s as it was, it might have met with gradual acquiescence
if only it had been accompanied, as Pitt meant to accompany it, by
Catholic emancipation. On this point Froude goes all lengths with
George III., whose hatred of Catholicism was not greater than his own.
In the development of his theory, he was courageous and consistent. He
struck at great names, denouncing "the persevering disloyalty of the
Liberal party, in both Houses of the English Legislature," including
Fox, Sheridan, Tierney, Holland, the Dukes of Bedford and Norfolk, who
dared to propose a policy of conciliation with Ireland, as Burke had
proposed it with the American colonies. Even Pitt does not come up to
Froude's standard, for Pitt removed Lord Camden, and sent out Lord
Cornwallis.

--
* English in Ireland, iii. 336.
--

It is no disqualification for an historian to hold definite views,
which, if he holds them, it must surely be his duty to express. The
fault of The English in Ireland is to overstate the case, to make it
appear that there was no ground for rebellion in 1798, and no
objection to union in 1800. The whole book is written on the
supposition that the Irish are an inferior race and Catholicism an
inferior religion. So far as religion was concerned, Lecky did not
disagree with Froude. But either because he was an Irishman, or
because he had a judicial mind, he could see the necessity of
understanding what Irish Catholics aimed at before passing judgment
upon them. Froude could never get out of his mind the approval of
treason and assassination to which in the sixteenth century the
Vatican was committed. It may be fascinating polemics to taunt the
Church of Rome with being "always the same." But as a matter of fact
the Church is not the same. It improves with the general march of
the progress that it condemns. Froude fairly and honourably quotes a
crucial instance. Pitt "sought the opinion of the Universities of
France and Spain on the charge generally alleged against Catholics
that their allegiance to their sovereign was subordinate to their
allegiance to the Pope; that they held that heretics might lawfully
be put to death, and that no faith was to be kept with them. The
Universities had unanimously disavowed doctrines which they declared
at once inhuman and unchristian, and on the strength of the
disavowal the British Parliament repealed the Penal Acts of William
for England and Scotland, restored to the Catholics the free use of
their