Such is the
history of Catholic Emancipation and the repeal of the Corn Laws. Hence
a bitter political adversary of his, who has drawn his public character
with much candour and ability, and not in an ungenerous spirit either,
says of him, that "his life was one of perpetual education." Elsewhere
he puts pretty much the same idea in a severer and more sarcastic form,
when he asserts that Sir Robert Peel's mind "was one vast appropriating
clause."[101]
Some of his eulogists assert that he had made up his mind on the great
measures he carried through Parliament long before he had given them his
support, but that he was awaiting a favourable opportunity to declare
his views, whilst he was in the meantime educating his party. If this be
intended as a compliment, as it seems to be, it is a very doubtful one.
Assuming it to be true, he must for many years of his life have been a
mere hypocrite. The opinion that he himself was gradually educated into
these views would seem to be the truer as it is also the kinder one;
besides his own declarations coincide with it. There was what is called
a Bullion Committee in 1811, and another in 1819, Sir Robert (then Mr.)
Peel being chairman of the latter.
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