Freeman had grossly and frequently insulted him without the faintest provocation.

But he had long since taken his revenge, such as it was, and he could afford to be generous now.

He discovered, with some ingenuity, a point of agreement in that Freeman, like himself, was a champion of classical education.

Therefore, "along with his asperities," he had "strong masculine sense," and had voted for compulsory Greek.

If the right of suffrage were restricted to men who knew Greek as well as Froude or Freeman, the decisions of Congregation at Oxford, and of the Senate at Cambridge, would command more respect.
Froude must have been reminded by the obligatory reference to Freeman that a man of seventy-four was succeeding a man of sixty- nine.