CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION ACT, an act of the British Parliament passed in the 10th year of the reign of George IV, 13 April 1829, by which the Catholics of Ireland were relieved of civil disabilities still persisting there after the more odious and oppressive provisions of the penal laws enacted in 1691, in violation of the stipulations of the Treaty of Limerick, had been gradually done away. For 50 years after 1691 those laws were enforced vigorously; from that time to the era of emancipation there was a gradual relaxation. The design of those penal laws was the extermination of the Catholic religion in the island and the adminis tration of the government purely for the be hoof of the °Protestant interest° and the °Eng lish A Catholic was not permitted to be a landowner, nor even to hold land on lease, save for a brief term; the son of a Catholic could, by making profession of the Protestant religion, come into possession of his father's property, allowing to his parent an annuity; if a Catholic owned a horse, what ever its value, any Protestant might legally seize it on paying to the owner $25; no Catholic priest could lawfully exercise his ministry in Ireland save under severe restrictions, and monks and friars were regarded as felons and punished as such; no Catholic could be a bar rister, nor a schoolmaster; Catholics were ineligible to the Parliament of Ireland, or even as electors; they were not permitted to be freemen of boroughs. When the act of union of the kingdom of Ireland with that of Great Britain was passed William Pitt gave solemn assurance to the Catholics of Ireland that the last of their disabilities would be forthwith removed, and bills to that effect were brought into Parliament; but Pitt, giving way before the insane bigotry of King George III, did not press the measure and went out of office. The Catholics continued to demand their enfran chisement and emancipation, and their appeals were heard in the British Parliament; but it was seen that the hope of redress of grievances was vain unless a show of force was made, or a popular agitation set on foot. Daniel O'Con nell, already a highly successful counsellor-at law, .though not a barrister, owing to his dis ability as a Catholic,.took the leadership of the
Catholics of Ireland, and from 1824 till the act of emancipation was passed, Ireland was the scene of an unprecedented popular agita tion, never equalled in any country till the agitation for the repeal of the union with Great Britain was set on foot immediately after the grant of Catholic emancipation. The British Cabinet was alarmed by the outburst of popula'r enthusiasm in Ireland, and the House of Com mons in 1825 passed a relief bill for Ireland, but the Lords rejected it. A second relief bill, two years later, failed in the House of Commons. But the following year, 1828, the House, al though the Cabinet (Wellington's) was adverse, passed that second bill. This made the Cabinet and even the King (George IV) pause, and it was confessed that really something might or must be done; but the agitation must cease. The rely of the Irish Catholics was to nom inate 0 Connell, despite his legal disability, for membership in the Parliament and to elect him triumphantly. He was a member of Parlia ment-elect, but he would not take the oath whereby he must accept the King's supremacy in religion. It was the King and the Cabinet that had to retreat now. The bill for Catholic emancipation was brought into the House of Commons on 5 March 1829, and passed the first reading by a majority of 188 in a House of 508 members; on the second reading the majority was 180, and on the final vote it was 178 in a House of 462. Even in the Lords the measure was passed by a good majority, and the bill received the King's assent. The rights and privileges accorded to the Catholics of Ireland by this act were: That they were not to be required to take the oath of supremacy; that they became admissible to all offices in corpora dons and to enjoyment of all municipal rights. But no Catholic could be regent or lord chan cellor, either of Great Britain or of Ireland; and they were incapable of holding offices con nected with the Established Church or the universities. In all other respects the Catholics were to stand on an equal footing with Prot estants. In 1871 the Roman Catholic oath and the declaration concerning transubstantiation were abolished.