minxerit in patrios â—ineres as one who had pisssed upon his Fathers or Countries Ashes and as Murderers or Adulterers denyed them the Sanctuary if they sought it of the Church And when the Kings Royal Progenitors have taken so much care to prevent the decay of Tillage as by the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. 13. to ordain that no man should keep more then two hundred sheep upon any land taken to farme and for the increase of Tillage plenty and cheapness of Corn did by the Statute of 2 Ed. 6. cap. 13. ordain that no Tithes should be paid for wast or Heath ground improved unto Tillage untill seaven years after the improvement by the Statute of 4 Jac. cap. 11. made a Provision for Meadow and Pasture and the necessary maintenance of husbandry and tillage in the Manors Lordships and Parishes of Merden alias Mawerden Boddenham Wellington Sutton St. Michael Sutton St. Nicholas Marton upon Lugg and the Parish of Pipe in the County of Hereford by the Statute of 7 Jac. cap. 11. That none should spoil corn and grain by untimely Hawking and by another Statute in the same Parliament That Seâ—-sands might in Devonshire and Cornwall be fetched from the sea to manure Lands paying reasonable duties for the passage through or by other mens Lands with Boats and Barges And the Assize of Bread throughout the whole Kingdome is by the Statute and Ordinance of 51 H. 8. to be yearly made and regulated by the Baker of the Kings house do take all the care they can that the Bread for his Houshold and Oats and Provender for his horses may be at the dearest rates and a great deal more then any of his Subjects do pay And although he and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors have made the best provisions they could for the breed of Cattle and cheapness of meat by the Statute of 24 H. 8. cap. 9. forbidding the killing of weanling Calves under the age of two years That a milch Cow by the Statute of 2 3 Philip and Mary should be kept for every sixty Sheep and a Calf reared for every 120 Sheep By an Act of Parliament in 8 Eliz. cap. 3. That no Sheep should be transported and by several Acts of Parliament and otherwise encouraged the drayning of huge quantities of Fenne Lands and the imbanking of Marshes and Lands gained from the Sea and his now Majesty hath of late to help the breeders and sellers of Cattle in their reasonable prices thereof prohibited by an Act of Parliament the bringing in of any Cattle which were heretofore usually and yearly brought into England in great heards out of Scotland and Ireland and doth yearly by his Royal Edicts and Proclamations as many of his noble Progenitors Kings and Queens of England have usually done enjoyned the strict observation of the Lent will notwithstanding for want of his Pourveyance or much of his houshold Provisions as they ought to be served in kind constrain him to pay in ready money intollerable dear rates and prices for that which his Officers have occasion to buy for the Provision of his Household Who speed no better when they buy or provide his Fish of those who might have had so much duty and honesty as to afford it cheaper when his Royall Predecessors by the Statutes of 13 E. 1. cap. 47. and 13 R. 2. cap. 19. ordained severe penalties upon those that do take and destroy Salmons Lampries or any other Fish at unseasonable times or destroy the spawn of Fish By the Statute of 22 Ed. 4. cap. 2. That Salmons Herrings and Eâ—les be duly packed By the Statute of 11 H. 7. cap. 23. That Englishmen may import and bring into England Fish taken by Forreigners By the Statute of 2 Ed. 6. cap. 6. that no Officer of the Admiralâ—y should exact any thing of them which travailed for Fish By the Statute of 5 Ellz. cap. 6. Fishermen and Mariners shall not be compelled to serve as Souldiers upon the Land or upon the Sea but as Mariners except in case of Enemies or to subdue Rebellions By the Statute of 13 Eliz. cap. 10. allowed Sea-fish and Herring to be transported in English Ships with cross sails without payment of Customes By the Statute of 39 Eliz. cap. 10. ordained Aliens to pay for salted Fish and salted Herrings to be brought by them into England such Customes as shall be imposed in forreign parts upon the salted Fish and Herrings brought thither by Englishmen And our now gracious Soveraign mainteyns a great Navy to assert and defend his Dominion and his Subjects sole right of Fishing in the British Seas and hath of late in the midst of his own wants for the better encouragement of his People to seek their own good and that which our British Seas will plentifully afford them given all his Customes inward and outward for any the retorns to be made by the sale of Fish in France Denmark and the Baltick Seas for seaven years from the first entrance into the intended Trade of Fishing And when the Mayor of Kingstone upon Hull or his Officers can at the same time obteyn of them better penyworths and according to the directions of the Statute of 33 H. 8. cap. 33. have so good a Pourveyance allowed them as they can take of all Fishermen priviledged for every last of Herring xxd. for every hundred of salt Fish iiii d. for every Last of Sprats viii d. of every person not priviledged for every Last of Herring iâ— s. iiii d. for every hundred of Salt-fish iiii d. and for every Last of Sprats viii d. as they did before the making of the said Statute And when our Laws which have their life and being from the King and his Royall Progenitors have by the Statutes of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. cap. 22. and 2 and 3 Philip and Mary cap. 5. provided that the prices of Butter and Cheese be not enhaunced nor any transported without licence That the prices of Ale and Beer shall bâ—â—he Statute of 23 H. 8. be assessed at reasonable rates and the Barrels and Kilderkins gauged That Spices and Grocery Ware shall by the Statute of 1 Jac. cap. 19. be garbled and not mingled That Woods by the Statute of 35 H cap. 17. 13 Eliz. cap. 5. shall not be converted into Tillage or Pasture And by the Statutes of 7 Ed. 6. cap. 7. 47. cap. 14. that an Assize shall be kept as to the measures only of Coal Tallwood Billeâ—s and Faggots And some of our Princes have given by their Charters many great Liberties Immunities to the Companies of Brewers and Woodmongers And King James did in or about the 11 th year of hâ—s Râ—ign upon his granting of some priviledges to the Town and Colleries of Nâ—wcastle upon Tyne cause the Host-men or Oast-men of Newcastle to covenant to and with the King which they have seldome or never at all observed yearly to serve the City of London and places adjacent with Sea-coals
Servants and the Children Friends and Kinred of many of those which do contribute towards the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and that which is so misimployed serves instead of some other largesses allowances or connivencies which are usually in Kings Houses and whether well spent or mispent being Oblations and Offerings of duty made by the People to their Sovereign are not to be denyed or retrenched no more then the misbehaviour of the Sons of Ely with which the Almighty was so much offended would have been any just cause of the Children of Israels forbearing to bring their Offerings It being no Paradox but certain enough that those seeming but not reall grievances to the People by the Kings Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them have no other source or originall then the rise and enhance of the Markets and all Victualls and Provisions by which all the selling and richer part of the People are ten to one more gainers by the Kings Pourveyance or Compositions for them then they can be loosers and are better able to bear it and the poorer sort of the people were less grieved when it was not taken away then they are now by the Excise of Ale Beer c. which comes in the place or pretended recompence of it that the Gentry and Landlords of the Lands in the Nation who by heating of those Lands that were cold drayning and drying of those that were wet and moist watering of such as were dry and sandy and planting of Wood and Fruit have brought their lands to a greater increase and fertility not yet come to its Acme or just height then the former ages and a thousand years knowledge or practise of our Forefathers the Inhabitants of this Nation could before this last Age or Century wherein we are now ever reach or attain unto and the Landlords of Houses Innes Taverns Shops or Stalls in London who have now by the increase of Tradesmen rather then Trade raised their rents ten or twenty to one more then what they were One hundred years agoe might in some measure or moderation have taken their advantages of the improvements of their Lands Rents Houses and Shops without such an overstretching their Rents as the Tenants where they have no Leases but at will or from year to year in some Counties of England should be enforced as many have lately been to throw up and forsake their Bargains And that all or any of that over-high racking the Rents of Lands and Houses or a supposed plenty of money which in the time of the greatest enhance and rack of rents rates and prices which ever England did see or endure is now so scarcely to be found as the universality of the people do heavily complain of the want of it and the product or consequence of that evil in a like enhance of rates and prices by the Freeholders and Copyholders who pay no rents as Farmers do and by the Tenants of the King Queen Prince or Bishops some of the hospitable and well minded Nobility and Gentry the Tenants of the Church and Colledge Lands and of Lands belonging to Cities Corporations Companies and Hospitals who have cheap and comfortable Estates and Bargains and yet do all they can to imitate them although they have no cause to do it which would be much higher If all the Copihold Estates in England and Wales were at as great a rack of rent as the Lands of the most of Farmers If all the Privileges and Rights of Common Estovers and Turbary Modus decimandi and Exemption from the payment of Tythes and Tolls were abrogated And if the King should keep the same rule and measure of high rating and racking of his Revenues certain or casuall as many Landlords do Or make our East-India Merchants pay for their licence or priviledge of trading to the East-Indies all others being excluded for one and twenty years a share or proportion amounting in the whole very near a Million sterling money as the Dutch have made their East-India Company to do could not be the only proper or efficient causes of that long-strided and swift progresse and increase of the rates and prices not only of victuals and all houshold provisions but of all manner of commodities apparel and necessaries either for use or ornament So as we shall not conclude without premisses or be thought to want a ground or foundation of an irrefragable truth that Lucifer the great Merchant and furnisher of our sins and excess and of the great and intollerable pride of all the degrees and ranks of men women children and servants in the Nation as far beyond the former ages as a Giant is to a Pigmee or Pauls Steeple in London when it was highest to the Pissing Conduit as they call it in Cheapside and the avarice of the people to maintain it together with the necessities attending their pride and vanities have been no small part of the cause of it for otherwise it would have been some difficulty to find or give a reason why we should not in England a Kingdome untill our late times of confusion of the greatest peace and plenty in Christendome be able to afford victuals and all manner of provisions for the belly and back as cheap as in France where notwithstanding the heavy oppressions and burdens of the Paysants who do fare hard and are ill clad and by reason of the frugality of most of the Gentry a Partridge may be bought for â—our pence and a Gentleman and his horse at night be very well entertaind for four shillings or as in Spain where a Bando is yearly made by the Corrigidores of every City and Place which the Civil Law doth allow and direct and our Laws of England do as to victuals also intend setting yearly the rates and prices not only of all victuals and houshold provisions for the belly and of fruit and Apples but of all Commodities as Linnen and Woollen Cloth Silk Knives Haâ—s c. where notwithstanding their continuall Warres and multitudes of heavy Taxes to mainteyn them there is a cheapness of victuals and such an absence of deceit as a child or the most ignorant way as to measure weight and prices buy and not be deceived Or as is in the same manner done at Rome Naples Florence Milan and most of the Principalities of Italy not so freed from publick Burdens as our more happy England is at this present which neither would nor could be there ever submitted unto and obeyed as it is if the pride and necessities or avarice of the Landlords and the pride of the Tenants which the Pragmatico's forbidding the pride and excess of apparel do in Spain very much eradicate were not less then ours and their frugalities more and such restrictions and reglements thereby made to be the more tolerable and contenting And those that do like it more then they should and shall be content to imploy their times in the pursuit of vanities and means to
again the compass of their estates and sobriety of their forefathers We may wish and pray that all the Common people were in the moderation of their Apparel Quakers as they are called that all our Market-folk Tradesmen Artificers and Servants as to the justness of their dealings and buying and selling were Quakers and that it may not be our sad and never enough to be lamented experience that as Doctor Peter Heylin well observed the afflictions of the Church of England in the Martirdomes and Persecutions of the Protestants in the Reign of Queen Mary and the restoring afterward of many Godly Divines that fleâ— from it brought 〈…〉 the Genevian Schismes and Discipline 〈…〉 since almost undone and 〈…〉 which were heretofore purpâ—sâ—ly â—own and cherished to enervate and destroy â—onaâ—chy joyned with thâ—â—ll Manners and Customes of some Neighbour Nations may not likewise by some that might be better Englishmen and his Majesties better subjects be more then should be endeavoured to be planted amongst us which being abundantly and sufficiently triâ—d to be evill did never nor will ever attain unto the reason right use goodness and perfection of our good old English Customes amongst which is and ought to be more especially ranked the honor and support of the Royall Court of England Majesty and honor of our King and Soveraign Which the Romans who would not endure any Common-wealth Competitors nor think themselves to be in any condition of safety untill they had ruined and destroyed Carthage and those Commonwealths of Achaia Athens and Sparta were so unwilling in the height of their glory their Senate Magistrates Republick should want as the Comminalty of Rome did in a popular Election deny to make Elius Tubero a most upright and just man the Nephew of L. Paulus and Sisters Sonne of the great and famous Scipio Africanus to be a Pratâ—r or Lord Chief Justice for that he being imployed by Fabius Maximus publicquely to feast or entertain in the name and at the charge of the people of Rome his Uncle Scipio Africanus in the preparing and making ready the Triclinia or Tables lectulos punicanos pellibus â—aedinis straverat had covered the Carthaginian Beds whereon the Guests were to sit or lye with Goat-skins pro Argenteis vasis samia exposuerat and instead of silver Vessels made use of Earthen which due observance of a Heathen Republique being under no obligation of any Divine Praecepts or Examples to honour their Governours or Assembly of wise men may teach us that are Christians how very necessary it will be to take more care of the Honour of our Prince then of any our own estimations or honors which for a great part of them are or have been derived from him or his most noble Ancestors and by so much the more for that the honor to be done unto him is every where to be found commanded directed exampled and encouraged in and by those sacred Registers the holy Scriptures which are to conduct us through the Red Sea of the miseries and troubles of this life to that of a blessed and everlastingly happy in the heavenly Jerusalem in the way whereunto will be no small helpers and assistants the rendring to Caesar all his dues and rights who is the protector of ours a more exact and carefull observance of Religion Laws of nature and Nations right reason our Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and the love and honour of our King and Country the nâ—w almost forsaken virtues of our Ancestors and the good old Customes of England which should not like some rustie pieces of old neglected Arms be hung up in our Halls and now and then only talked of or like as if they were some race of Wolves come again to infâ—st us or our profits be hunted and persecuted but recalled revived and practised In which as a fidus Achatâ—s shall never be wanting the wel-wishes and endeavors of FABIAN PHILIPPS BY the Laws and Custome of England as well as of other Nations where Monarchy or the right way and order of Government hath any thing to do the King hath a Controll of Markets may regulate order the price rates of victuals houshold provisions and hinder it from being excessive As likewise may the Lords of Manors in their Leets the Sheriffs in their Tournes the Justices of the Kings Bench Justices of Peace and Justices of Assize at the Quarter-Sessions and Assizes by an authority derived from him Which when it was better observed then now made the Market Rates about the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to be if any thing at all but little different from her price or those Compositions for her houshold Provisions which by agreement made by the Justices of Peace of the severall Counties with the Offficers of her house were to be furnished according as the Counties were more or less distant from London the place of her Residence and the profits which they received thereby in the improvement of their Lands and selling their Commodities at greater rates unto others And was the cause besides the duty and obligation of it that the Kings Praeemption which should not be denyed as long as civility and good manners and the Fifth Commandement shall continue or be in use amongst us And the Royall Pourveyance warranted by the Lawes of God Nature and Nations aswell as by the Civil Law the universal and refined reason of the civilized part of the world and the Common Law of this Nation having dwelt here amongst us above the age of Methusaelah and as Retributions and Gratitudes in signe of subjection paid and allowed in other Nations by the Heathen and Savages as well as Christians were not in the right use of them untill our late Times of Rebellion and Confusion taken to be either a grievance or burden unto the people For that which besides the designes of the Levelling Party and such as were the professed Enemies of Monarchy and Majesty and the ill Impressions which they have cast into the minds of such who have too much believed them hath made them to seem that which they are not Hath been the Rack and Enhaunce of the Rents of Lands by the Nobility Gentry and Landlords The increase of Servants and Labourers wages and the high rates imposed by Tenants and Farmers upon victuals and houshold Provisions which if it were not for the pursuit of pride and vanity and the peoples racking of one another to maintain it might be afforded cheaper then it was in the 4 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth And as they are now raised to immoderate rates and prices do make a Desert in our Land of Canaan and a generall Enhaunce of all things in the midst of a plenty wherein every one is sure to be a gainer or saver but the King Who by the loss of his Praeemption and Pourveyance is made to be the only Sufferer and as to the Market rates in a worse condition
of his burdens as he and his Royal Progenitors have done unto them in any of the complained of burdens of them and their Forefathers by many times laying to sleep some good Laws Constitutions which though at the making thereof they were most just and rationall would now by the rise of silver two to one more then formerly the change of Times and Customes be very prejudiciall and burdensome unto them As King Henry the First did by no Law or Act of Parliament but his own good will and promise calculated only for that present Age or Reign but since observed by all his Successors in the change of his rent provisions into Rents of money many of which being now and ever since paid in small quit-rents made that part of the People very great gainers and that King and his Heirs and Successors to be loosers more then Fifty thousand pounds per annum or the greatest extent of the Nations yearly charge for the Royall Pourveyance or Compositions for them did ever amount unto And as the Asise of Bread Bear and Ale in 51 H. tertii which holds no proportion with the now Assize or rules for Bakers and Brewers but very much differs from it and exceeds it was not for many ages past and in some plentifull years in our memory kept when Corn Wheat and Malt did fall within the virge or direction of that Act of Parliament or Ordinance rather of the King without an Act of Parliament Nor did hold those kind of Trades to the Assize made and appointed by King Henry the 7 th nor by any Act of Parliament or otherwise restrain the Shoemakers to the prices appointed by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. repealed in the 5 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when there was an allowed transportation of Leather and scarcely half so many Cattle bred in England and brought from Ireland and Scotland nor any Leather at all imported from Russia as it is now in great quantities when they do now by their own and the Tanners knaveries and enhaunces take for a pair of shoes which in the Reign of King Edward the 2 d. might be bought for the use of a good Knight or Gentleman for a groat and in Yorkshire for some of the best Gentry of that County in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but for little more where also a pair of shoes for a Lady of a good Extraction and Quality were in the begining of the Reign of King James sold for sixteen pence and a pair of shoes for a man in the memory of middle aged men were made and sold in London for two shillings six pence and eight groats a pair no less then four shillings eight pence at the lowest and many times five shillings and six pence or six shillings a pair which as Mr. Richard Ferrour hath judiciously and ingeniously observed doth yearly cheat and cozen the people besides the inconveniences by ill wrought and half tanned Leather six or seaven hundred thousand pounds or a Million Sterling per annum which might well have been spared or better employed And be as willing to ease his burdens and grievances as Queen Elizabeth that mirrour of Women and Princes was in theirs by the repealing of so much of the Statute for limiting the wages of labourers in the 25 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Third when Churches Castles and Abbies weâ—e wont to be built as concerned the wages of Labouâ—ers that Master Masons Carpenters and Tylers should take but three pence a day and others of that Trade but two pence a day a Tylers boy a peny per diem that none other should take above a penny for a days work for mowing five pence for reaping of Corn in the first week of August two pence and in the second week and unto the end of that moneth not above three pence And by the making of an Act of Parliament that the wages of Artificers and Labourers then six times more then they were at the time of the making of the said Act of Parliament in the 25 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Third should be yearly assessed by the Justices of the Peace and Magistrates in every County City and Town corporate at their Quarter-Sessions with respect unto the plenty and scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered for that as the praeamble thereof declared the wages and allowances limited and rated in former Statutes were in divers places too small and not answerable to that time respecting the advancement of the prices of all things belonging unto Artificers and Labourers that the Law could not conveniently without the great grief and burden of the poor Labourers and hired men be put in execution and to the end that there might be a convenient proportion of wages in the times of scarcity and plenty Which was the cause that King James by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of his Reign upon compleynt that their wages were not rated and proportioned according to the plenty necessity and scarcity and respect of the time as was politiquely intended by the said Queen Elizabeth did amongst other provisions give a further power authority to the Justices of Peace in every County at their Quarter Sessions from time to time to limit and regulate the wages and hire of Labourers and Artificers although their wages and hire were then much encreased and are since very excessive and immoderate which by an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martir being continued untill the end of the first Session of the then next Parliament is for want of continuance expired and did repeal as Queen Elizabeth and other of our Kings also did many an Act of Parliament in regard of Inconveniences or damages arising to the people or because they did not answer the expectations of the makers thereof And may as little grudge the King his Pourveyance or Compositions for them though the richer part of the people who are only contributory to the Pourveyance or Compositions for them may by their own excessive raysing of all manner of prices of houshold provisions and their unreasonable gains by it seem to be something more then formerly burdened with it as they did the late King Charles the Martyr his indulgence to them and dispensing with a Decree made in the Starre-Chamber in the 11 th year of his Reign by the Lords of his Privy Councel and other the Judges of that Court after consultation had with Judge Hutton and Judge Croke who were well known to be very great well-wishers to the peoples just and legall liberties and the other reverend Judges and divers Justices of the peace of the Kingdom confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal of England which did forbid the Vintners to dress any meat for their Guests or Strangers and limited the Inkeepers of London and
so Essential to government as they spared no cost in their Epulis or Caresses of the people and was for many Ages past congeniall and connatural to the English Nation who are abundantly taken with it and justly accompted to be such an handmaid to Piety as Geffery Earl of Essex and Eustace his Wife did in the Reign of King Henry the second grant to the Nunnery of Clarkenwell totam decimam totius victus procurationis provisions saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman illorum domus suae familiae suae the Tithe or Tenths of all the victuals and provisions of their house and family And Maud of Mandevill Countesse of Essex and Hertford in the beginning of the Reign of King H. 3. confirming the said Grant doth it in more express words viz. ubicunque fuerimus de panibus potibus carnibus etiam de piscibus wheresoever they should be of bread drink flâ—sh and fish And was such an effect of the magnificence grandeur of the minds of the English Nobility as Roger Earl of Warwick in the 23. year of the Reign of King Henry the first did grant unto Richard the Son of Jvo his Cook afterwards taking the Sirname of Woodlow from their residence at Woodlow in the County of Warwick besides the Mannor of Woodlow with divers Lands and Priviledges thereunto belonging and a Yard land in Cotes in the County aforesaid given by the said Earle to him and his heirs the Office of Master Cook in his Kitchin to him and his Heirs which his Father theretofore held with all Fees of his Kitchen belonging to the Master Cook both in Liveries and Horses as the Esquires of his Houshold then had of which Alan the Son of that Richard being also in the said Office in the house of William Earl of Warwick Son of the said Earl Roger who it seems could produce no Charter in writing thereof obtained a grant and confirmation of the said William Earl of Warwick of the said Mannor Lands and Office for which the said Alan gave unto the Earl ten shillings in money twelve Geâ—se and a Fikin of Wine And a late experience if antiquity had been altogether silent of the benefits which do come by it hath sufficiently declared unto us the no dull operation or impulse of it in that since the happy Restoration of King Charles the second and the Kingly Goveâ—nment a Gentleman high born and of a great â—xtraction retiring into a Country where some part of his Estate doth lye about one hundred miles from London did by an Housekeeping and Hospitality becoming him and his great Ancestors so winne the hearts and love of the people though they were of a different Judgement and profession of Religion which usually begeâ—s more animosities and ill will then it should do as he became their darling whilst he was with them and their sorrow and cause of tolling their Bells backwards as a signe of some disaster when he had occasion for a little while to leave them And a Gentleman or Faber fortunâ— suae one that but lately had made his fortunes in as remote a Country from London and of some new fangled opinions in Religion distastfull enough to many in his Neighbourhood did only by a charity of giving unto some numbers of poor people of the place wherein he lived Beef and Pottage at his door twice or thrice every week in the year so gain the love of the people as they that would not otherwise have shewed him any love or favour did not deny him either of them When as too many can lay aside and neglect the care of obliging and gaining the hearts and affections of their Neighbours and Tenants and making any shift to furnish and provide the excess and sinfull superfluities both of the belly and the back will not let the belly want it nor the back be without it And those that have no mind or will to pay or make the King any recompence for his Pourveyance or Compositions can without any grudging see the Pourveyance of the City of London that Queen that sitteth like the afterwards unhappy City of Tire upon many waters covereth all our Island and her Citizens by seeking to buy as cheap as they can and to adulterate as much as they can and sell as dear as they doe all their wares commodities can make a costly enhance of all manner of houshold provisions and extending their desires and attempts for that purpose to the remotest parts of the Kingdome do by ingrossings combinations and other unlawfull Artifices of Trade bring the fatness of the Flock and the delicacies of Sea and Land to feed and furnish out the Luxuries of her own Inhabitants and such as have a will to be infected with it and make the whole Island to be too little to maintain her vice and avarice insomuch as Salmons which at Monmouth being above 100 miles distant from London were wont to be sold there for ten groats a piece are now before hand bespoke and bought up by some Londoners or their Agents for ten shillings a piece and the Towns-men that did before eâ—joy a priviledge that all the Salmons brought to that Market should be first brought to the Kings Bord and no Forreigner suffered to buy any untill the Town were first served can now see themselves bereaved of their Prae-emption as well as the King is whose Progenitors did at the first bestow it upon them In Lincolnshire above 70 or 80 miles from London do so ingross and precontract for all wild fowl Ducks and Mallards as the Gentry of that Country where they are bred and should have some cheapness plenty of them are resolving to be Petitioners to the Justices of Peace at the next Quarter-Sessions that the Heglers and men of London may not be suffered to raise the pâ—ices of their Wild-fowl nor carry them out of the Countâ—y untill it be first served And as if all were not enough to enrich themselves and undo others can upon any accident or occasion or but a supposiâ—â—on of things which may happen make and dresse up their pretences and supposed causes of pâ—ices to be raâ—sed and eâ—hanced to the great oppression and burden of all that are to buy of them and but upon a late likelihood of Warres betwixt us and the Netherland united Belgick Provinces whilst we are Masters of the Seas and not under any probability of having our Seas disquieted or Trade interrupted have so greatly before hand raised the rates and prices of Sea-coal Sprats Salt and the most part of transmarine Commodities as they that shall believe that those and many more of their exactions which they will put and enforce upon the people by reason of a probability of that Warre will without any just cause or reason for it in a short time amount unto more then six hundred thousand pounds may well be understood neither to prejudice the truth or their judgements in it