ce, were all of them
degraded from their new dignities; even the practice of prosecuting
appeals in parliament, which bore the air of a violent confederacy
against an individual, rather than of a legal indictment, was wholly
abolished, and trials were restored to the course of common law.* The
natural effect of this conduct was, to render the people giddy with such
rapid and perpetual changes, and to make them lose all notions of right
and wrong in the measures of government.

The earl of Northumberland made a motion, in the house of peers, with
regard to the unhappy prince whom they had deposed. He asked them, what
advice they would give the king for the future treatment of him; since
Henry was resolved to spare his life. They unanimously replied, that
he should be imprisoned under a secure guard, in some secret place, and
should be deprived of all commerce with any of his friends or partisans.
It was easy to foresee, that he would not long remain alive in the hands
of such barbarous and sanguinary enemies. Historians differ with regard
to the manner in which he was murdered. It was long the prevailing
opinion, that Sir Piers Exton, and others of his guards, fell upon him
in the Castle of Pomfret, where he was confined, and despatched him with
their halberts. But it is more probable that he was starved to death
in prison; and after all sustenance was denied him, he prolonged his
unhappy life, it is said, for a fortnight, before he reached the end of
his miseries. This account is more consistent with the story, that his
body was exposed in public, and that no marks of violence were
observed upon it. He died in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and the
twenty-third of his reign. He left no posterity, either legitimate or
illegitimate.

All the writers who have transmitted to us the history of Richard, lived
during the reigns of the Lancastrian princes, and candor requires,
that we should not give entire credit to the reproaches which they have
thrown upon his memory. But after making all proper allowances, he still
appears to have been a weak prince, and unfit for government, less for
want of natural parts and capacity, than of solid judgment and a good
education. He was violent in his temper, profuse in his expenses, fond
of idle show and magnificence, devoted to favorites, and addicted to
pleasure; passions, all of them the most inconsistent with a prudent
economy, and consequently dangerous in a limited and mixed go