Robert Peel

"'It was impossible to reconcile the repeal of the Corn Laws and the cohesion of the Conservative party; I felt no hesitation in sacrificing the subordinate object, and my own political interests for the former. Far from regretting my expulsion from office, I rejoice in it as the greatest relief from an intolerable burden. To be a tool of men who spend their time eating, drinking, and gambling would be an odious servitude, to which I will never submit.' - Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet"Sir Robert Peel, Baronet of Drayton Manor FRS (5, February, 1788 - 2, July, 1850) was an English diplomat, economist, lawyer, politician, soldier and statesman. During his career, Peel served as a Member of Parliament, seventh Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies, eighty-second Chief Secretary for the Province of Ireland, fourteenth Secretary of State for the Home Department, twenty-eighth Lord of the Treasury, twenty-third Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and eighty-ninth Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Peel's administration adopted the gold specie standard for the circulation and production of currency, annulled restrictions on Catholic participation in the civil service, established a welfare programme for the Province of Ireland, managed the relief effort during the famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1846, repealed tariffs on produce imports, implemented health and safety regulations for British factories, imposed a national income tax and prohibited the employment of child labourers in underground mines.

Peel personally authored the Tamworth Manifesto, defining the principles of the modern Conservative Party, drafted the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, establishing a federally administered police force for metropolitan London and the Bank Charter Act of 1844, vesting the power to print and issue bank notes exclusively with the central bank of the United Kingdom and served as Chairman of the Gold Bullion Committee and a Member of the House of Commons Library Committee.