tle evidence, and
for some next to none. We think them true in the same sense in which
Protestants think the history of England true. When they say _that_,
they do not mean to say that there are no mistakes, but no mistakes
of consequence, none which alter the general course of history. Nor
do they mean they are equally sure of every part; for evidence is
fuller and better for some things than for others. They do not stake
their credit on the truth of Froissart or Sully, they do not pledge
themselves for the accuracy of Doddington or Walpole, they do not
embrace as an Evangelist Hume, Sharon Turner, or Macaulay. And yet
they do not think it necessary, on the other hand, to commence a
religious war against all our historical catechisms, and abstracts,
and dictionaries, and tales, and biographies, through the country;
they have no call on them to amend and expurgate books of archaeology,
antiquities, heraldry, architecture, geography, and statistics, to
re-write our inscriptions, and to establish a censorship on all new
publications for the time to come. And so as regards the miracles of
the Catholic Church; if, indeed, miracles never can occur, then,
indeed, impute the narratives to fraud; but till you prove they are
not likely, we shall consider the histories which have come down
to us true on the whole, though in particular cases they may be
exaggerated or unfounded. Where, indeed, they can certainly be proved
to be false, there we shall be bound to do our best to get rid of
them; but till that is clear, we shall be liberal enough to allow
others to use their private judgment in their favour, as we use ours
in their disparagement. For myself, lest I appear in any way to be
shrinking from a determinate judgment on the claims of some of those
miracles and relics, which Protestants are so startled at, and to be
hiding particular questions in what is vague and general, I will avow
distinctly, that, _putting out of the question_ the _hypothesis of
unknown laws of nature_ (which is an evasion from the force of any
proof), I think it impossible to _withstand the evidence_ which is
brought for the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples,
and for the motion of the eyes of the pictures of the Madonna in the
Roman States. I _see no reason to doubt_ the material of the Lombard
crown at Monza; and I _do not see why_ the Holy Coat at Treves may
not have been what it professes to be. I _firmly believe_ that
portions of t