Constituency : Warrington 1868-74, Burnley 1876-87 ( from 1886 Liberal Unionist )
Peter took Warrington from the Tories.
Peter was educated at a grammar school in Warrington. He was a wire manufacturer and a friend of Cobden. He had directorships in banking , canals and iron masters. He was mayor of Warrington in 1853-4.
Peter was known as a Radical. In 1871 Peter protested at the speed with which the Army Regulation Bill was being driven through the House. That same year he attacked expenditure on the diplomatic service arguing that new technology made much of it superfluous but his attack was beaten off. After the Franco-Prussian War his Cobdenite views on foreign policy became unpopular ; when he boasted to his constituents of having asked 3,000 questions during a Select Committee hearing a heckler cried "What a bloody ignorant fellow you must be". In 1872 he was on the Royal Commission on Contagious Diseases.
Peter knew his seat was at risk in 1874 so he stood in South East Lancashire as well but lost both contests. He came back in at a by-election for Burnley in 1876.
Peter resented Home Rule as a diversion from domestic reform priorities. He described the House elected in 1885 as "practically an abortion... a barren parliament". He joined the Liberal Unionists in 1886.
He died in 1887 aged 67.
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