THE

PEEL CLUB PAPERS

FOR

SESSION 1839-40.

GLASGOW:

PRINTED BY GEORGE RICHARDSON, AND

SOLD BY D. CAMPBELL, BUCHANAN STREET.

MDCCCXL.

ΤΟ

Their Illustrious Patron,

THE RIGHT HON.

SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART., M.P.

&c. &c.

THE MEMBERS

OF

THE GLASGOW UNIVERSITY PEEL CLUB

Dedicate, by Special Permission,

THESE PAPERS,

WITH FEELINGS OF PROFOUND RESPECT.

PREFACE.

In closing our Editorial labours for the present Session we have to congratulate our friends upon "a most successful season." The establishment of a periodical under the auspices of the Peel Club, was regarded by some as a step involving very considerable risk. The result has proved most triumphantly that the fears of such individuals were altogether groundless. The support we have received has been such as to seal with approbation the course we have pursued.

To our friends who have contributed to our success by literary contributions and to our readers in general we return our sincere thanks.

To our opponents, who have experienced no small annoyance from the exposures which have appeared in our Papers, we have only to express our sorrow that their conduct should have demanded the severe censures we have thought it our duty to inflict. As we are unconscious of having in the smallest degree misrepresented either their opinions or their actions we owe them no apology, and we have none to offer. Towards many members of the Liberal Association we entertain sincere feelings of respect, but we could not allow any feelings of a personal nature to interfere with the discharge of what we regarded a public duty.

་

Of the present position of the Peel Club, we shall only say that it never occupied more honourable or advantageous ground. It has now nothing to fear either from the opposition of foes or the lukewarmness of professed friends. It stands impregnable in the justice of its cause and the union which pervades its ranks.