espondence, from Fersen downwards. But we are only a
little way in the movement for the production of the very acts of the
government of revolutionary France.

To give you an idea of what that means. Thirty years ago the Cahiers,
or Instructions, of 1789 were published in six large volumes. The
editors lamented that they had not found everything, and that a dozen
cahiers were missing in four provinces. The new editor, in his two
volumes of introduction, knows of 120 instructions that were
overlooked by his predecessors in those four regions alone; and he
says that there were 50,000 in the whole of France. One collection is
coming out on the Elections for Paris, another on the Paris Electors,
that is, the body entrusted with the choice of deputies, who thereupon
took over the municipal government of the city and made themselves
permanent. Then there is the series of the acts of the Commune, of the
several governing committees, of the Jacobins, of the war department,
and seven volumes on Vendee alone.

In a few years all these publications will be completed, and all will
be known that ever can be known. Perhaps some one will then compose a
history as far beyond the latest that we possess as Sorel, Aulard,
Rambaud, Flammermont are in advance of Taine and Sybel, or Taine and
Sybel of Michelet and Louis Blanc; or of the best that we have in
English, the three chapters in the second volume of Buckle, or the two
chapters in the fifth volume of Lecky. In that golden age our
historians will be sincere, and our history certain. The worst will be
known, and then sentence need not be deferred. With the fulness of
knowledge the pleader's occupation is gone, and the apologist is
deprived of his bread. Mendacity depended on concealment of evidence.
When that is at an end, fable departs with it, and the margin of
legitimate divergence is narrowed.

Don't let us utter too much evil of party writers, for we owe them
much. If not honest, they are helpful, as the advocates aid the judge;
and they would not have done so well from the mere inspiration of
disinterested veracity. We might wait long if we watched for the man
who knows the whole truth and has the courage to speak it, who is
careful of other interests besides his own, and labours to satisfy
opponents, who can be liberal towards those who have erred, who have
sinned, who have failed, and deal evenly with friend and foe--assuming
that it would be possible for an honest historian