een
driven out of Ireland by William of Orange, the more fanatical
Catholics would have followed them, and Ireland would have become
prosperous, contented, and loyal. To an American Republican such
ideas were as repugnant as they were to an Irish Catholic. An
American could understand the argument that Home Rule was
impracticable, because a Federal Constitution did not apply to the
circumstances of the United Kingdom. He would not readily believe
that the Irish were by nature incapable of self-government, or that
Englishmen must know better what was good for them than they knew
themselves. For Cromwell he could make allowance. The Protector had
to deal with a Catholicism which would have made an end of him and
restored Charles II. But times had changed. Catholics had abandoned
persecution, and ought not to be punished the sins of their fathers.
The Irish did not claim, as the Southern States had claimed, the
right to secede, but to exercise the powers inherent in every State
of the American Union.

Carlyle warmly approved of Froude's undertaking, and persisted in
believing that it had done good by forcing the American public to
see that there were two sides to the historic question, an English
side as well as an Irish one. He was so far right, and with that
qualified success Froude had to be content. His champion, whose
opinion was more to him than any other, than any number of others,
wrote to Mrs. Froude on the 5th of December, 1872: "The rest of the
affair, all that loud whirlwind of Bully Burke, Saturday Review and
Co., both at home and abroad, I take to be, in essence, absolutely
nothing; and to deserve from him no more regard than the barking of
dogs, or the braying of asses. He may depend on it, what he is
saying about Ireland is the genuine truth, or the nearest to it that
has ever been said by any person whatever; and I hope he knows long
ere this (if he likes to consider it) that the truth alone is
anything, and all the circumambient balderdash and whirlwinds of
nonsense tumbling round it are, and eternally remain, nothing. Tell
him I have read his book, and know others that have read it with
attention; and that their and my clear opinion is as above. To
myself there is a ring in it as of clear steel; and my prophecy is
that all the roaring blockheads of the world cannot prevent its
natural effect on human souls. Sooner or later all persons will have
to believe it." Carlyle seldom qualified his approval, and