It was indeed impossible for any intelligent and candid Roman Catholic to deny that the champions of his Church were, in every talent and acquirement, completely over-matched.

The ablest of them would not, on the other side, have been considered as of the third rate.

Many of them, even when they had something to say, knew not how to say it.

They had been excluded by their religion from English schools and universities; nor had they ever, till the accession of James, found England an agreeable, or even a safe, residence.

They had therefore passed the greater part of their lives on the Continent, and had almost unlearned their mother tongue.