Emancipation Refused

King George III held an official entertainment at Windsor Castle on 28th January 1801. On the throne ever since the year 1760, the King in his old age had become rather deaf. He asked Lord Melville, the War Minister, to repeat what he had just said. The Minister reminded His Majesty that his Prime Minister, William Pitt, had promised Catholic Emancipation – that is, the repeal of the law which prevented Catholics from becoming Members of Parliament.

King George was outraged. He shouted out, so that no one there could fail to hear him: 'The most Jacobinical thing I ever heard of! I shall reckon any man my personal enemy who proposes any such measure!'

The Act of Union had been in force only for a month. William Pitt had all but promised to grant Emancipation to Catholics as soon as the Act had been passed. Now, without the King’s support, he could not do that. Pitt felt he had no choice but to resign.

By 1806 Pitt was dead and, soon after, George III was gnashing his gums impotently in his straitjacket. Now it was the Prince Regent who declared that he was opposed to further concessions to Catholics. Most Tories agreed with him.
As one Tory backbencher put it: 'I care no more for a Catholic than I care for a Chinese.'

The Whigs were in favour of Emancipation and, when they came to office in 1806, with Lord Grenville as Prime Minister, they prepared a Bill to grant more rights to Catholics. This provoked so much royal displeasure that Grenville resigned in 1807. For the second time in less than seven years a Westminster government had been brought down by the issue of Catholic Emancipation.

These developments brought much satisfaction to Ireland’s elite, the Protestant Ascendancy. Many Protestant gentlemen had hated the Union because it seemed likely that it would be accompanied by Catholic Emancipation. Now they discovered that the sky had not fallen in.

Catholics were still not allowed in Parliament. Even better, Ireland seemed to be governed in much the same way as it had been. Though there was not a word about it in the text of the Act of Union, the British government decided that it would continue to have a separate executive in Dublin Castle – there would still be a viceroy, an Irish Chief Secretary, an Attorney-General, and so on.

There would still be plum jobs for Protestants in a separate Irish civil service. And educated and propertied Protestants continued to monopolise power in city and town corporations, to rule the 32 counties through unelected Grand Juries, to be the officer class in the Yeomanry and Militia, and to have the pick of legal appointments. This was in spite of the fact that most of the Penal Laws against Catholics had long since been repealed.

In 1828 it was shown that in Ireland, of 1,314 offices connected with the administration of justice open to Catholics, only 39 were held by Catholics. Out of another list of 3,033 public offices, Catholics held only 134 posts. Irish Protestant opposition to the Union now rapidly melted away.

From January 1801 Irish MPs took their seats at Westminster. They were a pretty uninspiring lot. Fifty per cent of Irish MPs never made a single speech in the House of Commons in the 19 years between 1801 and 1820. There were a few energetic exceptions. One was ‘Humanity Dick’, Richard Martin, the MP for Co Galway: his Act of 1822 for the protection of cattle from cruelty was the first legislation for animal protection.

‘Humanity Dick’ was a supporter of Catholic Emancipation. But the most determined champion of Catholic rights at Westminster was Henry Grattan, who had been the most renowned orator of the old Irish Parliament.

He declared: 'The question is not whether we shall show mercy to the Roman Catholics, but whether we shall mould the inhabitants of Ireland into a people: for as long as we exclude Catholics from natural liberty, and the common rights of man, we are not a people.'

Again and again Grattan presented petitions, put forward motions in the House of Commons and drafted relief Bills. He made his last attempt in 1819: it was defeated by just two votes.

Grattan died in 1820. The following year a Catholic Emancipation Bill did pass the Commons but it was defeated in the Lords. Had the Lords passed this Bill, the future history of the United Kingdom would probably have been very different.

Catholic men of education and property, originally keen supporters of the Union, felt deceived and humiliated. It had become quite clear that a completely new approach would be needed to persuade Westminster to carry emancipation. Inspirational leadership was needed…and the man who provided it was: Daniel O’Connell.