Peelite
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The Peelites were a breakaway faction of the British Conservative Party, and existed from 1846 to 1859. They were called "Peelites" because they were initially led by Sir Robert Peel, who was the British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846.
The Peelites were characterised by commitment to Free Trade and a managerial, almost technocratic, approach to government. Though they sought to maintain the principles of the Conservative Party, Peelites disagreed with the major wing of that party, the landed interest, on issues of trade; in particular, the issue of whether agricultural prices should be artificially kept high by tariffs. The Peelites were often called the "Liberal Conservatives", in contrast to "Protectionist Conservatives" led by Benjamin Disraeli and Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.
In 1845, facing a serious famine in Ireland, Peel sought to lower food prices by repealing the Corn Laws. He was able to carry the repeal vote in the House of Commons, but only at the price of splitting the Conservative Party; a split which led to the fall of Peel's government in June 1846, and its replacement by a Whig government led by Lord John Russell.
The leading members of the Peelite faction that developed after the 1846 split of the Conservative Party were:
- Sir Robert Peel
- Sir James Graham
- The Earl of Aberdeen
- William Gladstone
- Sidney Herbert
- Edward Cardwell
- Lord Lincoln (later Duke of Newcastle)
- Sir John Young
The Peelites numbered about a third of the old Conservative party following the 1847 general election. Their main political positions at that time were closer to the Protectionist Conservatives than to the Whigs and Radicals in parliament, except on the issue of Free Trade. The split had been so bitter on a personal level, though, with attacks on Peel by protectionist conservatives such as Lord George Bentinck and Benjamin Disraeli, that the Conservative Party was unable to reconcile the Peelites, even after the Conservatives officially abandoned protection in 1852.
After Peel's death in 1850, the Peelite faction was led by Sir James Graham and Lord Aberdeen, the latter of whom became prime minister in 1852 by forming a government in coalition with the Whigs. This government fell in 1855 as a result of the unpopularity of the Crimean War.
After the fall of the Aberdeen government, the Peelite faction slowly disintegrated. By the 1857 election, their numbers in the House of Commons had shrunk to either 18 or 26 (from about 40 seats held in 1852). The Peelites finally disappeared as a party when they agreed to combine with the Whigs, Radicals and Irish Brigade MPs to bring down the Conservative government of Earl of Derby in 1859. The subsequent creation of Lord Palmerston's ministry out of this combination was the birth of the British Liberal Party. Several leading Peelites (including Gladstone, Herbert, Cardwell, and Newcastle, but notably not Graham, who was one of the driving forces behind the coalition) accepted cabinet posts in this ministry, though some Peelites became independents or returned to the Conservatives.
References
- Jones, Wilbur Devereux and Arvel B. Erickson. The Peelites 1846-1857. Columbus, OH : Ohio State University, 1972.
See also
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