he design, if the execution is not equal in
every part, the praise remains to Sir Erskine May, that he is the only
writer who has ever brought together the materials for a comparative
study of democracy, that he has avoided the temper of party, that he has
shown a hearty sympathy for the progress and improvement of mankind, and
a steadfast faith in the wisdom and the power that guide it.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: _The Quarterly Review_, January 1878.]

IV

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW[6]

The way in which Coligny and his adherents met their death has been
handed down by a crowd of trustworthy witnesses, and few things in
history are known in more exact detail. But the origin and motives of
the tragedy, and the manner of its reception by the opinion of Christian
Europe, are still subject to controversy. Some of the evidence has been
difficult of access, part is lost, and much has been deliberately
destroyed. No letters written from Paris at the time have been found in
the Austrian archives. In the correspondence of thirteen agents of the
House of Este at the Court of Rome, every paper relating to the event
has disappeared. All the documents of 1572, both from Rome and Paris,
are wanting in the archives of Venice. In the Registers of many French
towns the leaves which contained the records of August and September in
that year have been torn out. The first reports sent to England by
Walsingham and by the French Government have not been recovered. Three
accounts printed at Rome, when the facts were new, speedily became so
rare that they have been forgotten. The Bull of Gregory XIII. was not
admitted into the official collections; and the reply to Muretus has
escaped notice until now. The letters of Charles IX. to Rome, with the
important exception of that which he wrote on the 24th _of_ August, have
been dispersed and lost The letters of Gregory XIII. to France have
never been seen by persons willing to make them public. In the absence
of these documents the most authentic information is that which is
supplied by the French Ambassador and by the Nuncio. The despatches of
Ferralz, describing the attitude of the Roman court, are extant, but
have not been used. Those of Salviati have long been known.
Chateaubriand took a copy when the papal archives were at Paris, and
projected a work on the events with which they are concerned. Some
extracts were published, with his consent, by the continuator of
Mackintosh;