Sir Robert Peel (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Sir Robert Peel It is only by a future generation that a great statesman can be adequately and justly judged. This is especially the case as regards a Minister like Sir Robert Peel, who was obliged at several critical periods to abandon his cherished political convictions, and to adopt a policy subversive of the fundamental ideas of his party. Charged by his former friends with inconsistency and dissimulation, this distinguished political leader falls back upon posterity for his vindication. In tracing the history of his singularly interesting and remarkable career, we shall endeavour to indicate, through the medium of his acts and speeches, assisted by his posthumous Memoirs, those grounds of justification by which alone his radical changes of policy can be reconciled and elucidated. There is much in the character and life of Peel to command the admiration and sympathy of men of all shades of political opinion; and, impressed by that feeling, it will be our object to divest this biographical record of party passion. We instinctively speak of this eminent statesman as a great party leader, and yet the elements of his greatness were not such as we usually associate with that epithet. Genius was lacking in him, and his greatness was built up of almost commonplace materials. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.