It appears from this pedigree, that the houfe of York could derive no title from Edmund, its founder, because he was the fourth fon of Edward the Third. That of Lancaster was equally excluded, because John of Gaunt, the head, was but the third fon, therefore the right was vested in Lionel the fecond, after the heirs of the Black Prince failed; and as the Duke of York married Ann, the heiress of Lionel, the fole right of defcent must have been vefted in her iffue, which was Richard Duke of York. A powerful argument in favour of the Lancaftrian family was, their long poffeffion of the crown, which, it was pleaded gave a prefcriptive right. But this is a dangerous doctrine; power may preserve that poffeffion which juftice cannot ratify. I have obferved, upon another occafion, that "whatever is wrong in the beginning, is "difficult

"difficult for time to fet right. If a man fteals a guinea, it is no more his own, after keeping it twenty years, than it was the first day,"

Pof

The higher a man is elevated, the more difficult to keep his ftation. Richard the Second was too giddy to keep his; which, Henry the Fourth, a perfon of fuperior talents obferving, dragged him from his throne, which he mounted himself. feffion was kept in his family during three generations, when his grandfon, Henry the Sixth, a prince much weaker than Richard, was expelled by the powerful Duke of York, the legal heir, a man well able to conduct a kingdom,

Richard Plantagenet, afterwards Richard the Third, was the youngest of eight fons

of

of the last mentioned Duke of York, by Cicely, fifter to Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and aunt to the great Earl of Warwick. He was born on Monday, October 2, 1452, at Fotheringay, in Northamptonshire. But little is recorded of his childhood, neither can childhood produce much to record. I fhall omit as idle tales, the difficulty of his birth, his being amputated from his mother, his deformity, his favage teeth, and his withered arm, as beneath the notice of history. His infancy was spent in his father's house, where he cuckt his ball, and fhoot his taw, with the fame delight as other lads.

His father was killed at Wakefield in 1460, Richard being seven years old. His mother fent him, and his brother George, to Utrecht for fecurity and improvement,

under the care of Phillip Duke of Burgundy, while their brother Edward, cleared his way to the throne by the fword.

Edward, having fubdued his enemies, and afcended the regal feat, fent for his brothers, after an absence of fix months, and initiated them into the ufe of arms, as an additional ftrength to his house. He created George Duke of Clarence, and Earl of Richmond, to eclipfe the title of Henry Tudor, and Richard Duke of Gloucefter, and Earl of Carlisle.

There are three incidents in the English annals, which furnished the fovereign with immenfe property. The feizure of most of the lands in the kingdom, by William the Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings; the affumption of religious donations, by

Henry

Henry the Eighth, and the prodigious number of estates, alternately seized by the victor, in the contest between the rofes. Property was continually changing its owner, according to the victorious sword. This filled the hands of the fovereign with riches, and enabled him to gratify his adherents. To support Richard's ducal character, Edward gave him the fee farm of Gloucefter, with the manors of

L

Kingstone Lacy, in Dorsetshire

Richmond in Yorkshire

Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.