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characters and events of history, have been proved to be wrong 
by subsequent researches. I may instance the attempts that 
have been made of late years to whitewash the characters of 
Tiberius, Henry VIII., and Robespierre, all of which seem to 
have signally failed. 
Amongst other questions we should like to be able to put 
to satisfy our curiosity, I may select almost at random the 
following. 
Who were the Pelasgians and whence came the Etrurians? 
Was there a real war of Troy, and what were the facts ? 
Did Demosthenes receive any part of the money given up by 
Harpalus when he was arrested at Athens ? 
Who was the real founder of Rome ? 
What was the origin of the story that the Laws of the 
Twelve Tables were the result of a mission sent from Rome into 
Greece in the fifth century before Christ ? 
What authority had Suetonius for nine-tenths of the 
gossiping anecdotes contained in his Lives of the Twelve 
Caesars ? 
Was St. Peter ever Bishop of Rome? Beyond mere tradition 
there is no evidence that the Apostle ever even visited that 
city, much less that he was Bishop of it. Let those who 
assert the contrary refute, if they can, the facts and arguments 
of Barrow, in his "Treatise on the Pope’s Supremacy.” And 
yet, how much of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church 
depends upon the assumption that St. Peter was the first bishop 
of Rome, and that the Popes are his legitimate successors ! 
Was Petrarch’s Laura a living creature of flesh and blood 
or a mere poetical myth ? 
What was the real character of Richard III., and is it true 
that he was accessory to the murder of the Princes in the 
Tower, if murdered they were ? 
Horace- Walpole concludes his ingenious essay called "His- 
toric Doubts in the Life and Reign of King Richard III.” in 
the following words: — "We must leave this whole story dark, 
though not near so dark as we found it ; and it is, perhaps, as 
wise to be uncertain in one portion of our history as to believe 
so much as is believed in all histories, though very probably as 
falsely delivered to us, as the period which we have here been 
examining.” 
What were the real facts of the Gowrie conspiracy in 
Scotland ? 
Did Mary Queen of Scots really write the letters to 
Bothwell which were produced from a silver casket before the 
Commissioners at Westminster, and which, if genuine, establish 
the fact of her being accessory to the murder of Darnley ? 
