t that when, in 1830, his will was proved, the _personal_ property
was sworn at L1,200,000. The much-lamented baronet received the
rudiments of his education under parental superintendence, near Bury. He
was removed to Harrow, when he became a form-fellow of the more
brilliant, but less amiable, Lord Byron, who has left several
commendatory notices of his youthful friend, and whose eminence he very
sagaciously predicted.

From Harrow, Mr. Peel became a Gentleman Commoner of Christ Church,
Oxford, where, in 1808, he was the first who took the honors of double
first-class. In the following year, having attained his majority, he
entered the House of Commons for Cashel, as the nominee of Mr. Richard
Pennefather. Mr. Peel continued to represent the twelve electors of
Cashel and their lord till 1812, when he represented the close borough
of Chippenham, with a constituency of 135. The prodigious wealth of the
first baronet of Drayton Manor gave his son great advantages in the
House of Commons, where, in 1810, he was selected to second the Address,
in reply to the Royal Speech. Shortly after, he became the
Under-Secretary of State in the Perceval Cabinet, and, upon the fall of
his chief, though only twenty-six years of age, he was made principal
Secretary for Ireland--an office, at that time, of the greatest
difficulty and importance--and held that post with as much address as
his ultra-Toryism, and his extreme unpopularity in Ireland, admitted,
under the Viceroyships of the Duke of Richmond, Earl Whitworth, and Earl
Talbot. The most permanent and beneficial measure which Ireland owes to
its former Secretary, Peel, is its constabulary force, introduced in
1817, which was the wedge to the introduction of the English body of
police.

The masterly tactics of the still youthful statesman, in part, but his
"thorough and throughout" Toryism, chiefly recommended him to the
electors of Oxford University, which he represented twelve years, till
1828; when, upon an obvious change in his opinions on the question of
Catholic emancipation, he was rejected.

In 1820, Mr. Peel, then in his thirty-third year, had married Julia, the
daughter of General Sir John Floyd, who was only twenty-five, and who
survives her illustrious husband. The issue of this marriage is five
sons and two daughters. One of his sons has already entered diplomatic
employment in Switzerland; a second has recently entered, as our readers
will remember, the House of Com