3. Narratives of events which a man has heard from his father or his contemporaries, but which happened before his own recollection, are for the purpose of history, (but subject to the requisite qualifications) fair representations of contemporaneous testimony. History admits hearsay testimony under proper restrictions. The knowledge of the past would be impossible, if it were to allow itself to be fettered by the technical rules which have been introduced into the administration of justice. The all‐important considerations with the historian, are the notoriety of the fact and the truthfulness of the informant. Facts that a man may have heard detailed by his grandfather or his contemporaries as having happened in their time stand as representations of contemporaneous testimony in the same position as those derived from the earlier generation. 4. But when a third stage is interposed in the transmission of events, as for instance when we learn from our fathers or grandfathers what they have learnt from theirs, an element of uncertainty is introduced. Still an historian, writing after such an interval of time, if he sifted evidence with care, would be able to report with accuracy all the great events, whatever difficulty he might have in ascertaining the minor details. Within this period abundance of sources of accurate information exist on all points of importance, although the details gradually fade out of people’s recollections. After this interval, the accounts of events are likely to receive a certain amount of colouring, according to the prejudices of the narrators; but the interval is too short, and the remembrance of them too recent, to allow of their becoming incrusted with important mythical additions. All the materials for investigation are in existence, and within the reach of the honest historian. He might find difficulty in arranging the details in historical sequence; but if he does not give an accurate account of the great outlines, it is owing, not to the want of historical materials, but to the absence of a desire to investigate and report the truth.