pon
them as evidence. The Author who gives them says,
that he considers them capable of embellishing and
adorning his history. The reader is invited to sift
this matter thoroughly, if he thinks that the
writer of these Memoirs has taken a partial view of
the merits of the question; and he is, at the same
time, cautioned against regarding the principal
work in which these letters are found as the
production of M. Laboureur. Into this error he
might easily be led by the manner in which the book
has been quoted. Laboureur translated the work of
an anonymous writer of St. Denis, of whose
character nothing is known. The manuscript, in
Latin, is said to have been found in the library of
M. Le President De Thou. The original author
brought the history down to the year 1415, and St.
Jean Le Fevre continued it to 1422.]

In this threefold indictment, the first charge is "falsehood." The
falsehood is made to consist in Henry's assertion, that he was
stimulated to prosecute his claim by the wishes of his people; and the
only evidence alleged to sustain this charge of falsehood, is the fact
that parliament, in granting the supplies, so far from specifying that
the grant was made for the purpose of recovering the King's rights in
France, merely stated that it was "_for the defence of the realm, and
the safety of the seas_."

Before a charge, fixing an indelible stain on the character of a
fellow-creature, whether the individual were a king leading his armies
to victory, or the humblest subject in his realm, were made on such
grounds as these, it had been well,--well for the cause of truth, and
well for the satisfaction of the accuser,--had the nature and force of
the evidence adduced been first more carefully examined. The slightest
acquaintance with the language of parliament at that time, and the
most cursory comparison of the words of its members with their
conduct, must satisfy every one that not a shadow of suspicion is
suggested of any unwillingness on the part of the Commons to support
the King in demanding his supposed rights, and vindicating them by
arms. On the contrary, the very records of parliament th