Independence. Enough were left,
however, to immortalise the siege of Derry, while the native Irish
failed to distinguish themselves, or, in plain English, ran away, at
the Battle of the Boyne, and the defeat of James II. was recognised
by the Treaty of Limerick. An exclusively Protestant, Parliament was
accompanied by such toleration as the Catholics had enjoyed under
Charles II. The infamous law against the Irish trade in wool and the
episcopal persecution of Nonconformists, were condemned in just and
forcible terms by Froude. Episcopal shortcomings seldom escaped his
vigilant eye. "I believe," he said, "Bishops have produced more
mischief in this world than any class of officials that have ever
been invented." The petition of the Irish Parliament for union with
England in 1703 was refused, madly refused, Froude thought;
Protestant Dissenters were treated as harshly as Catholics, and the
commercial regulations of the eighteenth century were such that
smuggling thrived better than any other trade. The country was
pillaged by absent landlords, and "the mere hint of an absentee tax
was sufficient to throw the younger Pitt into convulsions." The
Irish Protestant Bishops provoked the savage satire of Swift, who
doubted not that excellent men had been appointed, and only deplored
that they should be personated by scoundrels who had murdered them
on Hounslow Heath.

These lectures stung the Irish to the quick, and gave much
embarrassment to Froude's American friends. The Irish found a
powerful champion in Father Burke, the Dominican friar, who had been
a popular preacher at Rome, and with an audience of his own Catholic
countrymen was irresistible. Burke was not a well informed man, and
his knowledge of history was derived from Catholic handbooks. But
the occasion did not call for dry facts. Froude had not been
passionless, and what the Irish wanted in reply was the rhetorical
eloquence which to the Father was second nature. Burke, however, had
the good taste and good sense to acknowledge that Froude suffered
from nothing worse than the invincible prejudice which all Catholics
attribute to all Protestants. As a Protestant and an Englishman,
Froude could not be expected to give such a history of Ireland as
would be agreeable to Irishmen. "Yet to the honour of this learned
gentleman be it said that he frankly avows the injuries which have
been done, and that he comes nearer than any man whom I have ever
heard to the real roo