Robert Peel In 1830 the Whigs finally returned to power and Peel became a member of the Opposition for the first time. After successive election defeats, leadership of the Conservative Party gradually passed from Wellington to Peel, and when King William IV asked Wellington to become Prime Minister in November 1834, he declined and Peel was selected instead, with Wellington serving as caretaker until Peel took office. Peel then issued the Tamworth Manifesto (December 1834), laying down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. His first ministry was a minority government, dependent on Whig support and with Peel
Chronology of the Great Famine the subject of historical debate. An important and controversial point of debate, that is notable amongst Irish people, was that Irish food supplies were sufficient until it was taken away by the British the feed the British, and the landlords kept economic benefits to themselves. Some commentators and writers controversially compared this explanation to "genocide". At the beginning of August, Sir Robert Peel, the British Prime Minister, received news of a potato disease in the South of England. This was the first recorded evidence that the 'blight' which had ravaged the potato crop in North America in 1843-1844 had crossed