1846-1850

THERE is not much more to tell. Peel lived for four
years longer, and but for the deplorable accident which
ended his life he might have outlived Palmerston, who
was four years his senior, and witnessed the recovery of
parties from the shock which dislocated them in 1846.
But for the rest of his life he was a minister in retreat,
a statesman with only a slender following, a politician
without a party. His authority was immense, and he
was never so popular or so respected as in the four years
which followed his fall from power. He had no desire
to return to office, and when he resigned he is said to
have implored the queen never again to require him to
serve her as minister. He wrote to Hardinge a
few days after his fall, "I have every disposition to
forgive my enemies for having conferred upon me
the blessing of the loss of power," and there is no
doubt that the feeling was perfectly sincere. He was
not greedy of power for its own sake; he was no longer
young--he was fifty-eight when he ceased to be Prime
Minister; his physical temperament was not a sanguine

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