Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/522

502 'Lo, sir,' he went on to Warwick, 'thus standeth the case. Their orgueil is intolerable, their disputations be unreasonable, their conditions to us dishonourable, and, which is worst of all, our estate at home is miserable. What, then! of many evils let us choose the least. First, we must acknowledge what he cannot deny—the evil condition of our estate at home, which recognizance is the first degree to amendment. The next is to know the cause of the evil, and that is war, supposed to be, if not the only cause, at least one of the chiefest among many great. How many—how great occasions of mischief the war hath engendered to England? Ill money, whereby outward things be dearer, idleness among the people, great courages, dispositions to imagine and invent novelties, devices to amend this and this, and a hundred mischiefs which make my heart sorry to mark—these be the fruits of war. Then, if the disease will not be taken away, let the cause be taken away; and war, which is one chief cause, must be taken away. But that shall not be taken away, say the French, save upon this condition—they will have Boulogne for a sum of money, and make peace. Well, what moveth us to stick? Consider if we be able to keep it maulgre the French. Rochpot saith and braggeth that their King is not a King John, but a French King such as conquered Rome, and been feared of the rest, and will have Boulogne again, whosoever saith nay; and telleth us how we are in poverty and mutinies at home—beset all about with enemies, having no friend to succour us, destitute of money to furnish us, and so far in debt as