Quote 1
"Hark to this, ma'am," [Mr. Peggotty] returned, slowly and quietly. "You know what it is to love your child. So do I. If she was a hundred times my child, I couldn't love her more. You doen't know what it is to lose your child. I do. All the heaps of riches in the wureld would be nowt to me (if they was mine) to buy her back! But, save her from this disgrace, and she shall never be disgraced by us. Not one of us that she's growed up among, not one of us that's lived along with her and had her for their all in all, these many year, will ever look upon her pritty face again. We'll be content to let her be; we'll be content to think of her, far off, as if she was underneath another sun and sky; we'll be content to trust her to her husband,—to her little children, p'raps,—and bide the time when all of us shall be alike in quality afore our God!" (32.110)
Even though Mr. Peggotty knows that it will get no results, he confronts Mrs. Steerforth to ask her if Steerforth will marry his niece. And Mr. Peggotty is so self-sacrificing that he promises all of Emily's poor relations will swear never to see her again if it will mean that Emily will be able to marry a man as high above her social class as Steerforth. Mr. Peggotty is totally aware of the realities of the world, he knows that Mrs. Steerforth would be ashamed to be related by marriage to a fisherman, but he hopes to appeal to her common feeling ("You know what it is to love your child. So do I.") to persuade Mrs. Steerforth to have pity. This willingness never to see Emily again if it will make Emily happy and save her from disgrace contrasts strongly with Mrs. Steerforth's unwillingness to see Steerforth again. After all, Mrs. Steerforth's reasons are purely selfish: she can't stand that her son has chosen to run away with another woman, that Steerforth has chosen Emily over his own mother (um?).