Editing Robert Peel (section)

=== Famine in Ireland ===
Though he knew repealing the laws would mean the end of his ministry, Peel decided to do so.<ref>Adelman, ''Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850'', 67–69.</ref> It is possible that Peel merely used the Irish Famine as an excuse to repeal the Corn Laws as he had been an intellectual convert to free trade since the 1820s. Blake points out that if Peel had been convinced that total repeal was necessary to stave off the famine, he would have enacted a bill that brought about immediate temporary repeal, not permanent repeal over a three-year period of gradual tapering-off of duties.<ref>Blake, ''Disraeli'', 221–222.</ref>
Peel's support for free trade could already be seen in his 1842 and 1845 budgets;<ref>Adelman, ''Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850'', pp. 35–37, 59.</ref> in late 1842 [[Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet|Graham]] wrote to Peel that "the next change in the Corn Laws must be to an open trade" while arguing that the government should not tackle the issue.<ref>Quoted in Gash, ''Sir Robert Peel'', 362.</ref> Speaking to the cabinet in 1844, Peel argued that the choice was the maintenance of the 1842 Corn Law or total repeal.<ref>Gash, ''Sir Robert Peel'', 429.</ref> The historian [[Boyd Hilton]] argued that Peel knew from 1844 he was going to be deposed as the Conservative leader. Many of his MPs had taken to voting against him, and the rupture within the party between liberals and paternalists, which had been so damaging in the 1820s but masked by the issue of parliamentary reform in the 1830s, was brought to the surface over the Corn Laws. Hilton's hypothesis is that Peel wished to be deposed on a liberal issue so that he might later lead a Peelite/Whig/Liberal alliance. Peel was magnanimous towards Irish famine and permitted quick settlements of disputes at frontiers in India and America ( [[Treaty of Amritsar (1846)]] on 16 March 1846 and [[Oregon Treaty]] on 15 June 1846) in order to repeal [[Corn Laws]] on 29 June 1846.<ref>Hurd, ''Robert Peel: A Biography'', 43.</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Read | first=Charles | title=The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain's Financial Crisis | publication-place=Woodbridge | date=2022 | isbn=978-1-80010-627-7 | oclc=1338837777}}</ref> As an aside in reference to the repeal of the Corn Laws, Peel managed to keep minimum casualties of [[Irish Famine]] in its first year, Peel did make some moves to subsidise the purchase of food for the Irish, but this attempt was small and had little tangible effect. In the age of [[laissez-faire]],<ref>Adelman, ''Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850'', 70.</ref> government taxes were small, and subsidies or direct economic interference was almost nonexistent. That subsidies were actually given was very much out of character for the political times; his successor, [[Lord John Russell]], received more criticism than Peel on Irish policy, the worst year being 1847, despite all of Peel's efforts, his reform programmes had little effect on the situation in Ireland.<ref>Adelman, ''Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850'', pp. 48–49.</ref> Russell could not manage public distribution system during [[Irish Famine]] even though subsidized food from USA was made available in Ireland. The repeal of the Corn Laws became more political than humanitarian.<ref>Adelman, ''Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850'', 69–71.</ref>