adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In a lenient manner; gently, indulgently.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 247. He … exhorted his brother to act prudently and leniently.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvii. IV. 33. The tribunal … had dealt with him more leniently than his former friends.
1884. Spectator, 4 Oct., 1325/1. It is easy to look leniently upon his tortuous diplomacy at the Congress of Westphalia.
