t, who held a very
prominent place among the more advanced reformers of the time, and who
represented Westminster in the House of Commons, brought forward a
resolution inviting the House to consider the state of the laws
affecting the Roman Catholics of the two islands, "with a view to such
a final and conciliatory settlement as may be conducive to the peace
and strength of the United Kingdom, to the stability of the Protestant
Establishment, and to the general satisfaction and concord of all
classes of his Majesty's subjects." The resolution was supported by a
powerful speech from Brougham, in which he dwelt on the fact that not
one of those who opposed the motion had expressed any conviction that
the existing state of things could long continue, and that it was
impossible to overlook or deny the great advance which the movement for
Catholic Emancipation had been making in and out of Parliament. Peel
was greatly impressed by this argument, and also by the fact that the
men who supported Burdett and Brougham in the House of Commons
represented the best part of the intellect and statesmanship of that
House. The resolution was carried by 272 votes against 266 on the
other side, a small majority, {74} indeed, but a majority that at such
a time was large enough to show a man of Peel's intellect the practical
progress which the demand for Catholic Emancipation had already made.

[Sidenote: 1828--Peel and Catholic emancipation]

We find in Peel's own correspondence the most interesting evidences of
the influence which all these events were making on his clear and
thoughtful mind. The man whom O'Connell had defeated in Clare, Mr.
Vesey Fitzgerald, had represented the constituency for many years, had
always supported by speeches and votes the claims of the Catholics, and
was the son of one who had stood by the side of Grattan and Sir John
Parnell in resisting the Act of Union. No one could have been more
popular up to that time among Irishmen, and the election of O'Connell
was obviously due to the fact that O'Connell had made himself the
leader of a movement which had for its object to bring about a great
crisis, and to compel the Parliament and the Government to surrender at
once or encounter a civil war. Peel asked himself--we quote his own
words--"whether it may not be possible that the fever of political and
religious excitement which was quickening the pulse and fluttering the
bosom of the whole Catholic population-