the day after that on which Sir Robert Peel breathed his last, the first notice on the paper of the House was for a motion by Mr. Hume, who had been a Member of that assembly almost as long a time as the deceased Baronet, and in nearly all the struggles of those eventful years his political opponent. But at such a moment the memory of political contentions was effaced. At the meeting of the House on the 3rd of July, Mr. Hume rose under feelings of much emotion. He said-I hope, in addressing the House, I may be excused for expressing the deep regret which not only I, but every Member of this House I am sure must feel at the loss we have just suffered by the death of Sir Robert Peel. (Cries of "Hear, hear.") I cannot allude to the conduct and career of that right hon. Gentleman, more particularly of later years, when events of immense importance have taken place, mainly owing to the part which he has enacted, without forming the highest opinion of him as a public man, ready, as he showed himself to be, to sacrifice power, office, and everything, for the sake of passing a legislative Act which he believed the imperial interests of the country demanded. (Cheers.) It is impossible for me, indeed I have not the power, to express what I feel so strongly at the great public loss which that right hon. Gentleman's death has occasioned. When I contemplate the many sacrifices he has made, and when I consider the strong feelings and deep interest which have been manifested in this metropolis, and which I am sure will extend throughout the whole country, at this great calamity, I hope I may be excused, even if there should be no precedent, and I am not aware that there is any precedent,-on such an occasion,

one so seldom, if ever, likely to occur again, at least in my time,-for proposing, out of respect to the right hon. Gentleman whose melancholy death we have to lament, that the House do adjourn without proceeding to any other business. ("Hear, hear.")

I

Mr. Gladstone.-As the hon. Gentleman, from motives which I am sure all will appreciate, has submitted this motion to the House, and as I see no other person connected by office with the lamented Gentleman of whose loss we intend to mark our sense, I beg leave to second the motion which the hon. Gentleman has made. am perfectly sure that it will be a subject of grief to the noble Lord at the head of the Government, that in consequence, probably, of the introduction of this subject a few moments earlier than it might have been expected, he has been deprived of the satisfaction of bearing his part in this, the earliest, but not the last, tribute of respect to be paid to the memory of one whom I may now name-the late Sir Robert Peel. ("Hear, hear.") The subject which has been introduced by the hon. Gentleman-he will forgive me for saying-is one that does not at this moment bear discussion. Every heart is much too full to allow us to enter so early upon the consideration of the amount of that calamity with which the country has been visited in, I will say, the premature death of Sir Robert Peel; for, although he has died full of years and full of honours, yet it is a death that in human eyes is premature, because we had fondly hoped that, in whatever position Providence might assign to him, by the weight of his ability, by the splendour of his talents, and by the purity of his virtues, he might still have been

(Cheers.) I will say no more. In saying this, I have perhaps said too much. It might have been better if I had simply confined myself to seconding the motion of the hon. Gentleman. I was in hopes that by protracting the subject for some moments others might have entered the House who would have been more worthy to discharge the duty I have undertaken. But it is not so. However, the tribute of respect which we now offer will, I am sure, be all the more valuable, all the more readily received from the silence which has prevailed, and which has arisen not from a want, but from an excess of feeling. ("Hear.") Mr. Napier. Perhaps, as I have a motion on the paper for to-day, I may be permitted to say how willingly I waive everything to join in testifying, in any manner I can, my sorrow and regret for the loss which the country has sustained. It is a very curious circumstance, that a large portion of those legislative measures to which I was about to ask the attention of the House have been suggested by the legislative wisdom of that great man who has just been gathered to his fathers. The impulse and encouragement which he has given to measures of legislation in connection with the criminal jurisprudence of this country, and the records he

has left behind him of his enlightened wisdom on that important subject, entitle him to the gratitude, and will ever claim the unanimous respect, of all classes of the community. When the news came to me of his death, and when I reflected how short was the period since I had beheld him standing on that spot in the full vigour of a matured intellectual power-chastened but not impaired by age and experience-I was reminded what shadows we are; that the life of the wisest and strongest of us is but a wavering flame which the passing breeze may extinguish. ("Hear, hear.")

Sir Robert Inglis felt that perhaps the silence which had been suggested would be more eloquent than any words, on such a loss as the House, and the country, and he might also say the whole European community, had sustained; but as the silence had with equal feeling and truth been broken by Mr. Napier, Sir Robert added his humble testimony to the high and honourable character of the friend they had lost. "As one who has now sat for some time in Parliament, I rise and state that I believe there never was a man who made greater sacrifices for the public good than Sir Robert Peel. Power he sacrificed willingly; and I think he would have sacrified everything except that which he regarded as paramount, namely his duty, to the good of his country. Those who might have differed from him on political subjects will, I am sure, unanimously concur in the expres sion of one cordial feeling of grateful respect for the memory of the man who really did more to distinguish this House among the deliberative bodies of the world than any one individual who ever sat in it."

In the absence of a member of

the Cabinet, [Lord John Russell had gone into the country the day before,] Sir William Somerville concurred in the expression of profound respect for the memory of the departed statesman, and willingly acceded to the motion.

The question was put and carried unanimously, and the House adjourned at once.

The House of Lords did not sit on the day on which the proceeding just referred to took place, but, on the following day, the Marquess of Lansdowne, in laying before the House some papers on the Education question, asked the attention of their Lordships to a subject which was at present occupying all minds. When they looked around that Chamber they found no blank there, but they were all made aware of the loss which had taken place in an assembly with which they were connected by many ties, political and personal. It would be extraordinary, indeed, if the deep voice of sorrow which had been raised in that assembly did not find an echo within these walls. The actions of one generation were properly left to the judgment of its successors as best fitted for the task, but there was a tribute due to the memory of a great man, and public sympathy, unasked for and unsolicited, had attended the dying moments of Sir Robert Peel. For more than forty years Lord Lansdowne had watched the devoted zeal and great talents given to the public service by that lamented Statesman, and in feeling terms he expressed the sympathy, sorrow, and condolence, which he was sure their Lordships experienced at the event which had just taken place.

Lord Stanley next addressed the House in a tone of deep and earnest feeling. "It has been my VOL. XCII.

deep regret that, during the last four years of his life, I have been separated from him by a conscientious difference of opinion on an important matter of public policy. It is with deep regret that I know that that difference prevailed between us up to the last period of his valuable life. But it is a satisfaction to me personally, my Lords, to know that, whatever political difference there was between us, there was no personal hostility on either side.

I am confident that there has been none on my sidequite as confident that there was none on his. I never was one of those who attached unworthy motives to a course of conduct which I cannot but deeply lament. I believe that, in that step which led me to differ from him, he was actuated by a sincere and conscientious desire to obtain that which he believed to be a public good. Mistaken as he was in that view, I am satisfied that, upon that occasion, as upon all others, the public good was the leading principle of his life; and that to promote the welfare of his country he was prepared to make, and did actually make, every sacrifice. cases those sacrifices were so extensive, that I hardly know whether the great and paramount object of his country's good was a sufficient reason to exact them from any public man. But this is not a time to speak of differences-to speak of disagreements when a great man and a great statesman has passed away from us by the sudden and inscrutable dispensation of Providence."

In some

Lord Brougham could not refrain from an acknowledgment of the splendid merits and conscientious motives of the deceased"At the last stage of his public career, chequered as it was-and [N]

I told him in private that chequered it would be-when he was differing from those with whom he had been so long connected, and from purely public-spirited feelings was adopting a course which was so galling and unpleasing to themI told him, I say, that he must turn from the storm without to the sunshine of an approving conscience within. Differing as we may differ on the point whether he was right or wrong, disputing as we may dispute on the results of his policy, we must all agree that to the course which he firmly believed to be advantageous to his country he firmly adhered; and that in pursuing it he made sacrifices compared with which all the sacrifices exacted from public men by a sense of public duty, which I have ever known or read of, sink into nothing."

The Duke of Wellington, who was deeply affected, expressed the great gratification with which he had listened to what had just been said as to the moral character of Sir R. Peel. He added his testimony to what he believed to be the strongest feature in the character of his friend. "In all the course of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel, I never knew a man in whose truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in whom I saw a more invariable desire to promote the public service. In the whole course of my communications with him, I never knew an instance in which he did not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I never saw in the whole course of my life the smallest reason for suspecting that he stated anything which he did not firmly believe to be the fact."

The Duke of Cleveland who had been an early friend and college

companion of Sir Robert Peel, expressed in a few words the feelings of high respect and regard which he had ever entertained for him.

On the same day the House of Commons held a morning sitting, but the public business fixed for that occasion was deferred until the evening on the motion of Sir George Grey, who, having occasion to allude to the recent calamity, could not subdue his emotions. On the reassembling of the House in the evening, on moving that certain papers which he presented should lie on the table,

In a

Lord John Russell embraced the opportunity of expressing his sense of the great loss which the House and the country had sustained by one of those common accidents by which mankind were apt to think a life so precious ought not to be sacrificed. strain of deep sympathy he touched upon the prominent features of the public character of Sir Robert Peel-his long and large experience in state affairs, his profound knowledge, his oratorical powers, and his copious yet exact memory; and he noticed the candour and kindness evinced by him towards a political opponent in his last act in that House. Slightly glancing at his political career, and the spirit which had guided his public conduct, Lord John remarked that by the course Sir Robert Peel had taken after the passing of the Reform Bill, between 1832 and 1841, he had rendered a great public service. The example of such a man, who, with a love of literature and a taste for the arts, had devoted all his energies to labour for the sake of his country, would not, he hoped, be lost upon his countrymen. The harmony which had pre

vailed for the last two years, and the safety which this country had enjoyed during a period when other nations were visited by calamities, had been greatly owing to the course which Sir Robert Peel had thought it his duty to pursue. With these feelings, if it should appear to the family of the deceased Baronet desirable to take the course which was adopted on the death of Mr. Pitt, or on that of Mr. Grattan, he (Lord J. Russell) should be ready to concur, and could promise the sanction of the Crown.

Mr. Goulburn, in the name of the family of Sir Robert Peel, expressed their deep gratitude for the proposition made by the noble Lord, the highest tribute which the House of Commons could pay; but simplicity and disdain of os tentation was a distinguishing trait of the character of the deceased, and in a testamentary memorandum, written on the 8th of May, 1844, when he was at the head of a large party, Sir Robert had recorded his desire, which he had since verbally repeated to Lady Peel, to be interred in a vault in the parish church of Drayton Bassett without funereal pomp, and his family, anxious to fulfil his wishes on this point, though thankfully acknowledging the intended honour of a public funeral, were compelled respectfully but firmly to decline the proposition. Mr. Goulburn suggested that the subject should drop; but

Mr. Herries rose to express his belief that no reminiscences of diversity of public opinion would mingle with the sentiments of profound respect and sorrow which pervaded the House at the loss of one of its greatest ornaments.

It remained now for Parliament

to pay the only honour to the memory of the deceased statesman which was not precluded by a regard to his own expressed wishes and the feelings of his family. On the 12th of July, pursuant to a motion made by the First Minister of the Crown, the House of Commons went into Committee for the purpose of adopting an Address to the Queen, praying Her Majesty to order the erection of a Monument in Westminster Abbey to the memory of Sir Robert Peel. Lord John Russell said that he assumed the anxiety of the House to testify the feelings it had already manifested in some enduring form. In what shape this memorial should be signified, was the question. That question had been narrowed by reason of the special injunctions of the deceased. Sir Robert Peel had left special instructions that his funeral should be as private as possible. The course taken in the case of Mr. Percival and Mr. Canning, when some provision was made for the families of men who had distinguished themselves in the public service but whose private means were limited, was not applicable to the present case. There remained to the House, therefore, only the proposal of a public monument.

The Queen being anxious to show the sense which Her Majesty entertained of the services rendered to the Crown by Sir Robert Peel, had directed Lord John Russell to inform Lady Peel that Her Majesty desired to bestow on her the same rank that was bestowed on the widow of Mr. Canning. "I have this day," said Lord John, “received the answer of Lady Peel, which I immediately forwarded to Her Majesty. It is, that Lady