ministers, "the King took leave of us with great composure and great
kindness, gave to each of us a salute on each cheek, and accepted our
resignation of office."

{78} Thackeray, in his lecture on George the Fourth, turned this record
to most amusing account, and delighted his audience by a comical
description of the King's paternal benediction imprinted in kisses on
the cheeks of Wellington, Lyndhurst, and Peel. But when the kissing
was over and the three statesmen had departed, the King began to find
that he was left practically without a Government. What was to be
done? It would be impossible to form a Government after his own heart
without such men as Wellington, Lyndhurst, and Peel, and even if he
could have got over his own personal dislike to Lord Grey, it was
impossible to suppose that Lord Grey would become the head of any
Government which did not undertake Catholic Emancipation. The King
found himself in the awkward position of having either to announce to
his subjects that he intended to govern without any ministers, and to
direct the affairs of the State entirely out of his own head, or to
call back to office the men whom he had kissed and sent away. Even
George the Fourth could not hesitate when such a choice was forced upon
him. He wrote to the Duke of Wellington, telling him that he must once
more put himself in the hands of the Duke and his colleagues, and let
them deal as they thought best with Catholic Emancipation.

[Sidenote: 1829--The Forty-shilling Freeholders]

The Catholic Relief Bill was at once brought in, and consisted in
substance of the enactment of a new oath, which admitted Roman
Catholics to Parliament and to all political and civil offices
excepting merely those of Regent, Lord Chancellor, and Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland. The Bill was passed rapidly through both Houses of
Parliament. The third reading was carried in the House of Commons by
320 votes to 142, and in the House of Lords by 213 to 109, and the
great controversy was happily at an end. The settlement, however, was
not effected with as complete and liberal a spirit as Peel would
certainly have infused into it if he could have had his way.

O'Connell, who had been twice elected for Clare, was not allowed to
take his seat under the new measure until he had returned to his
constituents and submitted himself for {79} re-election--a ceremonial
absolutely unnecessary, and only impressing the civilized world as an
evidence