They belonged to the same set, and no one was more cliquish than Freeman.

Liberal as he was in politics, he always professed the utmost contempt for the general public, and wondered what guided their strange tastes in literature.

Dean Stephens has apparently suppressed most of the references to Froude in Freeman's private letters, and certainly he drops no hint of the controversy about Becket.

But the following passage from his "Concluding Survey" is apparently aimed at Froude.
Freeman, we are told, "was unable to write or speak politely"-- and if the Dean had stopped there I should have had nothing to say; but he goes on--"of any one who pretended to more knowledge than he really had, or who enjoyed a reputation for learning which was undeserved; nay, more, he considered it to be a positive duty to expose such persons.

In doing this he was often no doubt too indifferent to their feelings, and employed language of unwarranted severity which provoked angry retaliation, and really weakened the effect of his criticism, by diverting public sympathy from himself to the object of his attack.