The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-04 00:00:00

--trrERATuRE.

HISTORIC DOUBTS.
Ilistoticai Difficulties and Contested Reath.
°mays Deuriesse, LL.D. Murray._
History would form the most delightful of
reading if we could be sure that it were true. Su
however, is the pregame of scientific investigat
that we are asked to part with most, if not all,
charming narratives that delighted us in boyhe
The grave statements of grave historians are j
wanted to be fiction, and we are left in sen
doubts about subjects which never troubled for
moment the faith of our forefathers. It is re
hard to be told that the founder of Rome
suckled like ordinary mortals, that Curtin' did
leap into the gulf, that Anacreon was not cho
1.37 • g rapestone, or lEschylus killed by a torte
that Horner never existed, and that the girlt
Sparta, instead of walking about in their lovelin
were in the habit of shopping at the linendrap
and giving extensive orders to the dressmal
History must be false, said Lord North . and
Duke of Wellington declared of • celebrated
torian that he was apt to think • thing usual
true because he wished to believe it. There ear
no question that the prejudices or the indigest
of an historian affect his interpretation of eve]
and that a bad cigar or a bad bottle of wine r
influence what Mr. Tennyson calls "the roll
the eyes."
Dr. Delepierre, the Secretary of Legation to
King of the Belgians, has published a work ui
historical events, in which he is bold enough
rash enough to show that there never was a P.
Joan, that Beliearitus never was a beggar, that J,
of Arc was never burnt at Rouen, that the titer)
William Tell is wholly a fiction, that the celebni
love letters of Abelard and Eloisa are in all r
bability apocryphal, and that Dr. Roberta.
account of the latter days of Charles V. is hi
better than a romance.

Dr. Delepierre does not write as if he w
bilious, and since we cannot refute his &gums
we are bound to accept his conclusions. Yet i
hard to be brought to such a predicament. .1
this is not all. Our own history begins to gi
a little shaky. Did Alfred burn the cakes or
he not? Did a certain king keep his la
love in a bower, and was she poisor.ed
a jealous queen ? Is it a romance to say t
the Duke of Clarence was drowned in Maim
wine ? Was not Henry VIII., notwithstine:
his six wives, a fairly good sort of fellow? and .1
not Bloody Mary deserve credit for her consci
tiousneas, and good Queen Bess discredit for
duplicity ? These and a score more questions ri
we fear be answered to the confusion of the hi,
rians, and it is amusing to think how a youth v
has been severely trained, and preserved from
dissolute habit of novel reading, may, if his ter
for history, have been imbibing a vast amour.:
fiction ever since his education began. The ni
points in biography and in literature are, m,
over, every whit as perplexing as the events wi
we are in the habit of calling purely historical.
Did Luther fling his inkstand at the De,
Did Shakespeare steal Sir Thomas Lucy's de
Did Milton dictate " Paradise Loat " to
daughters 1 or is it true that he never taught tl
to write 1 Did Swift marry Stella ? Was
Philip Francis "Junius"? These are qi
tions for which there is no answer, and tl
may be some people cynical enough to
that it is of no consequence whether t
are answered or not. But there are state=
of a graver kind concerning which a sini
obscurity prevails. Our readers will reniew
how some years ago it was affirmed again
again and denied as often that the Record ne
paper called Lord Palmerston " a man of C.
and not a session of parliament passes
some honourable member getting on his leg,
deny that he ever said what some other how.
able member gives him credit for saying. Ind,
as we appraach our own day it becomes more
more difficult to unravel the true from the false,
only with regard to party bickerings, but also v,
regard to great political events. " I always distru
said the root Rogers, "the accounts of einii
men by their contemporaries," and if the live
great men are distorted by personal prejudice.
also is the progress of society or of nations
forted by men who are the eager witnesses of I
progress. Wherever there is passion there is
chance, at least, that while deliberate falsehoo
avoided, truth will be suppressed. Thus they
no wise student of Irish roli..ies who we
endeavour to gain all his materials for jr
meat from the Orange party on the
hand or from the so-called national party on
other, any more than a student of amen
, polities would give his %viile attention to the
mocrats or to the republicans. It is the Ilan
thing in the world to ascertain the exact truth c
about the events of the last decade, and therel
it need not surprise us that we are asked to reg
as mythical much that we have hitherto been
costumed to accept as history. But if in
sceptical age we are forced to be critical, let us
ware of being hypercritical lest sic sauce. f;
which, if there be such a thing as hist..vic-.1 to
mony, may safely be regarded as '
criticism that instead of encouraging p.tien:
search only produce pyrrhonism is neither 6°ol
the intellect nor for the heart.

Earl Grey has given notice of hie intentiol
more, in committee on the " Regulation of Railways 13
tho insertion of clauses imposing penalties for
emission of m aqua smoke by railway engines require
the low to consume their own. The stationmaster in
district in which the offence is committed is to be
nominal defendant.

Miss Garrett has just delivered a comae of
lectures oa the Physiology of Sight to a select merit
of ladies.

Messrs. Bell and Daldy are preparing for pu
cation a series of views in the Scottish scenes vitited
the Queen, and described in her book.
Mr. Feed's picture of tho year " represent
working-man who has been watching hie sick boy throa
restless night ; the child, holding on by his father'sb:e
has fallen ulcep ; daylight finds them both at rest—c
oat." -