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30 August 1841
General election
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The Conservative Party wins and Robert
Peel becomes prime minister for the second time (he ruled in
a minority administration in 1834-5). Peel's manifesto broadly
comprises: the upholding of law and order, the retention of the voting
reforms that have already been passed but resistance to any further widening
of the vote (see The vote),
defending the supremacy of the Anglican Church, keeping Ireland as part
of the United Kingdom, and the retention of the Corn Laws. In fact, during the next five
years, Peel's Free Trade beliefs and instinctive
pragmatism lead him to introduce far-reaching changes.
Peel appoints Earl Aberdeen as his foreign secretary; William Gladstone is president of the Board of
Trade. Irish MP Daniel O'Connell, seeing Peel's victory as
a setback for constitutional reform of Ireland,
revives his populist campaign for repeal of the Act of Union.
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