wast ground the Lord by the Law may inclose part of the waste for himselfe leaving neverthelesse sufficient Common with egresse and regresse for the Commoners And it is called approvement appruamentum that is to make the best benefit thereof by increasing the rent And if the Lord doth approve his waste not leaving sufficient Common for the Tenants the Law gives them a remedy against the Lord by writ of assize But my ayme is at inclosing of common fields used to culture and converting them into pasture whereby one grand offence and inconvenience not yet formerly mentioned doth arise The stopping and straightning of the Kings high wayes For whereas by the Statute of Winton 13. Edw. 1.5 It was commanded that high wayes leading from one Market Towne to another should be inlarged where bushes woods or dykes were so that there should be neither dyke tree nor bush whereby a man might lurke to doe hurt within two hundred foote of the one side and two hundred foote of the other side of the way except Ashes or great Trees By the meaning of which Law the Kings high waies which the Common Law had ever in high estimation were to be of such sufficient breadth that three or foure Carts or carriages might well passe in range together without any stop or impediment Now in most parts of the Kingdome within the space of these forty yeares There have beene so much Circumseption and wounding in of common errable lands and fields abutting and adjoyning to high waies by Tenants with consent of the Lord of the fee all partakers of the crime and the high waies thereby so streightned that in many places but one Cart and not without some danger and difficulty can passe and scarce two horsemen side by side without climing upon side bankes whence these inconveniences and mischiefes must needs arise 1 A great danger to his Majesties Subjects in being exposed to assassinations and robberies with little possibility to avoide or resist them by reason of the narrownesse and incombrance of the wayes 2 As great a danger to his highnesse leige people who upon necessitated occasions either for his highnesse publik service or for common entercourse and trafficke being upon the height of speed which brooks no delaie Omnis nimium long a properanti mora est doe oftentimes in streight and narrow lanes I cannot terme them waies for the way aswel as the word are become diminutives via is turned into viculi meete with countercourses and are ready for want of competent spatiousnesse which might decline the suddaine distresse rashly encounter each other to the perill of their limbes or lives 3 A manifest impairment or population of the waies themselves doth this straightnesse produce and thereby not onely makes them unpassable upon some unseasonable times weather to the great trouble and impediment of the Subjects who are inforced to compasse their journey with much tediousnesse through private grounds and other by-wayes But it doth also exhaust from the poore neighbouring Inhabitants a farre greater and more frequent charge of reparations then if they had the Statute allowance of latitude the often pressures and treadings in one tract wil sooner founder a way then if there were variety and choice of tracts which would be supplied in breadth according to that law of Winton if inclosures were not in the way Sect. 37 All the mischiefs and miserable inconveniences before cited I shall reduce in one distick Rex patitur patitur clerus respublica pauper Et non passurus depopulator erit Rex patitur The King suffers 1 First in his Royall Majestie he cannot number so many strong and able men as he might doe if tillage had its ancient esteeme In the multitude of people is the Kings honour but in the want of people is the destruction of the Prince In pautitate plebis ignominia Principis Prov. 14.28 It was the lamentation of Ierusalem Lamen 1.1 How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people how is shee become as a widow Amongst people the husbandmen are noted to be homines strenuissimi the strongest men and fittest for any labour whence Seneca observed Nullum laborem recusant manus quae ab aratro ad arma transferuntur Their hands refuse no labour who from the exercise of the Plow are trayned to the field The Law therefore of 39. Eliz. ca. 1. doth excellently set forth That the strength and flourishing estate of this Kingdome hath beene alwaies upheld and advanced by tillage and people thereby multiplied for service both in times of war and peace and by the decay of it the defence of the land against forreigne enemies have been feebled and decayed 2 Secondly in the meanes and maintenance of his imperiall state and therefore a depopulator may bee well called depeculator a robber of the Kings treasury for it must of necessity be diminished and farre shortned if sufficient Families who were able to pay subsidies fifteenes and other duties to supply the KINGS necessities aswell for the support of his regality as for the defence of the Kingdome bee utterly decayed and disabled And it is a common practice with Landlords and others to keepe tenements in their hands and insteed of Subsidies to pay the King with Certificates It is the prudent policy of a Prince in the time of peace to make provision for the maintenance of warre Nulla quies gentium sine armis the peace of a Nation cannot be without an army No armies without Souldiers no Souldiers without salaries no salaries without tributes and taxes to the Prince And where there are no people there can be no paimēts and then the desolation of a Kingdom must needs follow which I hope our Nation shall never see Sect. 38 Patitur Clerus The Church suffers 1. in the decay and ruine of materiall temples oratories chappels and houses of religion 2. abating and diminishing the number of painefull and learned Pastors 3. in robbing God and his holy Church of tythes both personall and prediall for where Towns Parishes and Villages are dispeopled there must be a failing of personall duties And where errable lands are converted into pasture there must needs insue a diminution of predial tythes sheep do never yeeld so much profit and advantage to Gods Ministers as the sheafe this is commonly sure to be paid in kind In the tything of the other which consisteth in wooll and lambe there are many slights and subtil deceipts of late crept in and many devices started up by covetous and ill disposed persons They will either shift away their sheepe from one place to another and sometimes upon a petty composition with a neighbour incumbent from one parish to another and so incumber the tything for the fall of Lambes and set a variance betweene the Ministers or they will sell their sheep a little before the time of shearing and so cheat the Minister of his dues in the title of wooll And to countenance this pillage some strange prescription
Statute of 4. Hen. 7. ca. 19. was revived and confirmed and Commissions a warded to certaine persons to enquire of all defaults and offences committed since An. 20. Hen. 8. or then after to be committed contrary to the tenor of the fore-cited Statutes of 4. H. 7.19 and 7. Hen. 8.1 and the act of 5. Eliz. 2. which repealed the Statues of 5. and 6. Edw. 6.5 and 2. and 3. Phi. and Ma. 2. confirming the rest were all repealed 39. Eliz. cap. 1. And thereby explained and enacted that every house which at that time or then after had twenty acres to bee adjudged according to the ordinance de terris mensurandis of errable land meadowe and pasture or more thereunto belonging and so let to farme for three yeares together since the beginning of the Queenes raigne not being the Castle or dwelling House of any Nobleman or Gentleman nor the chiefe mansion house of any Mannor shall be adjudged a house of husbandry for ever with many provisions for repairing and new-building houses of husbandry 39. Eliz. cap. 2. was same Parliament an Act ca. 2. was made that errable land converted to sheepe pastures or to the fatting or grazing of cattell since 1. Eliz. should bee restored or laid to tillage and so continue for ever according to the nature of the soile and course of husbandry with some clauses and restrictions and a penalty of twenty shillings for every acre for every yeare not restored I cannot omit the reasons of this Law inforced in the entrance of it 1 That the strength and flourishing estate of this kingdome hath beene alwayes upheld and advanced by the maintenance of the Plow and tillage 2 Tillage is the occasion of multiplying of people both for service in the wars and time of peace 3 A principall meanes that people are set on worke and thereby withdrawne from idlenesse drunkennesse unlawfull games and all other lewd practizes and conditions of life 4 That by tillage and husbandry the greater part of the subjects are preserved from extreme poverty in a competent estate of maintenance and meanes to live 5 The wealth of the Realme kept dispersed and distributed in many hands where it is more ready to answer all necessary charges for the service of the Realme 6 It is a cause that the Realme doth more stand upon it selfe without out depending upon forreigne Countries either for importation of Corne in time of scarcity or for vent and utterance of our owne commodities These two last mentioned Acts were but to endure to the end of the next Session of Parliament which being holden 43. Eliz. they were then revived and continued ca. 9. and likewise continued 1. Iacobi 25. and afterward discontinued and by the Statute of 21. Iacob all the said other Statutes against decay of houses were utterly repealed And so the remedy must have recourse to the Common Law and the wisedome of the State Sect. 25 I thought it no great digression from any purpose succinctly to runne over those Comitiar Lawes framed according to the necessity of the times wherein they were made that wee may observe the opinion and detestation those times had of this exorbitant evill And though those Lawes be by repeale and expiration exauctorated yet the inconveniences and mischiefes pointed out by them still remaining and increasing and the nature and quality of the offence transcending from meane Tenants to great Land lords from small quantities of acres to whole Towneships tythings and hamlets The care and cure must bee greater and speedier then any Stature-Law hath hitherto provided Yet there is one Law made 25. 25 He. 8. ca. 13. Hen. 8. ca. 13. intituled An act limiting what number of sheepe men shall keepe occupie and have in their owne possession at one time still in force and unrepealed which though in the frontispice it seemes to looke upon a sillie company of sheepe it doth unkennell a subtill sort of Foxes which waste and spoile the Vineyard of the Common wealth Observe 1 the footing of these Foxes by their practizes and injuries to the common good 2 the mischiefes and inconveniences thereupon happenning 3 the great consequence insuing 4 the remedy provided by that Law 1 It discovereth unto us that sundry of the Kings Subjects to whom GOD had disposed great plenty of moveable substance did daily practise and invent waies and meanes how they might accumulate and gather together into few hands as well great multitudes of farmes as great plenty of Cattell and in especiall sheepe putting such lands as they can get to pasture and not to tillage 2 The incoveniences foure fold 1 That thereby they have pulled downe Churches and Townes 2 Inhaunsed the old rates of the rents of the possessions of this Realm or brought it to such excessive fines that no poore man is able to meddle with it 3 That they have raised the prices of all manner of Corne Cattel Wool and such other almost double above the accustomed prices 4 That multitudes of people not able to provide necessary victualls and cloathing for themselves their wives and children were so discouraged with misery and poverty that they fell daily to theft robbery and other inconveniences or pittifully dyed for hunger and cold 3 The consequence or enormities insuing five fold 1 That things thus used be principally to the high displeasure of Almighty God 2 To the decay of the hospitality of this Realme 3 To the diminishing of the Kings people 4 To the let of Cloth-making whereby many poore people had beene accustomed to bee set to worke If remedy were not found it might turne to the utter destruction and desolation of the Realme 4 The remedy prescribed 2. fold restriction and limitation 1 That none should occupie in farme or otherwise have of his owne proper cattell in his owne proper lands nor in the possession lands or grounds of any other which hee shall have in farme by any manner of meanes craft or cunning above two thousand sheep at one time within any part of the Realme upon paine of three shillings and foure pence for every sheepe above that number 2 That none should take in farme for terme of life yeares or at will any more houses and renements of husbandry whereunto any lands are belonging in Towne Village Hamlet or tything above the number of two upon the penalty of three shillings and foure pence for every weeke Sect. 26 All these Statutes are but municipalis aperturae legis overtures of the ancient Common Law One of the mainest speciall occasions of this grand mischiefe is a growing evill of late yeares practized and set on foote by certaine greedy and covetous persons Carnifices carnivoros regni grazing butchers who under colour of their mechainck trade in butchery respecting their owne private gaine and lucre above the generall good of his Highnesse Subjects doe accumulate and gaine into their hands at excessive yearly rents severall great portions and parts of the grounds and lands of this
ruine for that it appeared to the Court upon evident proofe that there were many servants and people kept upon those farmes when they were used in tillage And the same were furnished with sufficient houses barnes and outhouses necessary for farmers to dwell in and many quarters of wheat and other graine out of each farme were yearly sold and vented to London and elsewhere And many poore men and women were then there set on worke and about twenty persons fit for warres were maintained in and upon the sayd farmes as also severall Carts ready and fit to doe his Majesty service both in carrying timber for repaire of his Navie and otherwise And for that the defendant had then of late yeares taken into his owne occupation all the said farmes and converted all the lands formerly used for tillage unto pasture and had also Depopulated and pulled downe three of the said farme houses and suffered the other two to run to ruine and to lye uninhabited and one of the said farmes which was before a great defence and succour for Travellers who passed that way since the Depopulation thereof hath beene a harbour for theeves and many robberies have beene thereabouts committed and monies recovered by the robbed persons from the hundred which together with the wants of those clowes there formerly kept had beene a great burden to that part of the Country And for that also the defendant to the great inconvenience and prejudice of a Towne neere adjoyning had pulled downe and suffered to goe to decay not habitable one water corne mill which thentofore did grind good store of corne weekely Vpon grave and deliberate liberate consideration the Court did with a joynt consent and opinion declare that the defendant was clearly guilty of the said Depopulation and conversion of errable into pasture before expressed And that the same offences were punishable even by the Common Law of this Kingdome and fit to be severely punished the rather for that it was a growing evill and had already spread it selfe into very many parts of this Kingdome and might in time if it were not met withall and prevented by the just Censure of that Court grow very prejudiciall and dangerous to the State and Common wealth and therefore their Lordships did thinke fit order adjudge and decree 1 That the defendant should stand and be committed to the prison of the Fleet. 2 That hee should pay a fine of foure thousand pounds to his Majesties use 3 That he should at the next assizes to be holden for that County in open Court the Iudges and Iustices there sitting acknowledge his said offences and for the better manifestation of the offence to the Countrey and to the end that others seeing his punishment might be therby after warned to forbeare the committing of the like It was ordered that their Lordships sentence and decree should be then at the said assizes publikely read And further the Court considering and commending the paines care and travell taken by the Relator in bringing that cause to judgement and being satisfied upon the hearing of the cause that the poore of the parish and the Minister there had beene severally damnified by the defendant Their Lordships did farther order and decree 4 That the said defendant should pay unto the said Relator one hundred pounds for recompence of his travaile besides his costs of suite 5 That hee should pay unto the Minister of the Parish one hundred bounds 6 That hee should pay unto the poore of the Parish one hundred pounds to bee distributed to and amongst them at the discretion of the foure next Iustices of peace adjoyning to the said Towne 7 And lastly the Court did order that the defendant should within two yeares after repaire and build againe all the said farme-houses with their outhouses and the said Corne-mill fit for habitation and use as formerly they were and should restore the lands formerly used and let with the same farmes unto the farme-houses againe and let and demise the same severall farmes to severall Tennants for reasonable rents such as the Country would afford and that all the said lands should be againe plowed up and used to tillage as formerly it had been As by the decree remaining of Record in that honourable Court may plainely appeare The true contents whereof are here set downe that as it was published at the Assizes for an example in that Countrie the benefit thereof may hereby redound to all the Counties of his Majesties dominions Sect. 53 I have the rather summarily touched the severall points and branches of this decree for these reasons That every well affected Subject may discern the singular wisdome of the Lords of his Majesties most honourable privy Counsell and their assistants in that great Court The Prayers of the Church we well hope are not in vaine That it may please him to indue the Lords of the Councell and all the Nobility with grace wisedome and understanding And without Gods speciall indowments conferred on them and on their Head under CHRIST the Ship Royall of our State could not be so religiously providently and prosperously steered as it is Methinkes when I considerately weigh the Composition of this decree all parts of Iustice seeme here to be included 1 Here is punition 1. by imprisonment 2. by fine 3. by publike acknowledgment 2 Here is remuneration to the party Relating for discovering and bringing the offendor to the publike seate of Iudgement 3 Here is compensation 1. to the Minister 2. to the poore of the Parish for the detriment and damage by them respectively susteyned according to the circumstances of the cause 4 And lastly here is reparation and restitution which concernes the Common weale 1. in repairing and reedifying the farmes 2. in restoring the Land formerly used and let with them 3. in letting and demizing the same farmes to severall Tennants at reasonable rents 4. in converting the land to tillage againe Sect. 54 As in GODS sentence the malum culpae was answered with the malum poenae So it is fully accomplished in this decree for hereby All that any way suffered 1. King 2. Church 3. Common weale 4. Poore are all righted and salved and therefore it deserves the more earnest pressing first for the comfort of those who grieve and grone under the burthen of this oppression that though they be remote in the Country from the eye of superior Iustice yet in the particulars of this decree they may tanquam in perspicillis behold a farre off the vigilant care which his Majesty and his honorable Councell have of the meanest member of his Common weale Secondly that others delinquents of the same ranke and quality may tanquam in specule as in a looking-glasse view their owne evill of sinne and justly expect the same evill of punishment Sect. 55 That no men may lull themselves asleepe with the conceipt of security and that his highnesse Subjects who feele the smart of this mischiefe may have no cause to
distrust the continuance of his care his goodnesse hath of late directed severall Commissions into most Counties of the Kingdome out of the high Court of Chancery I shall but briefly touch some speciall points therein First the motives which induced his Majesty thereunto His intelligence that in diverse parts of his Kingdome very many Messuages and Mansion houses which had been for many yeares past habitations for husbandmen farmers and others exercised in tillage did now remaine in decay ruinous destroyed or uninhabited and the farmes and errable lands severed and divided from the houses whereto they belonged and great quantities of such errable land have beene converted from culture into pasture whereupon great wast and depopulation of Towns Villages Parishes and Hamlets in diverse parts of his Kingdome have insued and are like dayly more and more to increase to the dishonour and prejudice of his Majesty and his Crowne and to the dammage and detriment of his people and whole Realme Secondly his Majesties readinesse to meete with such mischiefs and to provide for the welfare of himselfe and his people by assigning and appoynting certaine Commissioners in most parts of his Kingdome and giving unto them full power and authority under his great Seale to enquire by the oathes of good and honest men aswell within liberties as as without as also by the depositions of any credible witnesses to be called and examined upon their oathes and by all other waies and meanes and to make Certificate of the Inquisitions taken before them into the Chancery Thirdly the Subject of this inquiry What and how many Burroughes Townes Villages Parishes Hamlets Farmes Farmehouses or other Messuages or houses since the tenth yeare of the late Queene Eliz. have beene and now are depopulated wasted destroyed and ruinated or converted from the habitation of husbandmen to other uses and what lands and Tenements have been converted from tillage and plowing to other uses with diverse other particular clauses and branches Fourthly a Command unto the Commissioners to give notice unto all persons who claime title to any Lands or Tenements so wasted depopulated or separated either as heires or purchasers or by or under any person committing such depopulation and waste their Farmers or Assignes That within a time limited by the Commissioners or any two or more They and every of them doe respectively cause to bee re-edified and repaired all and singular the said houses of husbandry and all the separated lands to be restored to the houses and that the lands converted from tillage to pasture and other unlawfull uses bee againe restored to tillage and to admit of husbandmen to be Tenants to those houses prout hactenus fieri consuetum fuerit Sect. 56 That his Majesty hath full and absolute power to award such Commissions for the good and benefit of his Kingdomes welfare I thinke none so disloyall as to doubt according to the exigence of the present times for the better preparing of his intended reformation without a literall imitation of former presidents In novo casu novum apponendum est remedium variety of cases must have variety of remedies The wisedome of a Parliament or a State may foresee an insuing evill and they may enact a prohibiting of it and a provision of some paine and penalty against it but they can never provide de futur is contingentibus of future circumstances and contingencies and therefore ubi non est directa lex standum est arbitrio Iudicis where a direct positive Law cannot meet with an offence in the very apple of the eye the defect must be supplied by an arbitrary Iudgement according to the circumstances and occurencies of things Let all the Statutes that ever were made against the decaying of houses of husbandry and tilage be strictly inspected and not any one of them either did or ever could prescribe such a proportionable remedy for such a crime in all things as the sentence of that great Iudgement seat hath done Sect. 57 By the Statute of 5. and. 6. Edw. 6. cap. 5. intituled An act for the maintenance of tillage and increase of corne It was ordeyned that his then Majesty his Heires and Successors at his and their will and pleasure should from time to time direct his and their severall Commissions under the great Seale of England to such persons as it should please them to inquire by the oathes of a sufficient Iury what Lands and Tenements in every Towne Parish Village or Hamlet within the limits of their charge had at any time or times since the first yeare of King Henery the eight beene converted and turned from tillage to pasture and was then or then after should be continued and occupied in pasture and to certifie the presentment thereof into the Court of Chancery with convenient speed to bee thence delivered over into the Court of Exchequer there to remaine amongst the Records of the same Court to the end that Statute might bee the more diligently and indifferently put in execution By the Statute of 2. and 3. Philip and Mary cap. 2. intituled An act for the reedifying of decayed houses of husbandrie and for the increase of tillage citing the Law of 4. Henery 7. which is before largely recited it was ordayned that the like Commissions in effect should be awarded and that the Commissioners should have full power and athority to enquire heare and determine by the oathes of twelve men or by information or other lawfull wayes or meanes all and singular defaults and offences committed or done since the feast of Saint George the Martyr in the twentieth yeare of Henry the eighth or then after should be committed or done aswell contrary to the tenor and effect of the said former act 4. Henery 7. as contrary to one other act of 7. Henery 8. intituled An act to avoyd letting downe of houses and also to enquire heare order and determine by the said wayes and means of and concerning all grounds whatsoever converted from tillage to pasture since the sayd feast or then after to bee converted from tillage to pasture and also of all ground in or neare any corne fields newly used or imployed since the sayd feast or then after newly to be used imployed and converted to the keeping of Conies not being a lawfull warren and whereby the Corne of any persons other then the owner of the same Conies since the sayd feast had been or then after should bee destroyed or consumed And that the said Commissioners should and might bind by Recognizance the persons offending and guilty in any of the foresaid decaies or defaults in such summes of Money as to the Commissioners should seeme reasonable for the reedifying of such decayed houses and for the converting of such grounds from pasture to tillage againe and for the diminishing and destroying of Conies within such convenient time as the Commissioners should thinke meete limit and appoint with many clauses and provisoes in the sayd Statute at large expressed Sect. 58
passed before that the labour of Culture was the first work injoyn'd unto man after the fall renewed upon the renewing of the world in Noah and his posterity that it hath been highly honoured and priviledged amongst all Nations that it is most pretious in the esteeme of our lawes and government and with what circumspection watchfulnes his gracious Majesty and his honorable Councell have proceeded for the upholding maintaining of it and punishing all sorts of delinquents against it Will it not well beseeme them to make themselves fitly deserving and worthy of so great a favour The way to do it is to act their part of distributive Iustice in bringing their corne and graine chearfully into the Markets for supply of the poore and others at reasonable prices and not to hide and hoard it up to expect nay to make and raise up a dearth Sect. 63 I cannot choose but under favour tell them their fault ingens crimen a very great fault they are growne to be the common favourers of Forestallers and Ingrossers and fosterers of an unruly generation of Maltmakers and by consequence of a pernicious number of Alehouses who have all a dependency one upon the other It is a common practice Et malum quo communius eo pejus for a Malt-maker to resort to a farmors house after a scrutiny made what store of barly he hath in his hands and possession he presently deales with the husbandman to bring a sample of it to market in a quantity of foure or five bushels and there he will bargaine for all the rest in mow or barne though it be five hundred quarters to be threshed out and brought home to his house vainely flattering himselfe with this conceipt that because the compact was made for it in the marker and earnest there given it is a lawfull buying and not within the compasse of forestalling or ingrossing Pereant artes artifices Let all such who by these wilie and wicke subtilties goe about to Circumvent the true intention of the Law perish with their owne devices as it is the tricke of a forestalling Maltmaker so is it as frequent with Bakers Badgers and other forestallers of Wheat and other graine at the houses of husbandmen Sect. 64 This evill hath so long dwelt amongst us that the offendors are ready to prescribe use and custome they have been well met withal in the County of Norfolke and other places by severall Censures and Decrees of the honourable Court of Starchamber made in the terme of S. Michaell in the seventh yeare of his Highnesse Raigne one especially xxiij of November in the same terme whereby some delinquents were sentenced for contracting with Corne-masters upon market dayes for great quantities of Corne and afterwards causing the same to be brought home to their houses as by the decree of the Court may appeare It hath not onely infected those parts but like a venemous humor hath spread its infection through the veynes of the body of the whole Kingdome and poysoned almost the life bloud of government especially in many parts of our Westerne region where it hath crept into borough Towns and Corporations and there sojournes in the houses of Magistrats and Aldermen who being expresly required by his Majesties Articles and directions published for the good of his people in the yeare 1630 to take care for the suppressing of Maltsters did in affront thereunto take up and exercise the trade themselves having great means and other trades to live by Sect. 65 Wheresoever there are excesse of Maltsters there will be a greater excesse of Alehouses and I may be bold to say that the one ingenders the other but it is a spurious and unlawfull birth and brood The Maltster commonly trusteth the poore Ale-house keeper with a brewing of mault before hand upon some slender security the vent of that must usher in and pay for the next and so still keep a course beforehand and it is very frequent that one Maltster hath under his protection and command at least sixe or seven tiplers either by connivence or unlawfull licence that shall most of them utter for him at least thirty bushells of mault a weeke one weeke with another So outragious is the one in his oppression by forestalling and ingrossing and so wastfull and disordered the other in their inordinate tipling that scarce can a poore man buy a peck of barly in a market day for his money and not five barley loves for the sustenance of a hungry multitude if neede required to bee found in a whole Country Sect. 66 This mischiefe would be prevented if the Farmers and Husbandmen would decline all sinister contracts with such kind of men and not sell and deliver their Corne at their private houses but with cheerefulnesse bring it into the open market Emporium est optima aestimatrix rerum No kind of Graine Victuall or other vendible mercimony can be so truly valued and estimated as in Faires or Markets overt where there is a plentifull concourse of buyers Markets are either by grant from the King or by ancient prescription The Common Lawes of this Land have ever had the well using and ordering of them in great esteeme To which end and purpose the office of Clarke of the market being very ancient was first ordeyned to take care and to view and inquire that all weights and measures bee agreeable to the Kings Standard in his Exchequor at Westminster and that all Corne and Victuall be sold by such and by no other and diverse good Lawes have been made for appointing and observing the assize of bread and beer according to the prizes of Corne in the markets adjoyning Of these things I have more amply treated elsewhere Sect. 67 The husband man must not onely bring his Corne into the market but he must send the best and not the refuze he must not sell it in a pinching scant or deceitfull measure he must not keepe it up in muzled bags in the market for colour and a showe only and not with any intention to set it to sale he must not use any art or shift to inhaunce the price of his Corne and rather then he will sell it at the ordinary price in the market slide it into some privat corner to remaine for a dearer sale It is not long since that a Country man standing by his Corne in a market and observing the price that day to bee more moderate then his covetuos mind expected did with some fury and indignation close up his bags conveigh them away and fearefully sweare that he would keepe his Corne till Mice had devoured it rather then he would vent it at the rate of the market Against all false decitfull and hard hearted sellers the Prophet Amos denounceth a woefull Commination rowsing them up first with Audite hoc qui conteritis pauperem deficere facitis egenos terra Dicentes Quando transibit messis venum dabimus merces Et Sabbatum aperiemus