they were desirous of augmenting the army, or introducing new garrisons, or using an extreme measure with the city, or the royalists, there was always a new conspiracy set afloat; or when any great affair was to be carried in parliament, letters of great victories were published to dishearten the opposition, and infuse additional boldness in their own party.  If the report lasted only a few days, it obtained its purpose, and verified the observation of Catharine de’ Medici.  Those politicians who raise such false reports obtain their end:  like the architect who, in building an arch, supports it with circular props and pieces of timber, or any temporary rubbish, till he closes the arch; and when it can support itself, he throws away the props!  There is no class of political lying which can want for illustration if we consult the records of our civil wars; there we may trace the whole art in all the nice management of its shades, its qualities, and its more complicated parts, from invective to puff, and from inuendo to prevarication! we may admire the scrupulous correction of a lie which they had told, by another which they are telling! and triple lying to overreach their opponents.  Royalists and Parliamentarians were alike; for, to tell one great truth, “the father of lies” is of no party![287]

As “nothing is new under the sun,” so this art of deceiving the public was unquestionably practised among the ancients.  Syphax sent Scipio word that he could not unite with the Romans, but, on the contrary, had declared for the Carthaginians.  The Roman army were then anxiously waiting for his expected succours:  Scipio was careful to show the utmost civility to these ambassadors, and ostentatiously treated them with presents, that his soldiers might believe they were only returning to hasten the army of Syphax to join the Romans.  Livy censures the Roman consul, who, after the defeat at Cannae, told the deputies of the allies the whole loss they had sustained:  “This consul,” says Livy, “by giving too faithful and open an account of his defeat, made both himself and his army appear still more contemptible.”  The result of the simplicity of the consul was, that the allies, despairing that the Romans would ever recover their losses, deemed it prudent to make terms with Hannibal.  Plutarch tells an amusing story, in his way, of the natural progress of a report which was contrary to the wishes of the government; the unhappy reporter suffered punishment as long as the rumour prevailed, though at last it proved true.  A stranger landing from Sicily, at a barber’s shop, delivered all the particulars of the defeat of the Athenians; of which, however, the people were yet uninformed.  The barber leaves untrimmed the reporter’s beard, and flies away to vent the news in the city, where he told the Archons what he had heard.  The whole city was thrown into a ferment.  The Archons called an assembly of the people, and produced the luckless barber, who in confusion could not give any satisfactory