Home Secretary (later Prime Minister) Robert Peel was alarmed and warned an associate of his in 1824, "We cannot tamely sit by while the danger is hourly increasing, while a power co-ordinate with that of the government is rising by its side, nay, daily counteracting its views.
Passage demonstrated that the veto power long held by the Ultra-Tories faction of reactionary Tories no longer was operational, and significant reforms were now possible.
This new, cheaper category ensured Catholics from a poorer background could join, and thus the association's initial class-based entry barriers were removed.
Firstly, as previously mentioned, it gave the Catholic Association a constant source of money, which enabled Daniel O'Connell to run a consistent campaign.
Secondly, it facilitated easy calculation of total association membership numbers so that O'Connell could say with confidence that he had the support of so many people.
Daniel O'Connell decided to add this additional membership level, at a reduced price of a penny a month, deliberately.
With the membership subscription set at a relatively cheap price, a large number of the peasant and working classes could join.
The fact that each member had contributed financially to the association also ensured that they were more deeply involved in pushing the cause of Catholic emancipation.
Some was spent campaigning for Catholic emancipation, defraying the costs of sending petitions to Westminster, and training of Priests.
[citation needed] The Catholic Association's funds were used to support these boycotts so that they could continue and live well enough to have enough food to survive.
[citation needed] The Catholic Association was originally aristocratic in its composition, and some of the gentry (such as Richard Lalor Sheil) held relatively conservative views.
The matter had been discussed in London since the 1800 Act of Union, when the Prime Minister Pitt and most of his colleagues resigned from the cabinet when emancipation was denied by the king.
They used their money and manpower to campaign for the candidate to be elected into parliament to pressure the government from within to pass Catholic emancipation.
Peel decided to change the government's approach and submitted the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in February 1829.