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from popular tradition instead of from authentic documents, enormous 
exaggerations of numbers creep in. Now look at this point a little, for 
Dr. Thornton has done well to bring it forward. I was born in the year after 
the battle of Waterloo, and I lived in the immediate vicinity of one of our 
greatest seaports. I have often spoken there with men who were actively 
engaged in the great French war, and had there been no literature on that 
subject, and had I now to sit down and write a history from those men’s 
stories — who were perfectly honest so far as they knew and believed — I 
should write a history which would be filled with enormous exaggerations. 
Take one case more. I have myself conversed with persons who took an 
active part in the defence of Plymouth, when the French and Spanish fleets 
were off that place. If I were to give an account of that and of the unpre- 
pared state of the town from the verbal reports which I have heard, I should 
write matter which would contain the greatest exaggeration of the real facts. 
Look at the numbers of men employed in the great French wars. The 
largest number of men ever moved in the course of those wars was contained 
in the great expedition of Napoleon into Russia ; but there is a great differ- 
ence between the estimated numbers on paper and the number of those who 
were really mustered under the standard. The general idea in this country 
—the traditional idea— was that those numbers were much greater than they 
were. It was commonly imagined that the number of men Napoleon had to 
invade England with was vastly in excess of what the number really was — 
some 110,000 or 120,000 men. We had an idea that the numbers were 
enormous. We always thought that one Englishman could easily thrash 
three Frenchmen (laughter), and when we got into any difficulty in fighting 
with the French, it was always thought that the number of the enemy must 
be very large indeed to account for it. Even within the last two years we 
have very nearly seen a frightful myth introduced into history ; and even 
with the best information it is often very difficult to keep such things out. 
I allude to the story of Lord Brougham about the passing of the first Reform 
Act, which has been refuted by Earl Grey in the life of his father lately 
published. We are entirely indebted to Earl Grey for abolishing that myth. 
But I want to go a little further back, and show the general tendency to this 
sort of thing. At the time of the civil war of Charles I. there were means 
of obtaining accurate ideas of numbers, but I am unable to accept the num- 
bers which were given in connection with the civil wars of the Roses. Then 
take the number of those who came over to England with William I. The 
number is commonly given at 60,000. Now I do not know what Freeman’s 
estimate is, but I do know that Keightley has brought the number down to 
20,000. The popular idea, however, is that there were 60,000 men with 
William, and when you consider that that was half the force which the 
mighty Napoleon could have brought into the field, that shows how immense 
is the tendency in the popular mind to exaggerate numbers. The old ac- 
counts of such things are simple incredibilities which we cannot at all believe. 
But I come now to more tangible ground, where we are acquainted with the 
facts. Any one who has read the first decade of Livy must feel assured that 
