CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION: The name given
to the Act by which Parliament, on Apr. 13, 1829,
finally removed the civil disabilities under which
the, Roman Catholics of England and Ireland had
labored ever since the reign of Elizabeth, when
those who refused to take the oath of supremacy
and conform to the Established Church were excluded
from the House of Commons and from all
political power. They suffered from a mass of
accumulated disabilities, which, if the law had been
strictly enforced, would have deprived them of their
rights, not only as citizens, but as parents, proprietors,
and men. With the growth of toleration, a
bill abolishing some of these disabilities was passed
in 1778, to be followed by the uprising of the London
mob known as the "Gordon Riots." Pitt had
intended that the union between England and
Ireland should be followed by a measure admitting
Catholics to Parliament, with a provision for their
clergy and a commutation of tithes. This hope,
informally held out, probably helped to win their
support for the union; but George III. was inflexibly
opposed to this measure of justice, and Pitt
resigned in consequence of its failure. In 1821,
with Canning for its eloquent champion, a measure
of emancipation was carried through the House of
Commons, only to be defeated by Lord Eldon in
the upper house. But a mighty agitation followed
in Ireland, led by Daniel O'Connell and fomented by
a great Catholic Association. This body was dissolved
when Canning became minister in 1825,
but revived when he was replaced by the anti-Catholic
ministry of Wellington and Peel, and soon
showed such formidable strength that the great
Duke, with his political insight, saw that the hour
for concession had come. The bill which Peel
introduced threw open to Catholics Parliament and
all the great offices of state, except those of regent,
lord lieutenant of Ireland, and chancellor, the
crown remaining limited, by an Act of Settlement
to the Protestant Concession, and gave the electoral
franchise to English Catholics. As the removal
of an unjust anachronism, this measure was
inevitable; but it failed to restore tranquillity to
Ireland, since the concession had been robbed of its
grace by delay and enforcement, and since the
chief cause of Irish disaffection was, after all, not
the religious disabilities but the tenure of land,
as the sequel clearly showed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Sources: A. Wellesley (Duke of Wellington),
Supplementary Despatches, edited by his son, 7 July, 1812,
London; 1867-80, Speeches, 17 May, 1819, 2 vols., ib.1854;
F. S. Larpent, Private Journal, i. 95, ii. 20, London,
1853; Memoir of Sir Robert Peel, pt. i., The Roman Catholic
Question, London, 1834; J. F. Stephen, History of Criminal
Law of England ii. 476 sqq., London, 1883 (exceedingly
valuable); W. J. Amherst. History of Catholic
Emancipation in the British Isles, 2 vols., London, 1886
(fairly complete).
