How far was Sir Robert Peel personally responsible for the recovery of the Conservative Party between 1834 - 1841?

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How far was Sir Robert Peel personally responsible for the recovery of the Conservative Party between 1834 - 1841?

The Tory Party had many factors that were contributing to their failures before 1834, and it is important to look at whether the fact that Peel took control of the Party and began to shape it into the Conservative Party is the reason for recovery, or whether other reasons were more important, and Peel did a job that any other politician at the time could have. The Tories had many issues before 1834 which were obvious reasons for failure; however there is a question as to whether Peel’s rise to power was the actual solution to these. The Tory party was leaderless and not united, which in turn led to poor organisation in both Westminster and constituencies which was deadly to a party considering the increase in the electorate via reforms. The increase electorate also proved to be an obstacle for the Tories as they were very unpopular, and were in desperate need of a new image if they were to survive, considering their defeat in the 1831 elections and the large popularity of the current Whig government. All of these factors are important to consider when studying Peels importance, and what he did to alleviate these problems for the Party, if anything.

The issue of the lack of unity is partly also down to the lack of leadership in the Party, but is also connected to events prior to Peel’s time in power. The division within the Tory party came about after many unpopular decisions were made; including Peel giving in to Roman Catholic Emancipation and Wellington’s statement that the Parliamentary system did not need reform. After the Reform Act of 1832, the Tories were divided into three sections. The Canningite Tories, the Ultra’s and Wellington and Peel supporters. The Canningite Tories spilt with the Tories and joined the Whigs in 1829, which left the future Conservative Party in two factions. The Ultra’s were angry with Wellington and Peel over granting the Roman Catholic Emancipation and it would be a long time before the two sections of the Party had a common cause or leader. When Peel took power of the Tory Party he knew that to be successful, his envisioned Conservative Party needed to be united. He also took the stand that any Conservative government should naturally have Conservative support, and felt that he needn’t make any concessions for the Ultra’s in the attempt to gain their support which is one of the main reasons it took until 1834 for the Ultra’s to begin accepting Peel as the indispensible leader of the Party. Peel did not go out of his way to unify the Party, but measures such as the Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 did much to gain back the lost Canningite’s as it showed that Peel was willing to accept change providing it would not plunge the country into chaos similar to that seen in France during the revolution. With the Ultra’s slowly coming to terms with Peel’s leadership, and the Tamworth Manifesto bringing back support in from the Canningite’s and lower classes who felt that this new Conservative government was not the reform refusing Party led by Wellington, and the Upper Classes who felt that there was no risk of revolution. The Tamworth Manifesto helped Peel’s Conservatives gain the support that Wellington’s Tories lost after 1832, but this piece of Party policy could have been created by any politician who saw that the Tories would fail and needed to make some concessions to gain back former support.

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The Tory Party had become increasingly unpopular with the increasing electorate, and did not seem able to organise themselves in a sufficient manner to gain a relative gain of votes to voters. This is because of the Reform Act of 1832 created a larger number of genuine elections in constituencies due to the removal of many Rotten and Pocket Boroughs. This meant that many of the Middle Class could vote and Parties were required to have policies to please them; mainly the ideas of reform. The Tory party were viewed as the party that would not grant reform, so the ...

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