Tracts, legal and historical

50
of which might afterwards be prejudicial. In this
way the Primate talks like a prudent statesman,
guarding against the worst, well aware of the
maxim, that " parva scintilla contempta s<epe exci-
tat magnum i)ice?idium." At the same time, this " fa-
mulus natus" " phantom," and " weed," as he is de-
scribed, is expressly said to be stultus and jatuus, and
to have personified Richard. 1 We are here, therefore,
1 This curious original letter, the contents of which are now,
for the first time, disclosed to the public, is among the Cotonian
MSS. (Vesp. F. VII. fol. 88.) A full copy, at the request of
the author, was kindly sent him by that able antiquary, Joseph
Stevenson, Esq., lately one of the keepers of the manuscripts in
the British Museum. Owing to its antiquity, the letter is, in
some instances, defaced and torn ; but what is preserved in re-
ference to the present subject, shall be literally given, with
certain insertions within brackets, by which it is proposed to
supply deficiencies. The Primate first agrees with Henry
as to the propriety of a longer truce with the Scots, but adds,
that it should be under certain conditions, — " videlicet quod
ipsi de Scotia [inimicos vestre~\ maiestatis non retineant, seu
favores eisdem impendant, et quod ilium fatuum se dicentem
Regem Ricardum ad \jpresentiam ves-]tre maiestatis transmit-
tal, quaa omnia sano modo fienda, reputo fore sana, ne sanguis
innoxius christianus fundatur, et vestram excellentem dis-
cretionem quam observare intenditis in eisdem merito laudare
opportet et \_stu-^\ltum se dicentem Regem Ricardum ad vestram
presentiam transmitti affectatis, quia certe per hoc [ejusdem per-
sona sit~\ servata plebis vestre quem merito dico idolum, eo
quod honorem, et aff'ectionem Itegi debitos ipsi saltern [red-
derent. fa-~\mulo [prius] nato, cujus occasione tanta ut expe-
rientia docuit pluries exorte sunt inter ligios vestre Regie \_Ma-
jestatis~\ contentiones, [ins-]urrectiones, et scismata, ut difficile