stance occurred, in the month of December, which led
to an opposite inference. Dr. Curtis, a Roman Catholic prelate, who had
been on terms of personal acquaintance with the Duke of Wellington at
Salamanca, wrote a letter to him on the position of the Catholic
question, to which the Duke wrote an answer, which seemed to deny all
hope of a speedy settlement. It was immediately made public by Dr.
Curtis through the Catholic Association. The effect of the letter was to
make that body redouble their efforts.

In a few days after, the Marquis of Anglesea, the lord lieutenant, who
had always been the avowed supporter of the Catholics, also addressed a
letter in reply to one he received from Dr. Curtis, in which he gave the
Catholics advice as to the best mode of proceeding in order to attain
emancipation. This conduct on the part of the viceroy, together with the
open countenance he gave to the leading catholics in Dublin, gave the
strongest offence to the king, and amounted to such a breach of duty
that the Duke of Wellington was compelled to recall the marquis from
Ireland.

The public mind was now in the greatest perplexity. On the one hand, the
state of Ireland seemed to render some measure of concession inevitable,
while on the other there was the letter to Dr. Curtis, and the dismissal
of the lord lieutenant--facts which seemed to discountenance all hope.

The year 1829 was the most eventful in the civil career of the Duke of
Wellington. He had been throughout his life the opponent of Roman
Catholic emancipation: he was now to come before the public in the new
character of a prime minister prepared to grant, as a measure of free
grace, that which he had hitherto denounced as inconsistent with the
safety of the Protestant constitution.

Up to within a few days of the opening of parliament, however, the
design of the government was wholly concealed, but in the speech from
the throne parliament was recommended to entertain the question. In the
debate on the address the Duke of Wellington announced it as the
intention of the government to introduce a measure for the emancipation
of the Catholics. And now arose a political storm almost unparalleled in
the history of party, from the effects of which we are scarcely yet
recovered.

The Duke and Mr. Peel were immediately made the objects of the most
unrelenting hostility by the opponents of emancipation. Seeing the
favour in which the two statesmen are now held by their par