[11]Paul de Rapin de Thoyras, although a Frenchman, became the foremost authority on English history. His Histoire d’Angleterre appeared in 1723, and long remained the standard work on the subject, influencing a whole generation of British historians including Hume. See Lawrence, op. cit., I, 226-229.
[12]Marcus Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, is most familiar to the English-speaking world as Shakespeare’s “noblest Roman of them all.” Hamilton’s anecdote is based on the laudatory picture of the man drawn in Plutarch’s Lives.
[13]Lucius Junius Brutus was the Roman patriot who, according to legend, led the revolt that drove out Tarquin the Proud and put an end to the Kings of Rome. The story of his execution of his sons is told repeatedly by the Roman historians, the most familiar source being Livy’s History of Rome, bk. I.
[14]John Hampden occupies a special niche in British history as the man who refused to pay the Ship Money levied by Charles I for the building of a fleet (1637). His defiance of the crown caught the imagination of later generations as a major step toward the development of parliamentary government in England. See George Macaulay Trevelyan, England Under the Stuarts (19th ed., London, 1947), p. 152.
Other Footnotes
[1]See [Appendix I].
[2]Peter Zenger is the ostensible narrator throughout.
Suggestions for Further Reading
1. Editions of the Trial.
Chandler, Peleg W. American Criminal Trials (New York, 1841).