The view thus set forth will perhaps be considered unworthy of serious discussion, and it must be fully admitted, that there can be no excuse for making charges such as it involves, unless solid grounds can be alleged for so doing. That any such grounds are to be found historians of good repute utterly deny. Mr. Hallam roundly declares:[32] "To deny that there was such a plot, or, which is the same thing, to throw the whole on the contrivance and management of Cecil, as has sometimes been done, argues great effrontery in those who lead, and great stupidity in those who follow." Similarly, Mr. Gardiner,[33] while allowing that contemporaries accused Cecil of inventing the Plot, is content to dismiss such a charge as "absurd."
Whether it be so or not we have now to inquire.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] So he himself always wrote it.
[4] Also described as "Great Horses," or "Horses for the great Saddle."
[5] "The great object of the Government now was to obtain evidence against the priests."—Gardiner, History of England, i. 267. Ed. 1883.
[6] See his despatch in reply. Irish State Papers, vol. 217, 95. Cornwallis received Cecil's letter on November 22nd.
[7] See Harington's account of the king's message, Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 374.
[8] To Favat. (Copy) Brit. Mus. MSS. Add. 6178, fol. 625.
[9] Statutes: Anno 3o Jacobi, c. 1.