Canning said of Peel that he was "the most efficient home secretary that this country ever saw'.
Under Peel, there was greater trust and fairer dealing between classes and parties. This was not just the work of Peel himself but due to a significant shift in public opinion. Peel listened to people around him, despite his aristocratic and crusty High Tory background. Peel's technique in dealing with issues was a very modern one - to surround himself with experts and to learn everything there was to know about a topic. Therefore, by the time he got the House of Commons, he would be able to speak to confidence and extensive knowledge.
Having listened to the Radical Francis Place, the Radical MP, Joseph Hume, and Jeremy Bentham, Peel persuaded Parliament to repeal the Combination Acts (which prohibited trade union activity) as soon as he became Home Secretary.
Peel also oversaw a complete revision of criminal law, repealing 250 statues which he considered to be outdated, and abolishing the death penalty for more than 100 different crimes. He put through Parliament no less than eight peices of legislation which changed and consolidated the criminal law in this country. Peel also set up a Select Committee to investigate policing in London, but this committee decided that an efficient police force, of the sort Peel had in mind, was not consistent with a free society. During the unrest caused by an economic slump in 1826, the army had to be brought in to quell it, because there was no other available law-keeping force. However, Peel persevered with the idea of a civilian police force, armed only with batons, and the Metropolitan Police force was set up in 1829. The new policemen were called after him, either "bobbies" or "Peelers".
Peel was, of course, a High Tory, a High Anglican and no lover of Roman Catholics. Peel's views on Roman Catholics were no means unusual. Received opinion of that age was decidedly anti-Catholic and the Test and Corporation Acts prevented Catholics from voting. When, in 1825, Sir Francis Burdett brought in a bill to enable Catholic Emancipation, Peel offered to resign, but, as the House of Lords threw the Bill out, his resignation was not accepted. He did nevertheless resign from the Cabinet in 1827 when Canning took over from Liverpool as PM. A few years later, under Wellington, the Catholic Emancipation bill was passed and Peel did have to resign (as MP) from his seat for Oxford University, a High Tory stronghold. Another seat was found for him after the forced "resignation" of another Tory MP, "doing the decent thing".
Peel was Prime Minister himself (with occasional breaks to get his breath back and, sportingly, to let the Whigs have a go) from 1834 to 1850.