A controversy has of late been revived with some degree of warmth respecting the Massacre of Paris in 1572, usually called the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. On one side, every credible document has been represented as declaring that the Massacre was a sudden and unforeseen expedient, an ebullition of popular vengeance, suggested by the alarm which the failure of an attempt upon the life of the Admiral Coligni had excited, and by the danger to be expected from the revenge of his adherents. On the other side, it has been represented as the consequence of a premeditated plot to entrap and destroy the Hugonots in general. Again, on the one side the hypothesis of a preconcerted plot has been represented as not resting upon contemporary evidence. The other stating the hypothesis as actually advanced upon such authority.