To Froude, as to Carlyle, Cromwell was the minister of divine vengeance upon murderous and idolatrous Papists.

His liking for the Irish, though perfectly genuine, was accompanied with an underlying contempt which is more offensive to the objects of it than the hatred of an open foe.

He regarded them as a race unfit for self-government, who had proved their unworthiness of freedom by not winning it with the sword.

If they had not quarrelled among themselves, and betrayed one another, they would have established their right to independence; or, if there had been still an Act of Union, they could have come in, as the Scots came, on their own terms.

For an Englishman to write the history of Ireland without prejudice he must be either a cosmopolitan philosopher, or a passionless recluse.