Question 3

How did Sir Robert Peel revive the Conservative Party?

Paragraph One

• Gave party a new image
• Speeches in parliament
• Outside parliament – Tamworth Manifesto (December 1834) an election address in which he said:
  • He accepted 1832 Reform Act (opposed reform before)
  • He and the party wanted ‘careful review of institutions…firm maintenance of established rights, correction of proved abuses, and redress of real grievances’
  • Preserve all that was good about British system
• In later speech referred to these aims as ‘conservative principles’
• Importance of the Manifesto – it was the Party’s new programme
• It placed the party between the old Tories who opposed change and the Radicals who alarmed moderate opinion

Paragraph Two

• Gained wider support
• From moderate people of all classes especially manufacturers and businessmen neglected by the Whigs
• The manifesto and new image were attractive – partly responsible for Peel’s success – from middle class himself

Paragraph Three

• Local Conservative associations set up all over country
• Thus Conservatives more highly developed at constituency level than the Whigs (not Peel’s work – Francis Robert Bonham the election manager did it)

Paragraph Four

Conclusion

• Gap between Conservatives and Whigs closed in elections of 1835 and 1837
• June 1841 led his party to victory
• In under 10 years he revived and gave new direction to the party
• Regarded by some historians as founder of modern Conservative Party
• Others think Disraeli has a better claim because having revived the Conservatives he almost undid his achievement with his repeal of the Corn Laws