Note 204 — ENGLAND.

Historical discrepancies ought to be chronicled, for they confuse all investigation, and force every conscientious new comer to commence the whole work over again. A writer in the “Book of Days” pretends to be particularly accurate (ii. 309), noting that “the storm in reality happened on Monday, August 30, and must have been pretty well spent before the Friday afternoon, when Oliver breathed his last.” Rosse, in his “Index of Dates,” says (v. Storms) that there was one on September 3. Carlyle (“Cromwell Letters,” iii. 457) chronicles the stormy Monday, but not the stormy Friday. Hume says a violent tempest “immediately succeeded his death.” Clarendon, who may be supposed to know better than any of them, writes (v. 648, ed. 1731:) “And this now was a day (i.e. the Friday) very memorable for the greatest storm of wind that had ever been known, for some hours before and after his death.”