ly
justified this sweeping invective. "There are persons who believe
that if the king had not interfered with Lord Fitzwilliam, the Irish
Catholics would have accepted gratefully the religious equality
which he was prepared to offer them, and would have remained
thenceforward for all time contented citizens of the British
Empire." So reasonable a theory requires more convincing refutation
than a simple statement that it is "incredible." Incredible, no
doubt, if the Catholics of Ireland were wild beasts, cringing under
the whip, ferocious when released from restraint. Very credible
indeed if Irish Catholics in 1795 were like other people, asking for
justice, and not expecting an impossible ascendency. Interesting as
Froude's narrative is, it becomes, when read together with Lecky's,
more interesting still. Though indignant with Froude's aspersions
upon the Irish race, Lecky did not allow himself to be hurried. He
was writing a history of England as well as of Ireland, and the
Irish chapters had to wait their turn. In Froude's book there are
signs of haste; in Lecky's there are none. Without the brilliancy
and the eloquence which distinguished Froude, Lecky had a power of
marshalling facts that gave to each of them its proper value. No
human being is without prejudice. But Lecky was curiously unlike the
typical Irishman of Froude's imagination. He has written what is by
general acknowledgment the fairest account of the Irish rebellion,
and of the Union to which it led. Of the eight volumes which compose
his History of England in the Eighteenth Century, two, the seventh
and eighth, are devoted exclusively to Ireland.

After the publication of his first two volumes he made no direct
reference to Froude, and contented himself with his own independent
narrative. He vindicated the conduct of Lord Fitzwilliam, and traced
to his recall in 1795 the desperate courses adopted by Irish
Catholics. He showed that Froude had been unjust to the Whigs who
gave evidence for Arthur O'Connor at Maidstone in 1798, and
especially to Grattan. That O'Connor was engaged in treasonable
correspondence with France there can be no doubt now. But he did not
tell his secrets to his Whig friends, and what Grattan said of his
never having heard O'Connor talk about a French invasion was
undoubtedly true.* Froude's hatred of the English Whigs almost
equalled his contempt for the Irish Catholics, and the two feelings
prevented him from writing anything l