'
These extracts and transcripts Mr. Froude deposited in the British
Museum. These transcripts, compared with the portions translated in
Mr. Froude's great book, enable us to understand the causes of
certain confusions in Amy Robsart's mystery. Mr. Froude practically
aimed at giving the gist, as he conceived it, of the original papers
of the period, which he rendered with freedom, and in his
captivating style--foreign to the perplexed prolixity of the actual
writers. But, in this process, points of importance might be
omitted; and, in certain cases, words from letters of other dates
appear to have been inserted by Mr. Froude, to clear up the
situation. The result is not always satisfactory.
Next, from 1886 onwards, the Spanish Government published five
volumes of the correspondence of Philip with his ambassadors at the
English Court.* These papers Major Hume was to condense and edit
for our official publication, the Spanish State Papers, in the
series of the Master of the Rolls. But Major Hume found the papers
in the Spanish official publication in a deplorably unedited state.
Copyists and compositors 'seem to have had a free hand.
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