In his zeal to justify the penal laws against Catholics Froude accepted without sufficient inquiry evidence which could only have satisfied one willing to believe the worst.
-- * English in Ireland, vol.i.pp.

417-434.
+ Ibid., p.

417.
-- Several years afterwards, in 1878, the subject was fully discussed, and Froude's conclusions were shown to be unsound, by another historian, William Edward Hartpole Lecky.

Lecky was a much more formidable critic than Freeman.

Calm in temperament and moderate in language, he could take part in an historical controversy without getting into a rage.