of the ungenerous and ungracious manner in which the
inevitable had been accepted. Then, again, an Act of Parliament was
passed disfranchising the class of voters in Ireland who were called
the Forty-shilling Freeholders, who formed a large proportion of
O'Connell's constituents. This was done no doubt to put some
obstacles, at all events, in the way of the Irish Catholic population
if they should hope ever again to make the representation of any
national claims as effective as they had done in the Clare election.
It may be taken for granted that Peel would not have marred the effect
of an act of mere justice by niggardly qualifications of any kind, but
he knew he had to deal with a Tory House of Lords, and was content to
accept some compromise as long as he could carry the main object of his
policy. The first great chapter in the modern history of political
reform had come to a thrilling close.

{80}

CHAPTER LXVIII.

THE LAST OF THE GEORGES.

[Sidenote: 1829--Wellington fights Lord Winchilsea]

One incident connected more or less directly with the Catholic
Emancipation question deserves historical record, if only for the curious
light it throws upon the contrast between the manners of that day and the
manners of more recent times. Shortly before the passing of the Catholic
Relief Bill, the Earl of Winchilsea wrote a letter which was published in
one of the newspapers strongly denouncing the conduct of the Duke of
Wellington, and declaring him guilty of having joined in a conspiracy to
overthrow the Church and the Constitution of England under false
pretences. This letter was addressed to the secretary of a committee
formed for the establishment of King's College in London, and Lord
Winchilsea had apparently assumed that the subject under consideration
warranted him in expressing his views with regard to the conduct of the
Prime Minister on the Catholic relief question. In more recent times, of
course, such a letter might have been written by anybody, whether peer or
commoner, and published in all the newspapers of the country without
calling for the slightest notice on the part of a Prime Minister. The
Duke of Wellington, however, lived at a time when a different code of
honor and etiquette prevailed. He wrote to Lord Winchilsea a letter, the
principal passage of which is worth quoting to illustrate the peculiar
sense of duty which could, at the time, direct the conduct of a man like
the Duke of W