to have been scrupulously just; while the dignity of the patriot
hero Wallace has been somewhat impaired. Elizabeth is proved to have
befriended the false Mary Stuart much longer than was consistent with
her personal safety. Eloquent Cicero has been held up as an object of
contempt; and even weighty Tacitus has been said to owe much of his
reputation to his ability to give false testimony with a grave face.
It has lately been suspected that gloomy Tiberius, apart from his
gloominess, may have been rather a good fellow; not so licentious
as puritanical, not cruel so much as exceptionally merciful,--a rare
general, a sagacious statesman, and popular to boot with all his
subjects save the malignant oligarchy which he consistently snubbed, and
which took revenge on him by writing his life. And, to crown all, even
Catiline, abuser of our patience, seducer of vestal nuns, and drinker
of children's blood,--whose very name suggests murder, incest, and
robbery,--even Catiline has found an able defender in Professor Beesly.
It is claimed that Catiline was a man of great abilities and average
good character, a well-calumniated leader of the Marian party which
Caesar afterwards led to victory, and that his famous plot for burning
Rome never existed save in the unscrupulous Ciceronian fancy. And those
who think it easy to refute these conclusions of Professor Beesly
had better set to work and try it. Such are a few of the surprising
questions opened by recent historical research; and in the face of them
the public is quite excusable if it declares itself at a loss what to
believe.

These, however, are cases in which criticism has at least made some
show of ascertaining the truth and detecting the causes of the prevalent
misconception. That men like Catiline and Tiberius should have had their
characters blackened is quite easily explicable. President Johnson
would have little better chance of obtaining justice at the hands of
posterity, if the most widely read history of his administration should
happen to be written by a radical member of the Rump Congress. But the
cases which Mr. Delepierre invites us to contemplate are of a different
character. They come neither under the head of myths nor under that of
misrepresentations. Some of them are truly vexed questions which it
may perhaps always be impossible satisfactorily to solve. Others may
be dealt with more easily, but afford no clew to the origin of
the popularly received error. L