ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the interesting question of cabinet proposal and royal permission regarding the settlement of the Catholic emancipation issue. The value of Professor Richard W. Davis's contribution lies chiefly in its production of a statement by Palmerston on 9 August 1827, the day after Canning's death. The 'open system' regarding Catholic emancipation during the Liverpool ministry was a convention which was intended to prevent the question becoming a matter of cabinet policy, but this could have ended whenever the Cabinet so decided. Davis rightly emphasises that the issue, even though it was never the subject of a Cabinet proposal from 1812 to 1829, could have become so at any time in this period depending on the changing views of Cabinet ministers. Another protracted influence of the ministerial discussions in 1829 on a settlement of the Catholic issue was their effect on the powers of the monarchy.
