People did not realise that so many confident allegations could be made in which there was no substance at all.  They thought themselves safe in making allowance for Freeman’s exaggeration, and Freeman simply bored many persons into accepting his estimate of Froude.  Perhaps he went a little too far when he claimed to have found inaccuracies in Froude’s transcripts from the Simancas manuscripts without knowing a word of Spanish.  But he was seldom so frank as that.  It was not often that he forgot his two objects of holding up Froude as the fluent, facile ignoramus, and himself as the profound, erudite student.

Just after reading Freeman’s furious articles on Becket, I turned to Froude’s “Index of Papers collected by me October, November, and December, 1856.”  It covers twenty-one pages, very closely written, and I will give a few extracts to show what sort of preparation this sciolist thought necessary for his ecclesiastical pamphlet.  The first entry, representing four pages of text, is “Hanson’s Description of England.  Diet, habits, prices of provisions from Parliamentary History.”  Another is “Dress and loose habits of the London clergy in 1486.  From Morton’s Injunctions.”

“State of the Abbey of St. Albans in 1489 shows that Froude was well acquainted with that subject many years before he wrote his Short Study on it.  “The Bishops of all the Sees in England under Henry, date of appointment, etc.,” is another of these items, which also comprise “Extracts from the so-called Privy Purse Expenses of Henry viii.”  “Bulla Clementis Papae VII. concessa Regi Henrico de Secundis nuptiis.  This contains the passage quocunque licito vel illicito coitu.”  “Petition of the Upper House of Convocation for the suppression of heretical books.”  “Royal Letter on the Articles of 1536 which were written, Henry says, by himself.”  “Elaborate and extremely valuable State Papers on the Duchy of Milan, and the dispute between the Emperor and Francis I.”  “Pole to James, the Fifth Letter of Warning.”  “Pole to the Pope, May 18th, 1537.  N.B.—­Very remarkable.”  “Remarkable State Paper drawn by Pole and addressed to the Pope at the time of the interview at Paris between Francis and the Emperor.”  “Privy Council to the Duke of Norfolk.  Marquis of Exeter to Sir A. Brown.  Promise of money.  Directions to send relief to the Duke of Suffolk in Lincolnshire, etc.”  “Henry viii. to the Duke of Norfolk about November 27th, 1536.  Part of it in his own hand.  High and chivalrous.”  “Curious account of the ferocity of the clergy in Lincolnshire.”  “Curious questions addressed to Fisher Bishop of Rochester on some treasonable foreign correspondence.”  “Learned men to be sent to preach to the disaffected counties.  Henry’s version of the causes of the insurrection—–­N.B., and the cure.”  “Instructions to the Earl of Sussex for tranquillising the North after the Insurrection.  Long and curious—­noticeable list of accusations