The Duke and Mr. Peel were immediately made the objects of the most unrelenting hostility by the opponents of emancipation.  Seeing the favour in which the two statesmen are now held by their party, it would be almost impossible to believe that such abusive language as was then poured forth could have been used towards them, were it not on record.

The Duke especially was charged with a treble treachery; to Mr. Canning, on account of the transactions previously referred to; towards the Protestant party, of whom he had been the chosen leader, and whom he was about to betray; and lastly a personal treachery in the concealment of his design until the moment of execution, by which he prevented others from coming forward and taking the station he had abandoned, as leader of the opponents of emancipation.

The Duke’s replies to all these charges will be found at length in the following pages.  But the charge of personal treachery was afterwards put in a shape which compelled the Duke of Wellington to take a very different notice of it.  The Earl of Winchelsea wrote a letter to the secretary of King’s College, in which, after adverting to the support which the Duke had given on Protestant principles to that institution, he stated that he now believed that the Duke’s conduct had been only a blind to the high church party, and that he was about, under the cloak of the Protestant religion, to carry into effect his insidious designs for the infringement of our liberties, and the introduction of Popery into every department of the state.  This letter the Duke found himself bound to notice; but the earl refused to retract.  A correspondence took place, which ended in a duel.  Neither party was hurt, and the earl subsequently made a public apology for the original expressions.

In the meanwhile the Emancipation Bill was steadily progressing.  On the 19th of February, in introducing the bill for the suppression of dangerous associations, the Duke of Wellington declared that there had been no previous bargain or compact with the Roman Catholic party while the Emancipation Bill was in the House of Commons.  Short discussions took place almost every night in the House of Lords upon its merits, in which whenever the Duke joined he did so with the greatest reluctance.  At length, on the 2nd of April, he moved the second reading of the bill in the House of Lords, in a speech which reflected credit upon him for moral courage, if not for consistency.

In fact, great moral courage is one of the most striking features in the character of the Duke of Wellington.  Some of his supporters will doubt this assertion; and will point to the Emancipation Act as a proof that the Duke wanted the firmness to act up to his avowed principles.  This involves a wrong assumption.  It is one thing obstinately to adhere to an opinion in defiance of its impracticability:  another to retract that opinion so soon as its impracticability is demonstrated.  Whether the Duke was right or wrong in his opinions, no one will deny that it required great moral courage for him to stand up in the face of the country, braving the anger of his old associates, and declare that he could no longer resist the force of public opinion.