e. It was
Wellington who recommended Peel for the place which, under the old
conditions, he might have been expected to take himself. On his return,
Peel accepted the task of forming a ministry, and, conscious of the
numerical weakness of his own party, he made overtures to some of the
Whigs. But Stanley and Graham[7] refused to join him, and he had to fall
back on the Tories of Wellington's last Government. Before going to the
country he laid down his principles in the famous Tamworth Manifesto.[8]
This manifesto is important for its acceptance of the changes
permanently made by the Reform Bill, and for the clear exposition of his
attitude towards the important Church questions which were imminent. It
is an excellent document for any one to study who wishes to understand
the evolution of the old Tories into the modern Conservative party.

[Note 7: Sir James Graham, afterwards Home Secretary under Peel in
1841.]

[Note 8: Since his father's death, in 1830, Peel had been member for
Tamworth.]

Peel's first administration was not destined to last long. The Liberal
wave was not spent, and the Tories had little to hope for, at this
moment, from a General Election. As so often happened afterwards, when
the two English parties were evenly balanced, the Irish votes turned the
scale. Peel had been forced into this position by the King: his own
judgement would have led him to wait some years. He fought dexterously
for four months, helped in some measure by Stanley, who had left the
Whigs when they threatened the Established Church in Ireland; but it was
this question which in the end upset him. Lord John Russell, in alliance
with O'Connell, proposed the disendowment of that Church and defeated
Peel by thirty-three votes. It was a question of principle, though it
was raised in a factious way, and subsequent history showed that the
mover, after his tactical victory of the moment, could not effect any
practical solution. Peel was driven to resign. But in this short period,
so far from losing credit, he had won the confidence of his party and
the respect of his opponents; he had put some useful measures on the
Statute Book; and he had shown the country that a new spirit, practical
and enlightened, was growing up in the Tory party, and that there was a
minister capable of utilizing it for the general good.

In the Greville papers and other literature of the time we get many
references to the predominant place which he held in the