s critics: "I say frankly,
that I believe the control of human things in this world is given to
the strong, and those who cannot hold their own ground with all
advantage on their side must bear the Consequences of their
weakness." The Holy Inquisition, might have used this language in
Italy or in Spain. Any tyrant might use it at any time. It was
denied in anticipation by an older and higher authority than Carlyle
in the words "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to
the strong." There is a better morality, if indeed there be a worse,
than reverence for big battalions.

Sceptre and crown
Must topple down,
And in the earth be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade;

Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

Froude seldom did things by halves, and his apology for Cromwell is
not half-hearted. He applauds the celebrated pronouncement, "I
meddle with no man's conscience; but if you mean by liberty of
conscience, liberty to have the mass, that will not be suffered
where the Parliament of England has power." A great deal has
happened since Cromwell's time, and the mass is no longer the symbol
of intolerance, if only because the Church of Rome has no power to
persecute. Cromwell would have had a short shrift if he had fallen
into the hands of mass-goers. To tolerate intolerance is a Christian
duty, and therefore possible for an individual. Whether it was
possible for the Lord General in 1650 is a question hardly suited
for popular treatment on a public platform. All that he did was
right in Froude's eyes, including the prescription of "Hell or
Connaught" for "the men whose trade was fighting, who had called
themselves lords of the soil," and the abolition of the Irish
Parliament. "I as an Englishman," said Froude, "honour Cromwell and
glory in him as the greatest statesman and soldier our race has
produced. In the matter we have now in hand I consider him to have
been the best friend, in the best sense, to all that was good in
Ireland." This is of course an opinion which can honestly be held.
But to the Irish race all over the world such language is an
irritating defiance, and they simply would not listen to any man who
used it.

The expulsion of Presbyterians under Charles II. was foolish as well
as cruel, for it deprived the English Government in Ireland of their
best friends, and supplied the American colonies with some of their
staunchest soldiers in the War of