Tracts, legal and historical

49
death, the chief means of continuing it were at an end.
In 1407 there was an attempt to revive the rumor,
by means of placards affixed in London, which had
no result of importance, but merely terminated in
the punishment of the person who had been induced
to perpetrate the offence. 1 However fruitless, it is
not to be wondered that the repetition of the oc-
currence should have left an impression upon Henry,
and he seems to have turned his attention to the
means of checking it in future. In this very year,
there is an original letter from the Archbishop of
Canterbury to the Prince, in answer to communica-
tions from him on general state business, the con-
tents of which are important. After approving of
Henry's project, of demanding the pseudo-Richard
of the Scots to be delivered up in his presence, he
observes, that by this step they would secure a per-
son who was truly a phantom of the vulgar, inas-
much as they were disposed to render the honor
and affection due to the King, to one who, at least,
had been born a domestic. He adds, that through
pretext of him, as experience had shewn, con-
tentions, risings, and variances, had often occur-
red, so that it had become difficult (speaking in a
figurative sense,) to separate the weed from the
grain ; but, after all, it was better that there should
be now a partial eradication, than that both should
be allowed to grow up and ripen, the consequences
1 Walsingliam, p. 418.
E