disastrous both to Ireland
and to the Empire than the defeat of the influence represented by
Grattan and by the Catholic gentry, and the growing ascendancy of
O'Connell and the democratic and sacerdotal party in Irish popular
politics. Grattan had long predicted that, if concession was not
speedily and wisely made, population in Ireland would drift away from
the guiding and moderating influence of property; that seditious and
anarchical men would gain an ascendancy which would make the whole
problem of Irish Government incalculably difficult; that a priesthood
unconnected with the English Government would lead to a 'Catholic
laity discorporated from the people of England.' In the Irish
Parliament the strong bias of Conservatism in his policy had been
repeatedly displayed, and it was equally apparent in the Imperial
Parliament. In 1807 he had supported the Insurrection Act, in
opposition to many of his friends, on the ground that there was a real
and dangerous French party in Ireland, which the common law was
insufficient to suppress. In 1814 he expressed his full approval of
the proclamation suppressing the Catholic Board. He steadily and
earnestly maintained that, although it was vitally necessary that
Catholic emancipation should be speedily carried, it should be
accompanied by measures for securing, as far as possible, the loyalty
of the higher Catholic clergy, and uniting them in interest and
sentiment with the British Government. He looked with bitter hostility
on the rise and policy of O'Connell. He accused him of 'setting afloat
the bad passions of the people,' making grievances instruments of
power without any honest wish to redress them, treating politics as a
trade to serve a desperate and interested purpose.

But the influence of Grattan was now manifestly declining, and Peel
watched the decline with a short-sighted and not very generous
pleasure. In Parliament, though numbers were against the Catholics,
the overwhelming preponderance of ability was still in favour of the
principle of emancipation, and it was in leading the anti-Catholic
party that Peel chiefly acquired his almost unrivalled parliamentary
skill. He had, indeed, all the qualities of a great debater: courage,
fluency, self-possession, complete command of every subject he
treated, unfailing lucidity both in statement and reasoning; admirable
skill in marshalling and disentangling great masses of facts, in
meeting, evading, or retorting argument