Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/279

French Reports of Parliaiuentary Debates 269 grounded opinion upon the necessity of imposing them (col. 700) ; some details concerning the Dutch armaments ; and in the French report, a part of Willimot's speech on the West-Indian trade and the corn trade (f. 221). The same minutes were very likely used for both reports. But the report of the magazines — which was published in September, eight months after the day of the debate — was remodelled according to a method which we cannot much understand or commend now. It seems that the general account of the facts is sufficiently accurate ; as to the form, which was altered by the person who wrote for both magazines, the report of the French embassy restores it, and shows the part taken in the debate by each of the members whose names are on the magazines' list. It would be easy to draw other comparisons of the same kind. But this would exceed the limits of our present task. The sources of the British parliamentary history for the first two-thirds of the eighteenth century are on the whole far from reliable. We bring to the notice of students new documents of undeniable worth, the series of which, though unluckily incomplete, will afford some solid ground for the foundations of critical work. We have just described them, but a real appreciation of their value cannot be made till many of them have been weighed and tried carefully. This will be done by the students who will make use of them for historical purposes. It might be worth the while to look for similar documents in the diplomatic records of other states, more particularly in those of Holland and Prussia. It is not impossible that we may find there the scattered elements of a new collection of the English parliamentary debates, the first fragments of which we now bring to light. Paul Mantoux.