works from which
Prescott's account was derived? But it is unnecessary to pursue the
argument; Mr. Wilson acknowledges that he knows nothing of the works in
question. "For our purpose," he writes, "the standard histories of the
conquest might as well be blank paper." We believe him; but had
his purpose been, not "to denounce in general terms the venerable
_precedents_ so constantly quoted by our annalists, but to show their
defects and their errors in detail," he would hardly have used them, as
he has done, as mere wadding for the great gun which he was loading,
and which has exploded with such terrible effect. His objection to
the "standard histories" is, that their authors were Spaniards,
ecclesiastics, royal historiographers,--that they wrote under the eye of
the Inquisition and the censorship. Like objections would apply to the
whole field of Spanish history. The reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella,
Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second must, therefore, be as fabulous
as the conquests of Mexico and Peru. Accordingly, Mr. Wilson, when he
wishes to study the history of Spain, declines to have recourse to
Spanish writers. He goes to writers of other countries, and has a very
natural preference for such as speak the English tongue. Besides that
valuable work known among mortals as the "Encyclopaedia Britannica,"
but usually cited by Mr. Wilson, in an off-hand and familiar way, as
"Britannica," he draws much upon a treasure of his own discovery, "a
ponderous folio" of the seventeenth century, written in English by one
Grimshaw, and containing a full and veritable history of Spain from
the earliest epochs. He makes much of Grimshaw, styling him "our
chronicler." He pats the volume fondly, and calls it "my old
folio,"--just as Mr. Collier pats and fondles _his_ celebrated old
folio. To judge from some specimens which Mr. Wilson gives us, the
venerable Grimshaw cannot have the merit of being very easy of
comprehension. Here is an extract, just as we find it:--"About the year
756, at which time there were great troops of Turks beginne to disperse
themselves over all Armenia, the which did overrunne and spoil the
Sarrazin's country." And here is another:--"Over common, then, in Spain,
and elsewhere, which nevertheless chastise the world in such sort, but
that this sinne is at this day more in use than ever it was, to the
dishonor of our God, contempt of his laws, and confusion of all good
order." Apparently, Mr. Wilson, beside