but was often a severe critic of Mr. Gladstone's policy. In 1871 he gave a remarkable proof of his eloquence by describing to the House the rout, which he had himself witnessed, of the French army of General Bourbaki, and its flight over the Swiss frontier in the depth of winter during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1874 he for a second time christened himself a Liberal-Conservative; and when the eastern question, during Lord Beaconsfield's administration, came to the front, he wholly separated himself from the followers of Mr. Gladstone. He did not stand for Tamworth at the general election in 1880, but unsuccessfully contested Gravesend in the conservative interest; and his voice was often heard on Conservative platforms, denouncing the action of the Liberal administration in Egypt and Ireland. In The Times of 8 May 1880 he published a letter, in which he recounted the offers from various governments of honours and offices which he had refused. On 21 March 1884 he was returned as a Conservative member for Huntingdon. When that borough was disfranchised, he was, in November 1885, returned for Blackburn. On the critical division on the second reading of the Home Rule Bill, on 7 June 1886, he abstained from voting. At the general election in the following July Peel contested the Inverness Burghs for the Liberal party against a Liberal Unionist who had broken with his party on the issue of Home Rule. Peel was not successful. Subsequently, with characteristic impetuosity, he threw himself into the home rule agitation as a supporter of the Irish demands, and at a by-election in 1889 was the Liberal candidate for Brighton, duly advocating (Irish) home rule. Neither of the incumbents returned had been Liberals since the election of 1880 but the by-election was expected to be a closer affair, and polling 39.3% of the vote, he decided not to stand again to be an MP. Horse racing From about 1856 he was extensively engaged in racing under the name of Mr. F. Robinson; and later on had an establishment at Bonehill, near Tamworth, where he bred horses. Later life His father's fine collection of 77 pictures and 18 drawings, including Chapeau de Poil by Rubens, he sold to the National Gallery in March 1871 for . Per The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (1883) he owned across Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Lancashire yielding an annual rent of £24532.