152 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
cation of the five requisites for trustworthiness and the corresponding 
five processes in historical records, will be designated collectively as the 
four applicative principles of historical science and severally as the 
first, second, third and fourth applicative principle respectively. 
i. WHERE A RECORD OR ANY PORTION OF IT EXEMPLIFIES IN ITS 
STATEMENTS THE REQUISITES FOR TRUSTWORTHINESS, SUCH 
RECORD OR PORTION IS TO BE ACCEPTED AS ESSENTIALLY 
TRUSTWORTHY. 
This principle depends on the following two tests, either of which 
should be conclusive :— 
1. In the experimental test described in Section III it is 
shown that in actual intercourse, where an individual exemplifies 
in his statements the requisites for trustworthiness, the persons 
to whom he makes a statement feel it necessary to accept such 
statement as correct save in those points, if any, where by their 
own knowledge or by subsequent developments the contrary is 
proven: in other words, while such an individual is not necessarily 
free from incidental error, his statements are believed except where 
such incidental error is proven, 7.e., his statements are held to 
be essentially worthy of belief or essentially trustworthy. The 
statements in a record are the written statements of an individual: 
therefore, where the requisites for trustworthiness are exemplified 
in the statements of a record or any portion of it, the example and 
practice found in actual intercourse and experience require that 
such record or portion be accepted as correct save in those points, 
if any, where incidental error is proven, 7.¢., as essentially correct 
or essentially trustworthy. 
2. According to the 4th fundamental principle of science; 
where a correct process is applied by an accredited operator, those 
persons who are not in a position to Judge of the matter for them- 
selves are required as reasonable men to accept his results as 
correct unless the contrary be proven. If, now, the requisites 
for trustworthiness be exemplified in the statements of a record 
or any portion of it, this exemplification of the five requisites 
accredits the writer of such record or portion as an operator who 
is applying the corresponding five correct processes for formulating 
trustworthy statements: therefore, according to the 4th funda- 
mental principle, those persons who are not in a position to judge 
of the matter for themselves are required as reasonable men to 
accept this operator’s results, 1.e., the writer’s statements in such 
record or portion, as correct or trustworthy unless the contrary be 
