ABSTRACT
FROM HANSARD, XIII, 138–42 (25 April, 1825). It would be impossible to begin a documentary selection on Victorian anti-Catholicism anywhere other than here. The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, and the arguments produced both for and against its passing, formed the essential framework of reference for serious consideration of Catholicism in the nineteenth century. Two unsuccessful Relief Bills were introduced to Parliament by Plunket in 1821 and by Burdett in 1825. On the latter occasion the Duke of York chose to declare his opposition to any Catholic concession, with a speech in the House of Lords which was greeted by anti-Emancipationists as the charter of their cause. This was the declaration—in fact written by the Duke himself, though attributed by some of his contemporaries to Lord Eldon—which John Bull proposed should be printed in letters of gold.
