that can scarcely
be exaggerated. The connection of Peel with the question of Irish
tithes is a very remarkable one. The Tithe Commutation Act, which was
carried by a Whig Government in 1838, is one of the few instances of
perfectly successful legislation in Irish history, and it is well
known that the chief credit of this measure does not belong to the
Ministers who carried it. It was the very measure which Sir Robert
Peel had introduced in 1835, which the Whig party when in opposition
defeated by connecting it with the Appropriation clause, and which the
Whig party when in power were compelled to carry without that clause.
But if the chief credit of the final settlement of this momentous
question justly belongs to Peel, it must not be forgotten that in the
eleven years during which, as Chief Secretary or as Home Secretary, he
was directly responsible for the government of Ireland, he had allowed
this monster curse to grow and strengthen without making any serious
effort to mitigate it.

Peel was Chief Secretary during the concluding part of the viceroyalty
of the Duke of Richmond, during the whole of that of Lord Whitworth,
and during part of that of Lord Talbot. He had grown very tired of his
position, but agreed to postpone his departure till after a general
election, and he at last left Ireland, as he says, with 'undiminished
and unqualified satisfaction,' in August 1818. He remained out of
office until January 1822; but the interval was not spent in idleness,
and in 1819 he took the leading part in the great Act for resuming
cash payments, which, as it has been truly said, attaches to his name
'the same meed of praise which he had quoted as inscribed on the tomb
of Queen Elizabeth: "Moneta in justum valorem redacta."' It is one of
his greatest legislative achievements; it is also the first of that
series of recantations which forms one of the most distinctive
features of his career, for it was based upon the policy which Horner
had advocated in 1811, and against which Peel had then voted. He still
took, on the Catholic question, the leading part in opposition to
emancipation, declaring his determination to offer 'a most sincere and
uncompromising,' though he now feared unavailing, resistance to
Catholic concession. The last time the question was brought forward,
by Grattan, was in 1819, and he was defeated by a majority of only
two. In 1821, after the death of Grattan, and in a new Parliament,
Plunket carried a B