitorial and un- imaginative spirit was increased IT well-meant but injudicious attempts to ex- plain everything to the perfect satisfaction of the dullest capacity ; and thus the public mind was treated as injudicious parents sometimes treat the morbid cut iosity of their children—the mother, the De Lolme of the household, trying to moth down inquiry with reasons which are intended rather to silence than to satisfy ; while the paternal Bentham, scorning fallacy, and disdaining what he thinks unmanly sub:erfuge, tries to arm the budding intellect with edge- tools, and teaches it to break to pieces what it cannot comprehend.

WHERE THE CONSTITUTION MAY BE FOUND.

It was much forgotten that the British constitution, like the British oak, had grown up nobody rightly knew bow, and that from age to age it had in- creased its bulk and put forth its branches amid storms and changes, now in danger of being uprooted and blown over, now lopped, trimmed, its bark peeled, and occasionally the axe uplifted to cut it down ; hut still standing, and gra- dually becoming a great tree, under which all might shelter. Those who asked where the constitution was to be found might have seen it wherever they went and on whatever they looked ; in old cathedrals, in the courts of law, in our old corporations, our venerable towns; in the Monarchy, in the Houses of Par- liament, the Judges of the land, the Aristocracy, and the People; every thing proclaiming to the present that the past had been, and manifesting how much of real happiness, of greatness, and of glory, might be found flourishing under an incongruous mass of prescriptive habits and customs, of uncouth legisla- tion, and even under exacting authority and unreflecting obedience. And much angry contention, much bitter strife, much harassing and needless agita- tion, might have been spared, if men had early come to the plain, the definite understanding, that the constitution grew with the people, and not the people by and for the constitution; instead of dividing the community into those who resisted all change as incompatible with the safety and security of our social existence, and those who insisted on perpetual and incessant change as the vivifying principle of our social atmosphere.

PEEL AND HIS TARIFF.

The Corn-law and the new Tariff excited warm debates daring the session. The many interests involved naturally led to clashing: from both sides of the House warm appeals were made on behalf of particular trades or manufactures, which were threatened by the removal of protection • and the agricultural in- terest, ranking among the most determined and inliuential of the Minister's supporters, resisted the terms on which it was proposed to admit foreign cattle into this country. The severest criticism cannot deny to Sir Robert Peel the praise of the greatest firmness and the most rigid impartiality throughout the conduct of a most important, a most complicated, and a most tedious and harassing measure. Representations were listened to; modifications were adopted where it was clearly shown that the injury would exceed the benefit ; but throughout the dreary debate each night, and the active business each day, Sir Robert Peel resisted the solicitations and remained unmoved by the threats of supporters or opponents, on every point on which his own judgment was clear. This is high praise, but he amply deserves it.

GLADSTONE IN THE HOUSE.

By the way, there is the rising hope of the Conservatives, and Peel's right arm—William Ewart Gladstone, Vice-President of the Board of Control and Master of the Mint.

That young man—what a disappointment In person he is of a good stature, and, like Stanley, has a pretty, goodnatured, rather pouting mouth, while the upper part of the face, like Stanley's, has a " knitted" if not a frowning aspect. But what disappoints use most is the smallness of the head. Under Stanley's careless locks you can see hidden a good solid mass of fore- head : but this noted young man—this philosophic worker-out of Church principles—I want for him capacious skull and breadth of face. Can such a small head carry all he knows ? We must take men as they are, and not as we imagine them. The head is small, but it is well-shaped. You notice that the upper part of the face rather expresses severity : and I am told that old Gladstone, and the family gene- rally, have been noted in Liverpool for what is called a " crusty " tempera- ment. lf this be so, and this young man inherits it, he is an example of the power of principle, for he seems to -have his temper singularly uuder control. His voice, too, is sweet and plaintive : he has amazing clearness of speech and volubility of utterance, but with a tendency to run into a mellifluous monotony, which he will probably correct. Are his abilities as great as they say, or is he an example of being "cried up "? Oh, no man can doubt that his abilities are great. I do not refer to his books on Church and State, with which he first established his reputation, bat to his conduct in the House. He proved "a friend in need" to Peel in con- ducting the tedious business and details of the new Tariff; in fact, every thing devolved on the Prime Ministea and his Vice-President of the Board of Trade; and though Peel's great business facility and long practice in addressing the House enabled him to expound, state, and defend the principles and details of the Tariff with more fulness, force, and weight, it was universally acknow- ledged that young Gladstone shone in the department of "facts and figures," and displayed a capacity for official business of the very first order.

It may be guessed from these specimens of his composition, that the mind of the author is not one which induces implicit

fidence in his deductions : he is a writer who would, apparently, sacrifice doubtful truth to certain rhetoric. The only point, how- ever, that we see much reason to demur to, is ascribing the long and popular opposition to Catholic Emancipation principally to a love of religious truth as inculcated by the great English divines. In a thiul-oveopled and untrading country, like Scotland during the sever,menth and eighteenth centuries, with a population natu- rally addicted to metaphysical and religious disputation," the Man of Sin," "the Beast," and all the other mystical terms of reprobation launched against "Popery," might have a primal effect : but in Eng- land the cause of hatred was of a more practical kind. It originated in the murders of " bloody " MARY; it was increased by the Papist conspiracies against ELIZABETH, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the threatened invasion of the Armada, and the insolent claim of the Romish Pontiff to give away the crown of England. The reign of JAMES the First was signalized by the Gunpowder Plot ; that of CHARLES by the Irish massacre; throughout the Protectorate and the reign of CHARLES the Second, the Roman Catholics, (as the writer himself observes.) were always found in alliance with the public enemy ; and the Protestant Revolution made that a domi- nant party-cry which had before been a national, political, and reli- gious feeling. Should Sir Robert Peel and his Era reach a second edition, we might recommend its author to reconsider his views upon this point.