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.