Note 252:1 — Chapter XIV

"But there is a person that has written an "Inquiry, historical and critical, into the evidence against Mary Queen of Scots;" and has attempted to refute the foregoing narrative. He quotes a single passage of the narrative, in which Mary is said simply to refuse answering; and then a single passage from Goodall, in which she boasts simply that she will answer; and he very civilly and almost directly, calls the author a liar, on account of this pretended contradiction. The whole inquiry, from beginning to end, is composed of such scandalous artifices; and, from this instance, the reader may judge of the candour, fair dealing, veracity, and good manners of the inquirer. There are, indeed, three events in our history which may be regarded as the touchstone of party men. An English Whig, who asserts the reality of the Popish plot; an Irish Catholic, who denies the massacre in 1641: and a Scotch Jacobite, who maintains the innocence of Queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the reach of argument or reason, and must be left to their prejudices."