Robert Peel Quotes
It is essential to my position with the Queen that Her Majesty should understand that I have the feelings of a gentleman, and where my duty does not interfere, I cannot act against her wishes. Her Majesty doubtless knows how pressed I am as the head of a powerful party, but the impression I wish to create in Her Majesty's mind is, that I am bound to defend her against their encroachments.
In the British Constitutional Monarchy of the Victorian Era, the Queen still possessed enormous power and many in Parliament was constantly trying to have Parliament assume many of the Queen’s powers. The Prime Minister was in an awkward position. On the one hand, he was the Queen’s Prime Minister and leader of HER government. At the same time he was the leader of the political party that had won the last Parliamentary election. His party was trying to usurp some of the Queen’s powers and Peel explained to the Queen’s assistant that he would generally side with the Queen against his own party. It is doubtful that Anson and the Queen believed Peel on this point as his position as Prime Minister depended not on his being elected by the voters but by his party members of Parliament. In modern times, the British monarch has few real powers but is still very influential so there are no struggles over power with Parliament.
Robert Peel, 1788–1850, British Prime Minister (Conservative), Statement to Queen Victoria’s Advisor Anson, May 10, 1841
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To afford the President the greatest deference and respect should be a gratification to any citizen.
The Secretary was a very formal and proper man.
The King's staff had threatened Parliament before. See Dudley Carleton.
She responded to the Lord Chief Justice and to Lord Cecil and asked them to so inform the Commons and the House of Lords. Cecil needed three drafts to convey the response but tone it down a little, thus performing the duties of a modern press secretary.
1st Duke of Wellington. The King was somewhat delusional, and there is no historical records of his ever having personally fought in the Napoleonic wars at all. This quotation has often been nominated for the most tactful in history.
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, FRS was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) and twice Home Secretary (1822–1827 and 1828–1830). He is regarded as the father of modern British policing, owing to his founding of the Metropolitan Police Service. Peel was one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party.
