New-York tribune., 1891-05-17
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
IL.
THE EDITING OF HIS LETTERS THE CRISES
OF HIS LIFE.-A HISTORICAL PARALLEL.

"No public man who respects himself SAID
Peel, lever destroys paper lie acteo upon
his own maxim. He carried it out so compie'eiy
that upon his death his executors found ae ieasV
one paper which had been sent to him oy GU
league In the strictest secrecy with an ihjuuoSon
TO burn Ii when read Mr.. Parker, in his freiaoo
TO the present volume of private correSponuo",'
tells us that the whole number OF papei' "''.
which the executors have had 10 ueai - "'','
100000 1t is supposed that MI uiaasVVn.
this. as in some other matters, the iai'niu' ','o
ple of Peel-may leave much larger nu'
He too, keeps papers, ana is unueio'oo' ="
spent some portion of the last lew yeSiS' ~"
whih he has been released from the cares OF
Office in arranging and docketing this mass OF
u.nnscrint It has not been said that ne mas
burnt any. Peel died at sixtytwo. Mr.. Gladstone
ss IN his eighty second year. and the end as every
body hopes rs yet far off,
Peel's trustees have been forty years ana more
making lin their minds what TO do WIN ohe
sample materials" the great statesman leit oehinu
him Lord Stanhope and Lord Cardwell, the hrse
trustees, published in 1856 a Memoir drawn up
nv Peel himself on the Roman Cathonc luesuon'
ard q year later two similar Memoirs on
a The New Government, 1s34-5,' and Repeal OF
The Corn Laws. 1s45-6.' The word, thereiorc,
has Iono been in possession of Peels own account
of the three most important periods OF Ills nie
or three out of four, If his conversion on the
Currency question in 81 be included. Inc "oru
which Mr. Thurfeld uses is not conversion puV
surrender Mr. Parker's volume covers only tne
first of these. II was meant that MT Uoio"ih
Smith should write Pecl's Life, and IN that eA-
pectation the publishing Of the correspondence was
postponed. But Mr. Goldwin Smith, as we all Know
went to the United States in 1868 and thence three
-
vet incorporated with the Union, known tnen
and down to the present day as Canada. lie
.ould not well take Peels 100000 papers with him
and he gave up the project of writing his life;
surrender which will always be regretted. What
Canada has gained, political literature has lost.
Peel's first trustees died. Those now in charge
OF his memory are Lord Hardinge, and the young
est son Of Sir Robert, Mr.. Arthur Peel Speaker
of the House of Commons. They it is who have
committed to Mr. Parker the editing of this vol
ume. The editing has been, on the whole, wen
done. and it is not Mr.. Parkers fault II the
book as a whole be to the general reader hVOle
dry. II is not book. like Mr.. Thursfeld's, TO
excite or enhance interest in its subject IN the
mind of the reader who has none, or has NIUE
Mr. Parker has assumed the existence OF a craving
on the part Of the reading public, or az least Oh
historical students, for light on the life ana con-
duct of his hero. This he has given IN the moso
authentic form, and the contribution Is an lln-
portant one with reference to several questions
which were then at issue one OF whlcn al leasV
is at issue still, the Irish question
sTo give the reader the best means of Judging
for himself; to set before him in perspicuous order
the facts, the arguments, the alternative courses
present to the statesman's mind when important
decisions had to be taken: TO record his actual
motives as made known at the time TO his politl-
cal colleagues to his family to his friends, such
is Mr. Parker's account Of his aims and his view
of his editorial duty. He is not always perspicu-
GUS; he is not even chronological, and he has so
handled his materials that the student has some
times to do his own editing. Probably MI.
Parker had many other things In view than mere
popularity; STILL book is meant TO be read, and
the obstacles to the reading of it ought TO be as
few as possible.
1t was Peel's injunction that no honorable con-
fdence shall be betrayed no private feelings un-
necessarily wounded, and no public interests in
jurousy affected, in consequence of premature or
indiscfeet publication" Premature the publica-
ton has not been, bat there are more instances
than one whde Mr. Parker has been indiscreet.
and where letters see the light which the authors
of them, could they have been consulted, would
surely have suppressed Peels memory and fame
have been carefully considered; not always those
Of his correspondents. Yet even Peel is found
at moments to be using language hardly suitable
for print. Cursed publications." blockheads,'
"cowardly liars"--these and some other phrases
sound oddly from the lips of this great exempar OF
department.. Yet it is to be said that seldom
even in the freedom of private etterwriting. does
Peel forget himself or the proprieties The com
ment that is forever recurring is different one
from that He writes as if with one eye on the
fIoco ~ h{c
respondent were some day to read his rather
stited sentences.
Il trust in God that my success though it may
make me undervalue the usual objects to which
political men aspire, will stimulate me to those
exertions by which alone i can prove myself
worthy of the confidence which the most dis
tnguished Body on earth has been pleased 10 confer
on me-"
That is from letter to DR.. Cyril Jackson upor
Peeps nomination to represent the University Of
Oxford in Parliament" the paramount object o.
my ambition, one to which | should have looked
forward as the ample reward of long political
life"
Ample" is q word which Peel uses pretty often
II has been noted before now that the word
which drop frequently, and as il were naturally
from a writer's pen are often, all uncOnsciously
TO him, words which are at least as descriptive o
himself as oil OUncrS. OF, III nOb descriptive, Cnal
ecteristic. And ample may do well
less friendly term to denote Peels style II is
style far better for the purposes of oratory thai
for those Of correspondence. The swelling perioC
Is his He has rotundity of diction which wa
in his time thought suitable TO the House Of Com
mons. At no time is it suitable to the freedom o
private intercourse. He is decorous 10 a fault
with such exceptions as have noted when homes
wrath moves him. The most daring imagination
could not picture Peel in his shirt sleeves Hardl
ever is he visible even in dressing jacket. Ye
one heaS of him as delightful in private life
There were always friends to whom, amid all hi
greatness, he remained what Lord LiverpoC
thought him at twenty-four, man of frank an
open manner. There was something human In hiI
at all times. He signs some OF his lei
ters Ever yours afectionately,"-a phras