retary, or by any body that
had ever lived at court. It is true, many persons of note were at
first deceived; but the discontents against Henry's government, and the
general enthusiasm for the house of York, account sufficiently for this
temporary delusion. Everybody's eyes were opened long before Perkin's
death. (16.) The circumstance of finding the two dead bodies in the
reign of Charles II. is not surely indifferent. They were found in the
very place which More, Bacon, and other ancient authors, had assigned as
the place of interment of the young princes; the bones corresponded by
their size to the age of the princes; the secret and irregular place of
their interment, not being in holy ground, proves that the boys had
been secretly murdered; and in the Tower no boys but those who are very
nearly related to the crown can be exposed to a violent death. If we
compare all these circumstances, we shall find that the inference is
just and strong, that they were the bodies of Edward V. and his brother,
the very inference that was drawn at the time of the discovery.

Since the publication of this History, Mr. Walpole has published his
Historic Doubts concerning Richard III. Nothing can be a stronger proof
how ingenious and agreeable that gentleman's pen is, than his being
able to make an inquiry concerning a remote point of English history, an
object of general conversation. The foregoing note has been enlarged on
account of that performance.]

[Footnote 2: NOTE B, p. 69. Rot. Parl. 3 Henry VII. n. 17. The preamble
is remarkable, and shows the state of the nation at that time.
"The king, our sovereign lord, remembereth how, by our unlawful
maintainances, giving of liveries, signs, and tokens, retainders by
indentures, promises, oaths, writings, and other embraceries of his
subjects, untrue demeanings of sheriffs in making panels, and untrue
returns by taking money, by juries, etc. the policy of this nation is
most subdued." It must indeed be confessed, that such a state of the
country required great discretionary power in the sovereign; nor will
the same maxims of government suit such a rude people, that may be
proper in a more advanced stage of society. The establishment of the
star-chamber, or the enlargement of its power, in the reign of Henry
VII., might have been as wise as the abolition of it in that of Charles
I.]

[Footnote 3: NOTE C, p. 72. The duke of Northumberland has lately
printed a household book of an