were prohibited from having above two foreigners in their house, either journeymen or apprentices. A like jealousy arose against the foreign merchants; and to appease it, a law was enacted, obliging all denizens to pay the duties imposed on aliens. The parliament had done better to have encouraged foreign merchants and artisans to come over in greater numbers to England; which might have excited the emulation of the natives, and have improved their skill. The prisoners in the kingdom for debts and crimes, are asserted, in an act of parliament, to be 60,000 persons and above; which is scarcely credible. Harrison asserts, that 72,000 criminals were executed during this reign for theft and robbery; which would amount nearly to 2000 a year he adds, that in the latter end of Elizabeth's reign, there were not punished capitally 400 in a year. It appears, that in all England, there are not at present fifty executed for those crimes. If these facts be just, there has been a great improvement in morals since the reign of Henry VIII. and this improvement has been chiefly owing to the increase of industry and of the arts, which have given maintenance, and, what is almost of equal importance, occupation, to the lower classes. There is a remarkable clause in a statute passed near the beginning of this reign, by which we might be induced to believe that England was extremely decayed from the florishing condition which it had attained in preceding times. It had been enacted in the reign of Edward II. that no magistrate in town or borough, who by his office ought to keep assize, should, during the continuance of his magistracy, sell, either in wholesale or retail, any wine or victuals. This law seemed equitable, in order to prevent fraud or private views in fixing the assize: yet the law is repealed in this reign. The reason assigned is, that 'since the making of that statute and ordinance, many and the most part of all the cities, boroughs, and towns corporate within the realm of England, are fallen in ruin and decay, and are not inhabited by merchants, and men of such substance as at the time of making that statute: for at this day the dwellers and inhabitants of the same cities and boroughs are commonly bakers, vintners, fishmongers, and other victuallers; and there remain few others to bear the offices.' 4 22 Hen. VIII. c. 8. 3 Hen. VIII. c. 15. Men have such a propensity to exalt past times above the present, that it seems dangerous to credit this reasoning of the parliament, without farther evidence to support it: so different are the views in which the same object appears, that some may be inclined to draw an opposite inference from this fact. A more regular police was established in the reign of Henry VIII. than in any former period, and a stricter administration of justice; an advantage, which induced the men of landed property to leave the provincial towns, and to retire into the country. Cardinal Wolsey, in a speech to parliament, represented it as a proof of the increase of riches, that the customs had increased beyond what they were formerly.7 8 But if there were really a decay of commerce, and industry, and populousness in England, the statutes of this reign, except by abolishing monasteries and retrenching holydays, circumstances of considerable moment, were not in other respects well calculated to remedy the evil. The fixing of the wages of artificers was attempted: luxury in apparel was prohibited by repeated statutes, and probably without effect: the chancellor and other ministers were empowered to fix the price of poultry, cheese, and butter: 10 a statute was even passed to fix the price of beef, pork, mutton, and veal:" beef and pork were ordered to be sold at a halfpenny a pound; mutton and veal at a halfpenny half a farthing, money of that age. The preamble of the statute says, that these four species of butchers' meat were the food of the poorer sort. This act was afterwards repealed.12 The practice of depopulating the country, by abandoning tillage, and throwing the lands into pasturage, still continued,13 as appears by the new laws, which were from time to time enacted against that practice. The king was entitled to half the rents of the land, where any farm-houses were allowed to fall to decay.14 The unskilful husbandry was probably the cause why the proprietors found no profit in tillage. The number of sheep allowed to be kept in one flock was restrained to 2000.15 Sometimes, says the statute, 7 Hall, fol. 110. 8 6 Hen. VIII. c. 3. 6 Hen. VIII. c. 1. 7 Hen. VIII. c. 7. 1! 24 Hen. VIII. c. 3. vol. i. p. 392. 15 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13. 91 Hen. VIII. c. 14. 10 25 Hen. VIII. c. 2. 12 33 Hen. VIII. c. 11. 13 Strype, 14 6 Hen. VIII. c. 5. 7 Hen. VIII. c. 1. one proprietor or farmer would keep a flock of 24,000. It is remarkable, that the parliament ascribes the increasing price of mutton to this increase of sheep; because, say they, the commodity being gotten into few hands, the price of it is raised at pleasure. 16 It is more probable that the effect proceeded from the daily increase of money; for it seems almost impossible that such a commodity could be engrossed. In the year 1544, it appears that an acre of good land in Cambridgeshire was let at a shilling, or about fifteen pence of our present money." This is ten times cheaper than the usual rent at present: but commodities were not above four times cheaper: a presumption of the bad husbandry in that age. 18 Some laws were made with regard to beggars and vagrants; one of the circumstances in government, which humanity would most powerfully recommend to a benevolent legislator; which seems, at first sight, the most easily adjusted; and which is yet the most difficult to settle in such a manner as to attain the end without destroying industry. The convents formerly were a support to the poor, but at the same time tended to encourage idleness and beggary. In 1546, a law was made for fixing the interest of money at ten per cent.; the first legal interest known in England. Formerly all loans of that nature were regarded as usurious. The preamble of this very law treats the interest of money as illegal and criminal; and the prejudices still remained so strong, that the law permitting interest was repealed in the following reign. This reign, as well as many of the foregoing, and even subsequent reigns, abounds with monopolising laws, confining particular manufactures to particular towns, or excluding the open country in general.19 There remain still too many traces of similar absurdities. In the subsequent reign, the corporations, which had been opened by a former law, and obliged to admit tradesmen of different kinds, were again shut up by act of parliament; and every one was pro 15 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13. 18 12 Hen. VIII. c. 12. 17 Anderson, vol. i. p. 374. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 5. 13 21 Hen. VIII. c. 12. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 18. 3 and 4 Edw. VI. c. 20. 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 24. hibited from exercising any trade who was not of the corporation.20 Henry, as he possessed himself some talent for letters, was an encourager of them in others: he founded Trinity College in Cambridge, and gave it ample endowments. Wolsey founded Christ Church in Oxford, and intended to call it Cardinal College: but on his fall, which happened before he had intirely finished his scheme, the king seized all the revenues; and this violence, above all the other misfortunes of that minister, is said to have given him the greatest concern:' but Henry afterwards restored the revenues of the college, and only changed the name. The cardinal founded in Oxford the first chair for teaching Greek; and this novelty rent that university into violent factions, which frequently came to blows. The students divided themselves into parties, which bore the names of Greeks and Trojans; and sometimes fought with as great animosity as was formerly exercised by those hostile nations. A new and more correct method of pronouncing Greek being introduced, it also divided the Grecians themselves into parties; and it was remarked that the catholics favored the former pronunciation, the protestants gave countenance to the new. Gardiner employed the authority of the king and council to suppress innovations in this particular, and to preserve the corrupt sound of the Greek alphabet: so little liberty was then allowed of any kind. The penalties inflicted on the new pronunciation were no less than whipping, degradation and expulsion; and the bishop declared, that rather than permit the liberty of innovating in the pronunciation of the Greek alphabet, it were better that the language itself were totally banished the universities. The introduction of the Greek language into Oxford excited the emulation of Cambridge. Wolsey intended to have enriched the library of his college at Oxford with copies of all the manuscripts that were in the Vatican. The countenance given to letters by this king and his ministers contributed to render learning fashionable in England: Erasmus speaks with great satisfaction of the general regard paid by the nobility and gentry to men of knowlege. It is needless to be particular in mentioning the writers of this reign, or of the preceding: 20 3 and 4 Edw. VI. c. 20. 1 Strype, vol. i. 2 Wood's Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. lib. i. p. 245. 4 Epist. ad Banisium. Also Epist. p. 368. p. 249. |