was recognised by the Treaty of Limerick.

An exclusively Protestant, Parliament was accompanied by such toleration as the Catholics had enjoyed under Charles II.

The infamous law against the Irish trade in wool and the episcopal persecution of Nonconformists, were condemned in just and forcible terms by Froude.

Episcopal shortcomings seldom escaped his vigilant eye.

"I believe," he said, "Bishops have produced more mischief in this world than any class of officials that have ever been invented." The petition of the Irish Parliament for union with England in 1703 was refused, madly refused, Froude thought; Protestant Dissenters were treated as harshly as Catholics, and the commercial regulations of the eighteenth century were such that smuggling thrived better than any other trade.