Toleration and State Institutions explores the rise of more charitable British policy toward Catholics in Ireland and in Quebec, beginning in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Karen Stanbridge carefully demonstrates that "Catholic relief" arose more gradually, and encountered less opposition, than is generally maintained. This work sheds new light on the official treatment (and mistreatment) of minorities at home during the height of British expansion abroad, offering a fascinating example of the divisions and rapprochements that characterize the relationship between state and society.