The Peel Family. HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. THE history of some great families and distinguished men, very much resembles the course of a river, rising at first in some obscure moorland retreat, in the neighbourhood of some quiet hamlet, nestled amid the shadows of mountains, or the embowering foliage of ancestral trees, where there is little or nothing to disturb the uniform processes of social life-but it leaves its village home and goes forth and expands and passes through towns and cities, and becomes a great river, bearing on its bosom the mart of nations, the blessings of commerce, and fertilising the land through which it flows. And so is it with the history of many illustrious families and men. They have emerged from the obscurity and toil of the workshop-the Nazareth of their early days-from which they have come forth at last to be the architects of their own fortunes, the sphere of their influence widening as they advance-till, blessed with wealth, because they have made it a blessingcrowned with honour, which they deserved, and distinguished for moral worth, the brightest ornament and the best possession of all, they have proved a blessing in their day and generation, and have bequeathed invaluable benefits to latest posterity. There is not a more illustrious example of this than the history of the Peel family. The very name, independent altogether of its political importance in the country, suggests a few salient points by which the advantages of resolution, energy, perseverance, and system, either to the apprentice or the journeyman, the young man in business, or the rising merchant, the politician, or the man of letters, are prominently seen, and our object is to hold up these principles to the imitation of all. Attempts have been made by some writers, but all to no purpose, to show that the progenitors of the Peel family were all great folks, in other words, that they were not of the ordinary, vulgar, plebeian class, but were connected in some way or other with the aristocracy of the land. All this is of course, intended as a compliment to the living members of that family. But there is no need for such fulsome attempts as these; it is surely sufficient greatness for any family to be honourably connected with the history of a country's manufactures, with the origin, progress, and completion of the great commercial enterprises of the day; for the history of the Peel family is to no small extent, the history of the spinning, weaving, and printing of Lancashire for many years. The late Premier, and his high-minded lady, had a far higher idea of true greatness than such writers seem to possess, when it was the decided wish of both to remain identified with the commons of England, and to live and die identified with the class from which they had sprung. This is worthy of the days of ancient Roman glory: "The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man's the gow'd for a' that,' Without therefore, going to the herald's office, or consulting the heraldic genealogies of England, we may premise that the grandfather of the late Premier seems to have been a very plain, shrewd, well-to-do sort of a man, who knew what he was about, cultivated a small piece of ground in the neighbourhood of Blackburn, which went by the name of Peel Fold, lived in Fish Lane, a narrow dirty alley in that town, which old Peel, very much to the loss of that misguided borough, was obliged to quit; for at that time any friend of invention, any patron of machinery, like a prophet, had no honour in his own country. We look upon the old grandfather as a rare good specimen of shrewdness, industry, frugality, and enterprise. He grew his own corn, and we have no doubt wrought his own stockings and mended his own clogs, which by the way, are said to be still preserved, and hawked the produce of his own little farm through the streets of Blackburn; and notwithstanding all this, could he not have been a very worthy man? H There is a tide, it is said, in the affairs of every one, which, if taken at the flood is sure to float him onward to prosperity and honour. About the middle of the last century, when the manufacturing skill and enterprise of the country began to develop themselves more and more, the grandfather, doubtless a shrewd man, perceived that a tide was setting in, which if fairly taken advantage of, might conduct him and others to the California of that day, then more promising to the adventurer than the land which bears that name at present. He accordingly embarked in the cotton trade on a small scale, and subsequently in the business of calico-printing. He was a cautious man, and the story that is told of his first attempts in this branch of business, seems very characteristic of the man and his descendants. These first attempts were made in secret. The first figure which he produced on cloth was a "parsley leaf," and it is said that the pattern was scratched on a pewter plate which formed one of the ordinary utensils of the house. The family tree now began to bud and blossom. The coming fortunes of the Peel family were all wrapped up in embryo in that "parsley leaf" scratched upon a pewter plate. This leaf unfolded itself in the genial sunshine of fortune, for in little more than twenty-five years after this fortunate leaf was scratched upon the pewter plate, the first Sir Robert was paying annually to the Excise the sum of £40,000 upon printed goods alone, and employing in this and other branches of manufacture fifteen thousand men. We venture to say that there have been very few leaves and very few plates like this in the history of British manufactures; and yet it was neither the parsley leaf nor the pewter plate that originated the fortunes of the family, but the shrewdness, industry, perseverance, and resolution of the grandfather, who was nicknamed "Parsley Peel," after his invention of the parsley leaf. Where these are combined there will always be materials to work upon, and which if they do not prove so lucrative as the Parsley leaf and the pewter plate, will nevertheless yield an honourable competence, if not a great fortune. Ay, but these were the days of fortune-making. Industry, perseverance, resolution, and energy, might have availed us then, but these matter little now.' As much now as These will always be required for advancement in any department of life for fortune-making, either in mind or in money. A parsley leaf and a pewter plate might always have remained the same in hands that had never been associated with these virtues; but in the house of the old shrewd, inquisitive, enterprising, persevering Peel, of Fish Lane, Blackburn, they became a perfect mint, and wherever these are still exercised they will ever be accompanied with their appropriate rewards. If they fail to fill the purse, which they can scarcely do, they cannot fail to enrich the mind and improve the life. We have known men who had their " parsley leaf" and their pewter plate too, but what of that, they made nothing by these, simply because they wanted the energy, perseverance, and industry, which are indispensable to success in any sphere of life. "Ay; but the grandfather made a fortunate hit, and this alone was the secret of his success." such thing! He made a fortunate hit we grant, but the secret of his success lay deeper than this, and just where your success in the present or the future lies, viz., in energy, perseverance, resolution, systematic arrangement, or in one word, moral power. The old man does not seem to have been gifted with what might be called inventive genius, the scratching of a parsley leaf upon a pewter plate was a very simple thing, but he had, what for the most part men of inventive genius are without, practical adaptation for and untiring energy in the ordinary business of life. Some are inclined to say, "Oh, if we had inventive genius we might get on, we might realise a success similar to that of Old Parsley Peel;" but inventive genius is often a very troublesome commodity, and has tended oftener to lead to poverty than to conduct to wealth. ever. 66 No Meanwhile the "parsley leaf" was expanding on the family tree of fortune, which had begun to take deep root, and spread its branches far and wide. The business of calico-printing, in which the grandfather had embarked, was transferred from Fish Lane, Blackburn, where it was secretly carried on for some time, to Brookside, a village in the neighbourhood of that town, where, by the aid of his sons, and by great application, skill, and enterprise, the business became amazingly prosperous. One of the sons who rendered himself pre-eminently useful was Robert, the father of the late Prime Minister. In very early life he seems to have possessed a most sanguine temperament, and his hopes of future greatness seem to have been precociously developed. He set out in life with the determination that he would be the architect of his own fortune, and never was a determination more successfully carried out, for he became one of the greatest commercial men, and one of the wealthiest commoners of England-an oracle in the commercial world-the employer of thousands-a baronet, a member of Parliament, sharing the confidence of Pitt, then Prime Minister, the possessor of enormous wealth, and the father of a son who was destined to be one of the greatest men of the age. The "parsley leaf" had been as productive as the gold fields of California or Australia, for the personal property which sprang from it was sworn at what is technically called upper value, which means that it amounted to more than £900,000, and was the first instance of the scale of duties extending to such a sum. But, after all, this was not the real wealth of the rich old baronet; this was but the result of the fortunate combination of certain elements of character which constituted his true wealth. Few may ever be able to amass such an amount of gold; but all of you may possess what will be, for yourselves and the world, still more valuable namely, energy, perseverance, industry, systematic arrangement; if you have these, depend upon it, you possess the elements by which mental or spiritual wealth is obtained, which, after all, is the true riches the elements by which, if you will, gold may be scraped together, which, be assured, is the lowest and most precarious wealth of a man, for the true riches are those of spirit and intellect, and not merely pounds shillings and pence. I have not alluded to the enormous wealth of the old baronet to increase your thirst for gain-to make you, if possible, more eager in the chase, more tenacious in your grasp, more desperate in the struggle to be rich at all hazards; but I have referred to that wealth as a proof that the elements of character which were pre-eminently his as a commercial man, will, in any department of life, ensure ultimate success and the attainment of almost any object. Cultivate assiduously those elements of character, and you cannot fail of success in any sphere of labour; but don't look at pounds shillings and pence—the poorest wealth after allas the principal thing for which a man should live. If you wish to make money, don't let it be at the sacrifice of mental and spiritual well-being; don't let it be at the sacrifice of every generous sensibility; don't fill your purse by depriving your mind and your soul of these true riches; for, as the wise man hath said, "There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing." "To catch dame Fortune's glittering smile, Assiduous wait upon her, The same elements of character which rendered the first Sir Robert so eminently successful as a commercial man contributed not a little to the success and influence of the late Prime Minister, his son, during his literary career as a student, and also throughout the whole of his political life. At an early age young Peel was sent to Harrow, where he was the schoolfellow of Lord Byron, who was of the same age as himself. As the son of one of the richest commoners of England, who had risen very rapidly to the possession of enormous wealth, he was under strong temptation to spend his days in idleness and dissipation, to indulge in proud and preposterous notions of himself and the wealth of his father, and to settle down in the thought that, being the heir to such wealth, which was accumulating every year, he had nothing to do but to live as the eldest sons of many great gentlemen had done, and to give himself up entirely to the fancies of youth and the plea sures of a young gentleman whose fortune had been made before him, and who had really come into the world with a silver spoon in his mouth, and who might therefore very well dispense with Euclid, with Greek, and Latin, and betake himself to the more manly exercises of boating and horse-racing, and to every other sort of amusement which would most speedily enable him to get quit of his pocket money. He was born with wealth, and why not with genius? He was born an heir to a large fortune, and why should the curse of labour attach to him at all? The son of such a father, who seemed to have a mint in his possession, who contributed £10,000 to promote the war, and the ruinous policy of William Pitt-the grandchild of such a man as "Parsley Peel," who had gradually unfolded all the fortunes of the family from a parsley leaf, must surely beyond all doubt be a genius, born a genius, cradled a genius, reared a genius, and, therefore, did not require to learn the alphabet after the usual fashion, but might be altogether absolved from the drudgery to which ordinary mortals must submit at school, or college, or throughout life. Young Peel might have reasoned in this way, as many had done before him, and as many have done since his earlier days, and, therefore, he might have proceeded to sow his "wild oats," impressed all the while with the mighty idea that he was a great genius, because the eldest son of one of the most wealthy and influential commoners of England, who would have died any day either for Pitt or the Prince of Wales, for the King and the Church. But it was well for young Peel that such crack-brained fancies never seem to have entered his head, but from his earliest years he looked upon work as something sacred— a Divine appointment--and, therefore, he set himself to be a great scholar, not by thinking himself a great genius, but by dint of hard labour and perseverance, by early rising and systematic arrangement-by means of those self-same elements in virtue of which his grandfather and his father rose to great eminence in the commercial world. Lord Byron has borne testimony to this. Speaking of Harrow School, the poet says-"Peel, the orator and statesman that was, or is, or is to be, was my form fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove (a public school phrase). We were on good terms, but his brother was my intimate friend. There was always great hopes of Peel amongst us all, masters and scholars, and he has not disappointed them. As a scholar he was greatly my superior. As a declaimer and actor I was reckoned at least his equal. As a schoolboy, out of school, I was always in scrapes, and he never; and in school he always knew his lesson, and I rarely, but when I knew it I knew it nearly as well." Peel felt at first that, although he was the son of the wealthiest cotton-spinner in England, there was, after all, no royal road to learning. He therefore, by dint of hard labour-the demand which is made upon all for attainment in excellence-fought his way most honourably to the highest distinctions which the University of Oxford could grant, and carried off the highest honours both from school and college. He brought with him the same habits of severe application and diligence into the House of Commons, where he lived as in his home for forty years, yielding to few in the assiduity of his attendance, and to none in point of business habits, and in the prodigious labour with which he prepared for every possible topic of discussion. With an immense fortune, with a keen taste for literature and the fine arts, and thus with ample means of enjoyment within his reach apart altogether from politics, he nevertheless ventured upon the stormy sea, and with the determination, it seems, of becoming Lord High Admiral-in other words, Premier and leader of the House of Commons. Like his great example, the younger Pitt, this was the high destiny which the old father had carved out for his son. This of itself was no small disad vantage to the late Sir Robert, as, at the very outset of his career, his qualifications were examined with a rigid and jealous scrutiny. One of the clever squibs of the day was a pretended last will and testament of a patriot. The following paragraph refers to the late Premier:-"I give and bequeath my patience to Mr. Robert Peel; he will want it all before he becomes Prime Minister of England; but, in the event of such a contingency, my patience is to revert to the people of England, who will stand greatly in need of it." Though Mr. Peel had many advantages at the commencement of his careeran independent fortune, university reputation, and a mind disciplined by study-he had to encounter much that must have dismayed a rising statesman. He was overshadowed by the established reputations of the great men already on the stage. Yet, by dint of habits of industry, severe application, and systematic arrangement, more than by anything which might be called genius, this son of wealthy and garrulous old cotton spinners rose to be one of England's most distinguished Prime Ministers, and we have no hesitation in saying, at least for one act of his life, the greatest favourite of her people. "Let me assure you (he said himself, in his beautiful oration addressed to the students of Glasgow University, when he was chosen to be Lord Rector), let me assure you, with all the earnestness of the deepest conviction, founded on the opportunities for observation which public life and intercourse with the world have afforded, that your success, your eminence, your happiness, are much more independent of the accidents and caprices of fortune, infinitely more within your own control, than they appear to be to superficial observers. Whatever be your pursuit, whatever be the profession which you may choose, the avenues to honourable fame are widely open to you, or at least are obstructed by no barriers of which you may not command the key. I repeat, with the earnestness of the deepest conviction, that there is a presumption amounting almost to certainty, that if any one of you will determine to be eminent, in whatever profession you may choose, and will act with unvarying steadiness in pursuit of that determination, you will, if health and strength be given to you, infallibly succeed. Yes, even if what is called genius shall have been denied to you, you have faculties of the mind which may be so improved, by constant exercise and vigilance, that they shall supply the place of genius, and open to you brighter prospects of ultimate success than genius, unaided by the same discipline, can hope to attain." The man who cherished and expressed such sentiments was, throughout his whole life, a striking exemplification of the practical influence of these. A man of genius in the highest, perhaps in any sense, he was not; but he was a man of great acquirements, consummate tact, commanding influence, and resources adequate to almost any crisis; and, had he not been removed so suddenly, so calamitously, in the mysterious dispensation of an All-wise Providence had he still been amongst us, with the enlightened views, the matured judgment, the increasing liberality, and with the growing sense of what the age demanded, which characterised the latter years of his life, need we ask who would have been Prime Minister of England at this moment. The people of England did look to him with confidence, they did look to him as a mighty reserve for any crisis that might happen. He is gone. It is now needless to speculate; but we cannot help asking ourselves the question, Had he been still amongst us, who was more likely than he to be invested with the highest office in the state? The experiment cannot now be made, but nevertheless the opinion may still be expressed. There is one deeply touching scene in the life of this great statesman which we would not willingly omit, even from such a rapid sketch as the present. It conducts us back to that period of great national distress previous to the repeal of the corn-laws, when a dark complication of evils stared him in the face, and it became a most difficult matter to steer the vessel of the state through the breakers that were a-head. One day his secretary, whilst busily engaged in a room adjoining the private apartment of Sir Robert Peel, heard |