estion in the new Parliament by a majority of four encouraged him in
his resistance. In January 1827 the death of the Duke of York removed
one serious obstacle to the Catholic cause, and six weeks later Lord
Liverpool, who had so long held together the divided Ministry, was
struck down by apoplexy. Peel would gladly have continued in his
present position if a peer of real weight who held his opinions on the
Catholic question was appointed to the vacant place. But there was no
such peer, except Wellington, to be found, and under Wellington
Canning refused to serve. Canning had, indeed, now fully resolved to
be at the head of the Administration, and Peel refused to serve under
him.

With his opinions on the Catholic question it is impossible to blame
him, and the letters which passed between the two statesmen are very
honourable to both, and show clearly that in spite of great divergence
of opinion, character, and interests, each could recognise the good
faith of the other. In a letter written to one of his brothers Peel
describes his position with complete frankness:

'I am content with my position in the Government, and willing to
retain it--willing to see Mr. Canning leader of the House of Commons,
as he has been. But giving him credit for honesty and sincerity, if he
is at the head of the Government, and has all the patronage of the
Government, he must exert himself as an honest man to carry the
Catholic question; and to the carrying of that question, to the
preparation for its being carried, I never can be a party. Still less
can I be a party to it for the sake of office.'

These words were written little more than a year before Peel
undertook, as Minister of the Crown, to introduce a measure of
Catholic emancipation. But if they do little credit to his prescience,
no one can mistake the accent of sincerity in what follows:

'I do not choose to see new lights on the Catholic question precisely
at that conjuncture when the Duke of York has been laid in his grave
and Lord Liverpool struck dumb by the palsy. Would any man, woman, or
child believe that after nineteen years' stubborn unbelief I was
converted, at the very moment Mr. Canning was Prime Minister, out of
pure conscience and the force of truth?'[41]

With the resignation of Peel and the other anti-Catholic members of
Lord Liverpool's Government, and the formation of the short Canning
Ministry, this instalment of Peel's letters comes to an end.[42] We
rejo