ad a place in the procession at King Richard's coronation,
though a century before him two skeletons of boys were found in the
Tower at the very place where the children of Edward were said to have
been murdered and buried by the Duke of Gloucester? I speak from memory,
but the general fact which I am illustrating is undeniable. Ussher,
Pearson, and Voss proved that St. Ignatius's shorter Epistles were
genuine; and now, after the lapse of two centuries, the question is at
least plausibly mooted again."

There was another pause, while Bateman thought over his facts and
arguments, but nothing was forthcoming at the moment. Willis continued:
"You must consider also that reputed relics, such as you have mentioned,
are generally in the custody of religious bodies, who are naturally very
jealous of attempts to prove them spurious, and, with a pardonable
_esprit de corps_, defend them with all their might, and oppose
obstacles in the way of an adverse decision; just as your own society
defends, most worthily, the fair fame of your foundress, Queen Boadicea.
Were the case given against her by every tribunal in the land, your
valiant and loyal Head would not abandon her; it would break his
magnanimous heart; he would die in her service as a good knight. Both
from religious duty, then, and from human feeling, it is a very arduous
thing to get a received relic disowned."

"Well," said Bateman, "to my poor judgment it does seem a dishonesty to
keep up inscriptions, for instance, which every one knows not to be
true."

"My dear Bateman, that is begging the question," said Willis; "_every_
body does _not_ know it; it is a point in course of settlement, but not
settled; you may say that _individuals_ have settled it, or it _may_ be
settled, but it is not settled yet. Parallel cases happen frequently in
civil matters, and no one speaks harshly of existing individuals or
bodies in consequence. Till lately the Monument in London bore an
inscription to the effect that London had been burned by us poor
Papists. A hundred years ago, Pope, the poet, had called the 'column' 'a
tall bully' which 'lifts its head and lies,' Yet the inscription was not
removed till a few years since--I believe when the Monument was
repaired. That was an opportunity for erasing a calumny which, till
then, had not been definitely pronounced to be such, and not pronounced
in deference to the _prima facie_ authority of a statement
contemporaneous with the calamity