OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1581, 26 October 1912, Page 5

OBITUARY.

VISCOUNT PEEL. Dy Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright London, October 24. Tho death is announced of Viscount Peel, ex-Speaker of the House' of Commons. No speaker of the House of Commons was more jealous of its dignity and its privileges than tho Eight Hon. Arthur Wcllesley Peel, who ruled over its destiuios in some of its. most strenuous years, from 188 ( to 1895. He succeeded a great Speaker in Mr. Brand, whose lot it was to deal with tho first groat extension of tho arts of Parliamentary obstruction by,the Pnrncllites; but Mr. Peel excelled tho record oven of Mr. Brand. He was always seen and heard to advantage when in a comminatory mood, and no commoner suimuoued to the bar, or member lectured for disorder, but failed to feel the moral castigation which Mr. Peel could administer so effectively. Ho perhaps more than any other member attained what the late Sir William liarcourt onco declared was his greatest ambition: to stand well with tho Houso of Commons. Tho fifth son of tho great Sir Robert Peel, ho was born in 1829, was educated at Eton and Balliol, and at the age of thirty-six entered the Houso' of Commons for Warwick as a Liberal. He became Mr. Gladstone's Secretary to tho Poor Law Board in 16G8, (hen Secretary to iho Board of Trade in 1871, and Patronago Secretary to the Treasury in 187.1. When Mr. Gliulslono returned (o power in 1880 he mado Mr. Peel Under-Secre-tary' at the Home Oflico, .and on Mr. Brand's retirement ho was Hie unanimous choice of tho House of Commons'for the Speakership. Ho wa.s a D.C.L. of Oxford, and a Visitor of Halliol; ho was a Trustee of tho National Gallery, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of (ho National Portrait Gallery. His most notable public service after ho was raised to the peerage as a Viscount in 1895 was to preside over the Royal Commission on Licensing, in which capacity his strong and forceful individuality exerted itself —not with immediate apparent success; but tho effect of (lie drastic proposals for reforms which he foreshadowed has sinco l>cen amply shown in tho reduction of the national drink bill, and tho discouragement of oxoessivo alcoholic indulgence. Ho married a daimhtor of William Stratford Dugdale, of Merovalo Hill, Warwick, and his heir is his eldest son, AVilliam Robert Wellesley, born 1807.