#robert peel

“L'opinion publique est un composé de folies, de sagesse, de sentiments faux, de sentiments justes, d'obstination et de paragraphes dans les journaux.” 📰

Sir Robert Peel

Many “absentee” plantation owners and merchants involved in the slave trade rose to high office in the UK and fought against abolition.

William Beckford, the owner of a 22,000-acre estate in Jamaica, was twice lord mayor of London and, in the mid- to late 1700s, was one of 50 MPs in parliament who represented the slave plantations. An oil painting of Beckford hangs in a members-only room in Westminster.

William Alexander Mackinnon, the Conservative MP for Dunwich, features in an oil painting from the collection, of a debate from 1860. His family was given compensation following the abolition of slavery for profits lost on Mackinnon’s estate in Antigua.

The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.

Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.

The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.

Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.

Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.

The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

- Sir Robert Peel’s 9 principles of policing

Sir Robert Peel was a British statesman and member of the Conservative Party, who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is regarded as the father of the modern British police.

As Home Secretary in 1822 and in 1829 he established the first full-time, professional and centrally-organised police force in England and Wales, for the Greater London area. The reforms introduced by Sir Robert Peel and the first Police Commissioners were based on a philosophy that the power of the police comes from the common consent of the public, as opposed to the power of the state.The nine principles that underpin this philosophy were set out in the ‘General Instructions’ issued to every new police officer from 1829 onwards.

His 9 principles were widely shared around the world as the basis of a police force responsive to crime but beholden to its citizens and community by consent rather than as an instrument of the state.

Although these principles were adopted and used in 1829, their timeless value continues today.  At the time, these principles were considered radical because they were such a 180-degree turn from current practices.  Principle #1 especially points out the futility and using heavy handed techniques and the threat of severe punishment as an effective crime prevention strategy.

According to the author, Charles Reith, “it was a philosophy of policing unique in history and throughout the world because it derived not from fear but almost exclusively from public co-operation with the police, induced by them designedly by behaviour which secures and maintains for them the approval, respect and affection of the public.”

Instead of talking of defunding the police or other nonsensical extreme Marxist clap trap, perhaps we instead go back to the roots of the traditions of policing as it was originally envisaged. Such an enterprise is not an effort of the state but one that involves its citizens and communities too.

In the spirit of fairness I'll start with the positive. The episode did try to show how devastating the Famine had on the Irish people and it showed that this was an event of English making, as well as some of the purely disgusting attitudes of English people at the time. (It also touched on the case of Catholics getting pushed into being baptized as Protestant in hopes of food.) It had statistics of how many died as well as how many left and discussed the effect that it still has upon Ireland. I've heard many accounts of people in England who knew very little about the Famine and its negative impact upon Ireland as well as the involvement their government had who watched this episode and were horrified. So I will give the episode credit for raising awareness in England surrounding the Famine.

However, I have no idea why in the name of sweet mercy they tried to make it out that Victoria was some kind of hero in this situation. In the version of history presented in this show Victoria wanted to help the Irish, but her government stood in her way. From what I've heard there's no actual evidence to support this claim and a lot of evidence to show that she was just as prejudiced against the Irish as anyone in her government and actively hindered aid for Ireland. To say that she was somehow a hero of the Irish is completely false and while I do enjoy this show, I often find myself irritated by its attempts to make Victoria out to be this forward thinking monarch that she so clearly was not. This attitude also extended to Miss Cleary, one of the show's very few Irish characters, who at times felt like she was there so they could show which English characters were more accepting than others.

Harrow School Fourth Form Room and Old Speech Room Gallery

It was by a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1572 that wealthy farmer John Lyon was granted permission to establish a school for boys in Harrow. Lyon and his wife administered the schools out of their own incomes until their deaths, the running of the institution passing to a board of governors in 1608. Although at first an endowment from Lyon allowed most boys to be taught for free, soon came the fee-paying, so-called "foreigners" – boys from outside the parish. Over the coming decades more of these “foreigners” would attend the Harrow School, leading to it becoming one of the most exclusive of the independent, boys-only boarding schools in the UK today, occupying a commanding position on a hill looking down toward central London.

But, back to its beginnings. When the board of Governors took over the running, their first act was to construct a building that more fitted with their ideas of what a school should be. Which is to say, nothing like a school today. The original brick schoolhouse consisted of just one classroom, with a basement underneath for storage of fuel, and accommodation for two schoolmasters above.

In the 1660s, the building was redeveloped, adding chairs and tables for the teachers, benches for the pupils, cupboards for books and equipment, and wood panelling on all the walls. Almost as soon as the panelling was in place, the schoolboys began to carve their names into it, usually shortly before the end of their time in attendance at the school. Looking at the names today, it’s a small trip through a who’s who of the 17th to 19th Centuries – such notable Old Harrovians to have left their mark include Lord Byron, and former prime minister and founder of the Metropolitan Police force Robert Peel.

The Old Speech Room Gallery was completed in 1821, being built onto the side of the old school (or Fourth Form Room as it is now known) in a complementary style. Once used as the venue for practising public speaking, in 1976 it was converted into a gallery to display the antiquities, art and curios the school had acquired over the years, which includes Ancient Egyptian and Greek artefacts, Japanese prints, and personal effects of Lord Byron.