IX. Sir Spencer Walpole 159 A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the November Meeting of 1907. X. John Richard Green 169 Address at a Gathering of Historians on June 5, 1909, to mark the Placing of a Tablet in the Inner Quadrangle of Jesus College, Oxford, to the Memory of John Richard Green. XI. Edward L. Pierce 175 A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the October Meeting of 1897. XII. Jacob D. Cox 183 A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the October Meeting of 1900. XIII. Edward Gaylord Bourne 189 A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the March Meeting of 1908. XIV. The Presidential Office 201 An Essay printed in _Scribner's Magazine_ of February, 1903. XV. A Review of President Hayes's Administration 243 Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, on October 8, 1908; printed in the _Century Magazine_ for October, 1909. XVI. Edwin Lawrence Godkin 265 Lecture read at Harvard University, April 13, 1908; printed in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for September, 1908. XVII. Who Burned Columbia? 299 A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the November Meeting of 1901, and printed in the _American Historical Review_ of April, 1902. XVIII. A New Estimate of Cromwell 315 A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the January Meeting of 1898, and printed in the _Atlantic Monthly_ of June, 1898. Index 325 HISTORY President's Inaugural Address, American Historical Association, Boston, December 27, 1899; printed in the _Atlantic Monthly_ of February, 1900. HISTORICAL ESSAYS HISTORY[1] My theme is history. It is an old subject, which has been discoursed about since Herodotus, and I should be vain indeed if I flattered myself that I could say aught new concerning the methods of writing it, when this has for so long a period engaged the minds of so many gifted men. Yet to a sympathetic audience, to people who love history, there is always the chance that a fresh treatment may present the commonplaces in some different combination, and augment for the moment an interest which is perennial.