Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/258

238 reports, and the gentlemen had so far taken warning from the last proclamation, that the commissioners were able to conclude: 'I assure you, my lord, in every of these same shires there hath been a great appearance of gentlemen and men of worship who have endeavoured themselves, with much diligence, in executing the King's precepts and commandments.' Sir Thomas Wriothesley, who either accompanied the commission, or was in Hampshire independently of it, took advantage of a quarter sessions in that county to stimulate these symptoms of improvement a little further.

The King, he told the magistrates, desired most of all things that indifferent justice should be ministered to the poor and the rich, which, he regretted to say, was imperfectly done. Those in authority too much used their powers, 'that men should follow the bent of their bows,' a thing which 'did not need to be followed.' The chief cause of all the evils of the time was 'the dark setting forth of God's Word,' 'the humming and harking of the priests who ought to read it, and the slanders given to those that did plainly and truly set it forth.' At any rate, the fact was as he described it to be; and they would find, he added significantly, that, if they gave further occasion for complaint, 'God had given them a prince that had force and strength to rule the highest of them.' For the present no further notice was taken of their conduct. There is no evidence