Maynooth Grant

In 1845, the Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, sought to improve the relationship between Catholic Ireland and Protestant Britain by increasing the annual grant from the British government to St Patrick's College, Maynooth, a Catholic seminary in Ireland in dilapidated condition.

[3] Conservatives led by the Ultra-Tory Anglican faction, were outraged that the Prime Minister would finance a Catholic seminary.

In 1845, John Plumptre, member of Parliament for East Kent and an opponent of the Grant, issued an address, saying:[5] As you value His favour, as you deprecate His frown, as your hearts and your altars are dear to you; as you would retain and enjoy for yourselves, and transmit to your children, the blessings and privileges which belong to you as Protestants, I beseech you to oppose, with all zeal and firmness, with all temperance and calmness, with all loyal attachment to your Sovereign—with all union among yourselves—with all charity towards all men—with all prayer and supplication towards God—this fresh inroad about to be made upon your consciences,--this new and deep wound to your highest and holiest feelings.This is strong evidence of the moral implications of the issue in Parliament.

The Anti-Maynooth Conference was held in London with over 1,000 delegates from England and Ireland and more than a million signatures were collected to oppose the grant.

Together with the repeal of the Corn Laws, it split Peel's Tories, eventually leading to the creation of the modern Liberal and Conservative parties: William Gladstone had previously opposed the Maynooth grant in his book The State in its Relations with the Church in 1838 that a Protestant country should not pay money to other churches, and confusingly resigned from the government when the proposed increase conflicted with his earlier principles while still voting for it in Commons; Benjamin Disraeli maintained his opposition on constitutional and political grounds, breaking with his Young England colleagues to gain reactionary Tory support against Peel.