M ^brought up at the court of the count de Hainault, was living in the greateft 'familiarity with thofe in whofe recolleéîion all the circumftances of this •court, which ware then recent, weuld be frefh, and the faâs peAMj -well known ; and he wrote the hiftory of it for queen Philippa, of Hainault, -who had aéfced fo principal a part. Never was there an i wtm had more undeniable witneftes of the truth of what he relates ; never was there one in whom greater confidence could be placed than in Froiflart, as to this part of his hiftory. You will, however, recollcft the feuks which M. Lancelot hat correéled in feveral articles which concern the hiftory of 'England at ihis period. His criticifm is founded on the original a£b which he has had in his hands, and his authority is wnqueftionable. I urge this example, becaufe it feems to me more proper than any other to make a truth, important to our hiftory, more ftrongly felt; a truth which has been fo much recommended by authors the moft thoroughly converfknt -with this ftudy ; I mean the abfolute neceffity of accompanying the peruM of hiftory with a comparifon of the original aâs of the times. Some of them throw light upon parts which are defeâive, while others add to the teftimonies of hiftory a degree of authenticity of which they have hut too much need ; and it is from this comparifon that the certainty of thefe truths refults, as far as in their nature they are fufceptible of proo£ I fhall referve what I may have to fay of thofe forty years for another -opportunity, fince Froiflart then wrote as a contemporary hiftorian, and as an eye-witnefs, I may fay, of every thing which was then palling in the world. But I fhall firft examine the different judgments which have been {tailed on tins hiftorian, and particularly the almoft univerfal reproach which has been made him, of being a violent partifan of the Engiifh and jà declared enemy to the French. I fhall fpeak of his partiality in other refpeâs,—his credulity in certain articles, his exaétnefe in others, and his mode of writing : I will then enumerate the detail of the editions which we have of his hiftory, and difcufs the merits and faults of each of them : I Aali, more efpecially, examine whether Sauvage has more corrupted and falfified the text, in his edition, than he has enlightened it. In fhort, I fhall give a fummary account of upwards of forty ^manufcript volumes, in folio, of .this Ghroipcle, which I have collated with Jjreat .attention.