Freeman, after pages of mere abuse, would pounce with triumphant ejaculations upon a misprint.

Lecky did not waste his time either on scolding or on trifles.

The faults he found were grave, and his censure was not the less severe for being decorous.

An Anglicised Irishman, living in England, though a graduate of Dublin University, Lecky became known when he was a very young man for a brilliant little book on Leaders of Irish Opinion.
He had since published mature and valuable histories of rationalism, and of morals.

His History of England in the Eighteenth Century is likely to remain a standard book, being written with fairness, lucidity, and candour.