Elizabethan England Part 4

[1577, Book II., Chapter 11; 1587, Book II., Chapter 18.]

There are (as I take it) few great towns in England that have not their weekly markets, one or more granted from the prince, in which all manner of provision for household is to be bought and sold, for ease and benefit of the country round about. Whereby, as it cometh to pa.s.s that no buyer shall make any great journey in the purveyance of his necessities, so no occupier shall have occasion to travel far off with his commodities, except it be to seek for the highest prices, which commonly are near unto great cities, where round and speediest utterance is always to be had.

And, as these have been in times past erected for the benefit of the realm, so are they in many places too, too much abused: for the relief and ease of the buyer is not so much intended in them as the benefit of the seller. Neither are the magistrates for the most part (as men loath to displease their neighbours for their one year's dignity) so careful in their offices as of right and duty they should be. For, in most of these markets, neither a.s.sizes of bread nor orders for goodness and sweetness of grain and other commodities that are brought thither to be sold are any whit looked unto, but each one suffered to sell or set up what and how himself listeth: and this is one evident cause of dearth and scarcity in time of great abundance.

I could (if I would) exemplify in many, but I will touch no one particularly, sith it is rare to see in any country town (as I said) the a.s.size of bread well kept according to the statute; and yet, if any country baker happen to come in among them on the market day with bread of better quant.i.ty, they find fault by-and-by with one thing or other in his stuff, whereby the honest poor man (whom the law of nations do commend, for that he endeavoureth to live by any lawful means) is driven away, and no more to come there, upon some round penalty, by virtue of their privileges. Howbeit, though they are so nice in the proportion of their bread, yet, in lieu of the same, there is such heady ale and beer in most of them as for the mightiness thereof among such as seek it out is commonly called "huffcap," "the mad dog," "Father Wh.o.r.eson," "angels'

food," "dragon's milk," "go-by-the-wall," "stride wide," and "lift leg,"

etc. And this is more to be noted, that when one of late fell by G.o.d's providence into a troubled conscience, after he had considered well of his reachless life and dangerous estate, another, thinking belike to change his colour and not his mind, carried him straight away to the strongest ale, as to the next physician. It is incredible to say how our maltbugs lug at this liquor, even as pigs should lie in a row lugging at their dame's teats, till they lie still again and be not able to wag. Neither did Romulus and Remus suck their she-wolf or shepherd's wife Lupa with such eager and sharp devotion as these men hale at "huffcap," till they be red as c.o.c.ks and little wiser than their combs. But how am I fallen from the market into the alehouse? In returning therefore unto my purpose, I find that in corn great abuse is daily suffered, to the great prejudice of the town and country, especially the poor artificer and householder, which tilleth no land, but, labouring all the week to buy a bushel or two of grain on the market day, can there have none for his money: because bodgers,[91] loaders, and common carriers of corn do not only buy up all, but give above the price, to be served of great quant.i.ties. Shall I go any further? Well, I will say yet a little more, and somewhat by mine own experience.

At Michaelmas time poor men must make money of their grain, that they may pay their rents. So long then as the poor man hath to sell, rich men will bring out none, but rather buy up that which the poor bring, under pretence of seed corn or alteration of grain, although they bring none of their own, because one wheat often sown without change of seed will soon decay and be converted into darnel. For this cause therefore they must needs buy in the markets, though they be twenty miles off, and where they be not known, promising there, if they happen to be espied (which, G.o.d wot, is very seldom), to send so much to their next market, to be performed I wot not when.

If this s.h.i.+ft serve not (neither doth the fox use always one track for fear of a snare), they will compound with some one of the town where the market is holden, who for a pot of "huffcap" or "merry-go-down," will not let to buy it for them, and that in his own name. Or else they wage one poor man or other to become a bodger, and thereto get him a licence upon some forged surmise, which being done, they will feed him with money to buy for them till he hath filled their lofts;[92] and then, if he can do any good for himself, so it is; if not, they will give him somewhat for his pains at this time, and reserve him for another year. How many of the like providers stumble upon blind creeks at the sea coast, I wot not well; but that some have so done and yet do under other men's wings, the case is too, too plain. But who dare find fault with them, when they have once a licence? yes, though it be but to serve a mean gentleman's house with corn, who hath cast up all his tillage, because he boasteth how he can buy his grain in the market better cheap than he can sow his land, as the rich grazier often doth also upon the like device, because grazing requireth a smaller household and less attendance and charge. If any man come to buy a bushel or two for his expenses unto the market cross, answer is made: "Forsooth, here was one even now that bade me money for it, and I hope he will have it." And to say the truth, these bodgers are fair chapmen; for there are no more words with them, but "_Let me see it! What shall I give you? Knit it up! I will have it--go carry it to such a chamber, and if you bring in twenty_ seme _more in the week-day to such an inn or sollar where I lay my corn, I will have it, and give you (____) pence or more in every bushel for six weeks' day of payment than another will_." Thus the bodgers bear away all, so that the poor artificer and labourer cannot make his provision in the markets, sith they will hardly nowadays sell by the bushel, nor break their measure; and so much the rather for that the buyer will look (as they say) for so much over measure in the bushel as the bodger will do in a quarter. Nay, the poor man cannot oft get any of the farmer at home, because he provideth altogether to serve the bodger, or hath an hope, grounded upon a greedy and insatiable desire of gain, that the sale will be better in the market, so that he must give twopence or a groat more in the bushel at his house than the last market craved, or else go without it, and sleep with a hungry belly. Of the common carriage of corn over unto the parts beyond the seas I speak not; or at the leastwise, if I should, I could not touch it alone, but needs must join other provision withal, whereby not only our friends abroad, but also many of our adversaries and countrymen, the papists, are abundantly relieved (as the report goeth); but sith I see it not, I will not so trust mine ears as to write it for a truth. But to return to our markets again.

By this time the poor occupier hath sold all his crop for need of money, being ready peradventure to buy again ere long. And now is the whole sale of corn in the great occupiers' hands, who hitherto have threshed little or none of their own, but bought up of other men as much as they could come by. Henceforth also they begin to sell, not by the quarter or load at the first (for marring the market), but by the bushel or two, or a horseload at the most, thereby to be seen to keep the cross, either for a show, or to make men eager to buy, and so, as they may have it for money, not to regard what they pay. And thus corn waxeth dear; but it will be dearer the next market day. It is possible also that they mislike the price in the beginning for the whole year ensuing, as men supposing that corn will be little worth for this, and of better price the next year. For they have certain superst.i.tious observations whereby they will give a guess at the sale of corn for the year following. And our countrymen do use commonly for barley, where I dwell, to judge after the price at Baldock upon St. Matthew's day; and for wheat, as it is sold in seed time.

They take in like sort experiment by sight of the first flocks of cranes that flee southward in winter, the age of the moon in the beginning of January, and such other apish toys as by laying twelve corns upon the hot hearth for the twelve months, etc., whereby they shew themselves to be scant good Christians; but what care they, so that they come by money?

Hereupon also will they thresh out three parts of the old corn, towards the latter end of the summer, when new cometh apace to hand, and cast the same in the fourth unthreshed, where it shall lie until the next spring, or peradventure till it must and putrify. Certes it is not dainty to see musty corn in many of our great markets of England which these great occupiers bring forth when they can keep it no longer. But as they are enforced oftentimes upon this one occasion somewhat to abate the price, so a plague is not seldom engendered thereby among the poorer sort that of necessity must buy the same, whereby many thousands of all degrees are consumed, of whose deaths (in mine opinion) these farmers are not unguilty. But to proceed. If they lay not up their grain or wheat in this manner, they have yet another policy, whereby they will seem to have but small store left in their barns: for else they will gird their sheaves by the band, and stack it up anew in less room, to the end it may not only seem less in quant.i.ty, but also give place to the corn that is yet to come into the barn or growing in the field. If there happen to be such plenty in the market on any market day that they cannot sell at their own price, then will they set it up in some friend's house, against another on the third day, and not bring it forth till they like of the sale. If they sell any at home, beside harder measure, it shall be dearer to the poor man that buyeth it by twopence or a groat in a bushel than they may sell it in the market. But, as these things are worthy redress, so I wish that G.o.d would once open their eyes that deal thus to see their own errors: for as yet some of them little care how many poor men suffer extremity, so that they fill their purses and carry away the gain.

It is a world also to see how most places of the realm are pestered with purveyors, who take up eggs, b.u.t.ter, cheese, pigs, capons, hens, chickens, hogs, bacon, etc., in one market under pretence of their commissions, and suffer their wives to sell the same in another, or to poulterers of London. If these chapmen be absent but two or three market days then we may perfectly see these wares to be more reasonably sold, and thereunto the crosses sufficiently furnished of all things. In like sort, since the number of b.u.t.termen have so much increased, and since they travel in such wise that they come to men's houses for their b.u.t.ter faster than they can make it, it is almost incredible to see how the price of b.u.t.ter is augmented:[93] whereas when the owners were enforced to bring it to the market towns, and fewer of these b.u.t.ter buyers were stirring, our b.u.t.ter was scarcely worth eighteenpence the gallon that now is worth three s.h.i.+llings fourpence and perhaps five s.h.i.+llings. Whereby also I gather that the maintenance of a superfluous number of dealers[94] in most trades, tillage always excepted, is one of the greatest causes why the prices of things become excessive: for one of them do commonly use to outbid another. And whilst our country commodities are commonly bought and sold at our private houses, I never look to see this enormity redressed or the markets well furnished.

I could say more, but this is even enough, and more peradventure than I shall be well thanked for: yet true it is, though some think it no trespa.s.s. This moreover is to be lamented, that one general measure is not in use throughout all England, but every market town hath in manner a several bushel; and the lesser it be, the more sellers it draweth to resort unto the same. Such also is the covetousness of many clerks of the market, that in taking a view of measures they will always so provide that one and the same bushel shall be either too big or too little at their next coming, and yet not depart without a fee at the first, so that what by their mending at one time, and impairing the same at another, the country is greatly charged, and few just measures to be had in any steed.

It is oft found likewise that divers unconscionable dealers have one measure to sell by and another to buy withal; the like is also in weights, and yet all sealed and bronded. Wherefore it were very good that these two were reduced unto one standard, that is, one bushel, one pound, one quarter, one hundred, one tale, one number: so should things in time fall into better order and fewer causes of contention be moved in this land. Of the complaint of such poor tenants as pay rent corn[95] unto their landlords, I speak not, who are often dealt withal very hardly. For, beside that in measuring of ten quarters for the most part they lose one through the iniquity of the bushel (such is the greediness of the appointed receivers thereof), fault is found also with the goodness and cleanness of the grain. Whereby some piece of money must needs pa.s.s unto their purses to stop their mouths withal, or else "My lord will not like of the corn," "Thou art worthy to lose thy lease," etc. Or, if it be cheaper in the market than the rate allowed for it is in their rents, then must they pay money and no corn, which is no small extremity. And thereby we may see how each one of us endeavoureth to fleece and eat up another.

Another thing there is in our markets worthy to be looked into, and that is the recarriage of grain from the same into lofts and cellars, of which before I gave some intimation; wherefore, if it were ordered that every seller should make his market by an hour, or else the bailey or clerk of the said market to make sale thereof, according to his discretion, without liberty to the farmers to set up their corn in houses and chambers, I am persuaded that the prices of our grain would soon be abated. Again, if it were enacted that each one should keep his next market with his grain (and not to run six, eight, ten, fourteen, or twenty miles from home to sell his corn where he doth find the highest price, and thereby leaveth his neighbours unfurnished), I do not think but that our markets would be far better served than at this present they are. Finally, if men's barns might be indifferently viewed immediately after harvest, and a note gathered by an estimate, and kept by some appointed and trusty person for that purpose, we should have much more plenty of corn in our town crosses than as yet is commonly seen: because each one hideth and h.o.a.rdeth what he may, upon purpose either that it will be dearer, or that he shall have some privy vein by bodgers, who do accustomably so deal that the sea doth load away no small part thereof into other countries and our enemies, to the great hindrance of our commonwealth at home, and more likely yet to be, except some remedy be found. But what do I talk of these things, or desire the suppression of bodgers, being a minister? Certes I may speak of them right well as feeling the harm in that I am a buyer, nevertheless I speak generally in each of them.

To conclude therefore, in our markets all things are to be sold necessary for man's use; and there is our provision made commonly for all the week ensuing. Therefore, as there are no great towns without one weekly market at least, so there are very few of them that have not one or two fairs or more within the compa.s.s of the year, a.s.signed unto them by the prince.

And albeit that some of them are not much better than Louse fair,[96] or the common kirkemesses[97] beyond the sea, yet there are divers not inferior to the greatest marts in Europe, as Stourbridge fair near to Cambridge, Bristow fair, Bartholomew fair at London, Lynn mart, Cold fair at Newport pond for cattle, and divers other, all which, or at leastwise the greatest part of them (to the end I may with the more ease to the reader and less travel to myself fulfil my task in their recital), I have set down according to the names of the months wherein they are holden at the end of this book, where you shall find them at large as I borrowed the same from J. Stow and the reports of others.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND SINCE HER FIRST INHABITATION.

[1577, Book III., Chapter 3; 1587, Book II., Chapter 9.]

That Samothes (or Dis) gave the first laws to the Celts (whose kingdom he erected about the fifteenth of Nimbrote), the testimony of Berosus is proof sufficient. For he not only affirmeth him to publish the same in the fourth of Ninus, but also addeth thereto how there lived none in his days of more excellent wisdom nor politic invention than he, whereof he was named Samothes, as some other do affirm. What his laws were, it is now altogether unknown, as most things of this age, but that they were altered again at the coming of Albion no man can absolutely deny, sith new lords use commonly to give new laws, and conquerors abolish such as were in use before them.

The like also may be affirmed of our Brute, notwithstanding that the certain knowledge, so well of the one as of the other, is perished, and nothing worthy memory left of all their doings. Somewhat yet we have of Mulmutius, who not only subdued such princes as reigned in this land, but also brought the realm to good order that long before had been torn with civil discord. But where his laws are to be found, and which they be from other men's, no man living in these days is able to determine.

Certes there was never prince in Britain of whom his subjects conceived better hope in the beginning than of Bladudus, and yet I read of none that made so ridiculous an end. In like sort there hath not reigned any monarch in this isle whose ways were more feared at the first than those of Dunwallon (King Henry the First excepted), and yet in the end he proved such a prince as after his death there was in manner no subject that did not lament his funeral. And this only for his policy in governance, severe administration of justice, and provident framing of his laws and const.i.tutions for the government of his subjects. His people also, coveting to continue his name unto posterity, ent.i.tled those his ordinances according to their maker, calling them by the name of the "Laws of Mulmutius," which endured in execution among the Britons so long as our _homelings_ had the dominion of this isle. Afterwards, when the _comeling_ Saxons had once obtained the superiority of the kingdom, the majesty of those laws fell for a time into such decay that although "_Non penitus cecidit, tamen potuit cecidisse videri_," as Leland saith; and the decrees themselves had utterly perished indeed at the very first brunt had they not been preserved in Wales, where they remained amongst the relics of the Britons, and not only until the coming of the Normans, but even until the time of Edward the First, who, obtaining the sovereignty of that portion, endeavoured very earnestly to extinguish those of Mulmutius and to establish his own.

But as the Saxons at their first arrival did what they could to abolish the British laws, so in process of time they yielded a little to relent, and not so much to abhor and mislike of the laws of Mulmutius as to receive and embrace the same, especially at such time as the said Saxon princes entered into amity with the British n.o.bility, and after that began to join in matrimony with the British ladies, as the British barons did with the Saxon _frowes_, both by an especial statute and decree, whereof in another treatise I have made mention at large. Hereof also it came to pa.s.s in the end that they were contented to make a choice and insert no small numbers of them into their own volumes, as may be gathered by those of Athelbert the Great, surnamed King of Kent, Inas and Alfred, kings of the West Saxons, and divers other yet extant to be seen. Such also was the lateward estimation of them, that when any of the Saxon princes went about to make new ordinances they caused those of Mulmutius (which Gildas sometime translated into Latin) to be first expounded unto them; and in this perusal, if they found any there already framed that might serve their turn, they forthwith revived the same and annexed them to their own.

But in this dealing the diligence of Alfred is most of all to be commended, who not only chose out the best, but gathered together all such whatsoever the said Mulmutius had made: and then, to the end they should lie no more in corners as forlorn books and unknown to the learned of his kingdom, he caused them to be turned into the Saxon tongue, wherein they continued long after his decease.

As for the Normans, who for a season neither regarded the British nor cared for the Saxon statutes, they also at the first utterly misliked of them, till at the last, when they had well weighed that one kind of regiment is not convenient for all peoples (and that no stranger, being in a foreign country newly brought under obedience, could make such equal ordinances as he might thereby govern his new commonwealth without some care and trouble), they fell in with such a desire to see by what rule the state of the land was governed in the time of the Saxons that, having perused the same, they not only commended their manner of regiment, but also admitted a great part of their laws (now current under the name of "St. Edward's Laws," and used as principles and grounds), whereby they not only qualified the rigour of their own, and mitigated their almost intolerable burden of servitude which they had lately laid upon the shoulders of the English, but also left us a great number of the old Mulmutian laws, whereof the most part are in use to this day, as I said, albeit that we know not certainly how to distinguish them from others that are in strength amongst us.

After Dunwallon, the next lawgiver was Martia, whom Leland surnameth _Proba_, and after him John Bale also, who in his _Centuries_ doth justly confess himself to have been holpen by the said Leland, as I myself do likewise for many things contained in this treatise. She was wife unto Gutteline, king of the Britons, and being made protectrix of the realm after her husband's decease in the nonage of her son, and seeing many things daily to grow up among her people worthy reformation, she devised sundry and those very politic laws for the governance of her kingdom, which her subjects, when she was dead and gone, did name the "Martian Statutes." Who turned them into Latin as yet I do not read, howbeit (as I said before of the laws of Mulmutius) so the same Alfred caused those of this excellently well-learned lady (whom divers commend also for her great knowledge in the Greek tongue) to be turned into his own language, whereupon it came to pa.s.s that they were daily executed among his subjects, afterwards allowed of (among the rest) by the Normans, and finally remain in use in these our days, notwithstanding that we cannot dissever them also very readily from the other.

The seventh alteration of laws was practised by the Saxons; for I overpa.s.s the use of the civil ordinances used in Rome, finally brought hither by the Romans, and yet in perfect notice among the civilians of our country, though never generally received by all the several regions of this island.

Certes there are great numbers of these latter, which yet remain in sound knowledge, and are to be read, being comprehended for the most part under the names of the Martian and the Saxon law. Beside these also, I read of the Dane law, so that the people of middle England were ruled by the first, the West Saxons by the second, as Ess.e.x, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridges.h.i.+re, and part of Hertfords.h.i.+re were by the third, of all the rest the most unequal and intolerable. And as in these days whatsoever the prince in public a.s.sembly commanded upon the necessity of his subjects or his own voluntary authority was counted for law, so none of them had appointed any certain place whereunto his people might repair at fixed times for justice, but caused them to resort commonly to their palaces, where, in proper person, they would often determine their causes, and so make shortest work, or else commit the same to the hearing of other, and so despatch them away. Neither had they any house appointed to a.s.semble in for the making of their ordinances, as we have now at Westminster.

Wherefore Edmund gave laws at London and Lincoln, Ethelred at Habam, Alfred at Woodstock and Wannetting, Athelstane in Excester, Crecklade, Feversham, and Thundersley, Canutus at Winchester, etc.: other in other places, whereof this may suffice.[98]

Hitherto also (as I think) sufficiently of such laws as were in use before the Conquest. Now it resteth that I should declare the order of those that have been made and received since the coming of the Normans, referred to the eighth alteration or change of our manner of governance, and thereunto do produce threescore and four several courts. But for as much as I am no lawyer, and therefore have but little skill to proceed in the same accordingly, it shall suffice to set down some general discourses of such as are used in our days, and so much as I have gathered by report and common hearsay.

We have therefore in England sundry laws, and first of all the civil, used in the chancery, admiralty, and divers other courts, in some of which the severe rigour of justice is often so mitigated by conscience that divers things are thereby made easy and tolerable which otherwise would appear to be mere injury and extremity.

We have also a great part of the Canon law daily practised among us, especially in cases of t.i.thes, contracts of matrimony, and such like, as are usually to be seen in the consistories of our bishops and higher courts of the two archbishops, where the exercise of the same is very hotly followed.

The third sort of laws that we have are our own, and those always so variable and subject to alteration and change that oft in one age divers judgments do pa.s.s upon one manner of case, whereby the saying of the poet--

"_Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis_,"

may very well be applied unto such as, being urged with these words, "_In such a year of the prince this opinion was taken for sound law_," do answer nothing else but that "_the judgment of our lawyers is now altered, so that they say far otherwise_."

The regiment that we have therefore after our own ordinances dependeth upon three laws, to wit, Statute Law, Common Law, Customary Law and Prescription, according to the triple manner of our trials and judgments, which is by Parliament, verdict of twelve men at an a.s.size, or wager of battle, of which the last is little used in our days, as no appeal doth hold in the first and last rehea.r.s.ed. But to return to my purpose.

The first is delivered unto us by Parliament, which court (being for the most part holden at Westminster, near London) is the highest of all other, and consisteth of three several sorts of people, that is to say, the n.o.bility, clergy, and commons of this realm, and thereto is not summoned but upon urgent occasion when the prince doth see his time, and that by several writs, dated commonly full six weeks before it begin to be holden.

Such laws as are agreed upon in the higher house by the lords spiritual and temporal, and in the lower house by the commons and body of the realm (whereof the convocation of the clergy, holden in Paul's, or, if occasion so require, in Westminster Church, is a member), there speaking by the mouth of the knights of the s.h.i.+re and burgesses, remain in the end to be confirmed by the prince, who commonly resorteth thither of custom upon the first and last days of this court, there to understand what is done and give his royal consent to such statutes as him liketh of. Coming therefore thither into the higher house, and having taken his throne, the speaker of the parliament (for one is always appointed to between the houses, as an indifferent mouth for both) readeth openly the matters there determined by the said three estates, and then craveth the prince's consent and final confirmation of the same. The king, having heard the sum and princ.i.p.al points of each statute briefly recited unto him, answereth in French with great deliberation unto such as he liketh "IL NOUS PLAIST," but to the rest, "IL NE PLAIST," whereby the latter are made void and frustrate.

That also which his majesty liketh of is hereby authorised, confirmed, and ever after holden for law, except it be repealed in any like a.s.sembly. The number of the commons a.s.sembled in the lower house beside the clergy consisteth of ninety knights. For each s.h.i.+re of England hath two gentlemen or knights of greatest wisdom and reputation, chosen out of the body of the same for that only purpose, saving that for Wales one only is supposed sufficient in every county, whereby the number aforementioned is made up.

There are likewise forty and six citizens, two hundred and eighty-nine burgesses, and fourteen barons, so that the whole a.s.sembly of the laity of the lower house consisteth of four hundred thirty and nine persons, if the just number be supplied. Of the laws here made likewise some are penal and restrain the common law, and some again are found to enlarge the same. The one sort of these also are for the most part taken strictly according to the letter, the other more largely and beneficially after their intendment and meaning.

The Common Law standeth upon sundry maxims or principles and years or terms, which do contain such cases as (by great study and solemn argument of the judges, sound practice confirmed by long experience, fetched even from the course of most ancient laws made far before the Conquest, and thereto the deepest reach and foundations of reason) are ruled and adjudged for law. Certes these cases are otherwise called _pleas_ or _action_, whereof there are two sorts, the one criminal and the other civil. The means and messengers also to determine those causes are our _writs_ or _briefs_, whereof there are some original and some judicial.

The parties _plaintiff_ and _defendant_, when they appear, proceed (if the case do so require) by _plaint_ or _declaration_, _bar_ or _answer_, _replication_, _rejoinder_, and so by _rebut_, _surrebut_, to _issue_ and _trial_, if occasion so fall out, the one side affirmatively, the other negatively, as common experience teacheth. Our trials and recoveries are either by _verdict_ and _demur_, _confession_ or _default_, wherein if any negligence or trespa.s.s hath been committed, either in process and form, or in matter and judgment, the party aggrieved may have a _writ of error_ to undo the same, but not in the same court where the former judgment was given.

Customary Law consisteth of certain laudable customs used in some private country, intended first to begin upon good and reasonable considerations, as _gavelkind_, which is all the male children equally to inherit, and continued to this day in Kent, where it is only to my knowledge retained, and nowhere else in England. It was at the first devised by the Romans, as appeareth by Caesar in his _Commentaries_, wherein I find that, to break and daunt the force of the rebellious Germans, they made a law that all the male children (or females for want of males, which holdeth still in England) should have their father's inheritance equally divided amongst them. By this means also it came to pa.s.s that, whereas before time for the s.p.a.ce of sixty years they had put the Romans to great and manifold troubles, within the s.p.a.ce of thirty years after this law was made their power did wax so feeble and such discord fell out amongst themselves that they were not able to maintain wars with the Romans nor raise any just army against them. For, as a river running with one stream is swift and more plentiful of water than when it is drained or drawn into many branches, so the lands and goods of the ancestors being dispersed amongst their issue males, of one strong there were raised sundry weak, whereby the original or general strength to resist the adversary became enfeebled and brought almost to nothing. "_Vis unita_ (saith the philosopher) _fortior est eadem dispersa_," and one good purse is better than many evil; and when every man is benefited alike each one will seek to maintain his private estate, and few take care to provide for public welfare.

_Burrowkind_ is where the youngest is preferred before the eldest, which is the custom of many countries of this region: also the woman to have the third of her husband's possessions, the husband that marrieth an heir to have such lands as move by her during his natural life if he survive her and hath a child by her which hath been heard cry through four walls, etc.

Of such like to be learned elsewhere, and sometimes frequented generally over all.

Prescription is a certain custom which hath continued time out of mind, but it is more particular than customary law, as where only a parish or some private person doth prescribe to have common, or a way in another man's soil, or t.i.thes to be paid after this or that manner, I mean otherwise than the common course and order of the law requireth.

Whereof let this suffice at this time, instead of a larger discourse of our own laws, lest I should seem to enter far into that whereof I have no skill. For what hath the meditation of the law of G.o.d to do with any precise knowledge of the law of man, sith they are several trades, and incident to divers persons?

There are also sundry usual courts holden once in every quarter of the year, which we commonly call terms, of the Latin word _terminus_, wherein all controversies are determined that happen within the queen's dominions.

These are commonly holden at London, except upon some great occasion they be transferred to other places. At what times also they are kept, both for spiritual and temporal dealing, the table ensuing shall easily declare.

Finally, how well they are followed by suitors, the great wealth of lawyers without any travel of mine can readily express. For, as after the coming of the Normans the n.o.bility had the start, and after them the clergy, so now all the wealth of the land doth flow unto our common lawyers, of whom some one having practised little above thirteen or fourteen years is able to buy a purchase of so many one thousand pounds: which argueth that they wax rich apace, and will be richer if their clients become not the more wise and wary hereafter. It is not long since a sergeant at the law--whom I could name--was arrested upon an extent, for three or four hundred pounds, and another standing by did greatly marvel that he could not spare the gains of one term for the satisfaction of that duty. The time hath been that our lawyers did sit in Paul's upon stools against the pillars and walls to get clients, but now some of them will not come from their chambers to the Guildhall in London under ten pounds, or twenty n.o.bles at the least. And one, being demanded why he made so much of his travel, answered that it was but folly for him to go so far when he was a.s.sured to get more money by sitting still at home. A friend of mine also had a suit of late of some value, and, to be sure of counsel at his time, he gave unto two lawyers, whose names I forbear to deliver, twenty s.h.i.+llings apiece, telling them of the day and hour wherein his matter should be called upon. To be short, they came not unto the bar at all; whereupon he stayed for that day. On the morrow, after he met them again, increased his former gifts by so much more, and told them of the time; but they once again served him as before. In the end, he met them both in the very hall door, and, after some timorous reprehension of their uncourteous demeanour toward him, he bestowed either three angels or four more upon each of them, whereupon they promised peremptorily to speak earnestly in his cause. And yet for all this, one of them, not having yet sucked enough, utterly deceived him: the other indeed came in, and, wagging a scroll which he had in his hand before the judge, he spake not above three or four words, almost so soon uttered as a "Good morrow," and so went from the bar. And this was all the poor man got for his money, and the care which his counsellors did seem to take of his cause then standing upon the hazard. But enough of these matters; for, if I should set down how little law poor men can have for their small fees in these days, and the great murmurings that are on all sides uttered against their excessive taking of money--for they can abide no small gain--I should extend this treatise into a far greater volume than is convenient for my purpose.

Wherefore it shall suffice to have set down so much of their demeanour, and so much as is even enough to cause them to look with somewhat more conscience into their dealings, except they be dull and senseless.

This furthermore is to be noted, that albeit the princes heretofore reigning in this land have erected sundry courts, especially of the chancery at York and Ludlow, for the ease of poor men dwelling in those parts, yet will the poorest (of all men commonly most contentious) refuse to have his cause heard so near home, but endeavoureth rather to his utter undoing to travel up to London, thinking there soonest to prevail against his adversary, though his case be never so doubtful. But in this toy our Welshmen do exceed of all that ever I heard: for you shall here and there have some one odd poor David of them given so much to contention and strife that, without all respect of charges, he will up to London, though he go bare-legged by the way and carry his hosen on his neck (to save their feet from wearing), because he hath no change. When he cometh there also, he will make such importunate begging of his countrymen, and hard s.h.i.+ft otherwise, that he will sometimes carry down six or seven writs with him in his purse, wherewith to molest his neighbour, though the greatest quarrel be scarcely worth the fee that he hath paid for any one of them. But enough of this, lest, in revealing the superfluous folly of a few brablers in this behalf, I bring no good-will to myself amongst the wisest of that nation. Certes it is a lamentable case to see furthermore how a number of poor men are daily abused and utterly undone by sundry varlets that go about the country as promoters or brokers between the pettifoggers of the law and the common people, only to kindle and espy coals of contention, whereby the one side may reap commodity and the other spend and be put to travel. But, of all that ever I knew in Ess.e.x, Denis and Mainford excelled, till John of Ludlow, _alias_ Mason, came in place, unto whom in comparison they two were but children: for this last in less than three or four years did bring one man (among many elsewhere in other places) almost to extreme misery (if beggary be the uttermost) that before he had the shaving of his beard was valued at two hundred pounds (I speak with the least), and finally, feeling that he had not sufficient wherewith to sustain himself and his family, and also to satisfy that greedy ravenour which still called upon him for new fees, he went to bed, and within four days made an end of his woeful life, even with care and pensiveness. After his death also he so handled his son that there was never sheep shorn in May so near clipped of his fleece present as he was of many to come: so that he was compelled to let away his land, because his cattle and stock were consumed and he no longer able to occupy the ground. But hereof let this suffice, and, instead of these enormities, a table shall follow of the terms containing their beginnings and endings, as I have borrowed them from my friend John Stow, whose study is the only storehouse of antiquities in my time, and he worthy therefore to be had in reputation and honour.

A man would imagine that the time of the execution of our laws, being little above one quarter or not fully a third part of the year, and the appointment of the same to be holden in one place only, to wit, near London in Westminster, and finally the great expenses employed upon the same, should be no small cause of the stay and hindrance of the administration of justice in this land: but, as it falleth out, they prove great occasions and the stay of much contention. The reasons of these are soon to be conceived; for as the broken sleeve doth hold the elbow back, and pain of travel cause many to sit at home in quiet, so the shortness of time and fear of delay doth drive those oftentimes to like of peace who otherwise would live at strife and quickly be at odds. Some men desirous of gains would have the terms yet made shorter, that more delay might engender longer suit; other would have the houses made larger and more offices erected wherein to minister the laws. But as the times of the terms are rather too short than too long by one return apiece, so, if there were smaller rooms and fouler ways unto them, they would enforce many to make pause before they did rashly enter into plea. But, sith my purpose is not to make an ample discourse of these things, it shall suffice to deliver the times of the holding of our terms, which ensueth after this manner:--