When he ceased to be a minister of the crown, that general movement
throughout Europe which succeeded the deposition of the elder branch
of the Bourbons rendered parliamentary reform as unavoidable as two
years previously Catholic emancipation had been. He opposed this
change, no doubt with increased knowledge and matured talents, but
with impaired influence and few parliamentary followers. The history
of the reform debates will show that Sir Robert Peel made many
admirable speeches, which served to raise his reputation, but never
for a moment turned the tide of fortune against his adversaries, and
in the first session of the first reformed parliament he found himself
at the head of a party that in numbers little exceeded one hundred. As
soon as it was practicable he rallied his broken forces; either he or
some of his political friends gave them the name of "Conservatives,"
and it required but a short interval of reflection and observation
to prove to his sagacious intellect that the period of reaction was
at hand. Every engine of party organization was put into vigorous
activity, and before the summer of 1834 reached its close he was at
the head of a compact, powerful, and well-disciplined opposition. Such
a high impression of their vigor and efficiency had King William IV
received, that when, in November, Lord Althorp became a peer, and the
whigs therefore lost their leader to the House of Commons, his Majesty
sent in Italy to summon Sir Robert Peel to his councils, with a view
to the immediate formation of a conservative ministry. He accepted
this responsibility, though he thought the King had mistaken the
condition of the country and the chances of success which had awaited
his political friends. A new House of Commons was instantly called,
and for nearly three months Sir Robert Peel maintained a struggle
against the most formidable opposition that for nearly a century any
minister had been called to encounter. At no time did his command of