Note 724 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

In the Preface to his Old Régime, and repeated in his Frontenac, Mr. Parkman, in referring to his conclusions, said: “Some of the results here reached are of a character which I regret, since they cannot be agreeable to persons for whom I have a very cordial regard. The conclusions drawn from the facts may be matter of opinion; but it will be remembered that the facts themselves can be overthrown only by overthrowing the evidence on which they rest, or bringing forward counter evidence of equal or greater strength.” The chief questioner of Parkman’s views has been the Abbé Casgrain, whose position is best understood from his Une Paroisse Canadienne au XVIIe siècle, Quebec, 1880. See Poole’s Index, p. 973, for reviews of Parkman’s books.