Peel entered
parliament in that year, when he was elected at an unopposed by-election in February 1849 as a
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Leominster. At the
next general election, in 1852, he was returned as the MP for
Bury, but was defeated in
1857. He again held office under Palmerston and then Russell as
Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1860 to 1865. Peel's chief service to the state was in connection with the
Railway and Canal Commission. He was appointed a commissioner on the inception of this body in 1873, and was its president until its reconstruction in 1888, remaining a member of the commission until his death in 1906. ==Death==