Ecclesiastical History of England, Volume 5—The Church of the Revolution

by John Stoughton

III.—P. 229.

Extracts from Macpherson’s Original Papers.

To prevent the possibility of misapprehension, it may be proper to remark that the extracts I have given from Macpherson’s Original Papers, are intended simply to show what was reported and desired by the Jacobite party. Many statements in the correspondence are utterly untrustworthy. History has to do not only with what has been actually accomplished or attempted, but with what has been thought and said; for rumour and falsehood have been powerful factors in the affairs of this world.