He took away their Irish estates, "and gave them to others who would reside and attend to their work.

It would have been confiscation doubtless," beyond the power of American Congress, though not of a British Parliament.

"If in later times there had been more such confiscations, Ireland would not have been the worse for it." Here, then, Froude was on the side of the Irish.

Here, as always, he was under the influence of Carlyle.

His ideal form of government was an enlightened despotism, with a ruler drawn after the pattern of children's story-books, who would punish the wicked and reward the good.