Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/110

90 who sent an account of the journey to Sir William Cecil, with maps and plans.

'In this voyage,' said Wood, 'I have seen, amongst others, two goodly havens at Cork and Kinsale, as by the plots thereof shall presently appear unto you, and also a large and fruitful country of itself; but the most thereof uninhabited, and the land wasted by evil dissensions, that it is pity to behold: which disorder hath continued of a long time by want of justice, insomuch that the most part of the gentlemen, yea, I might say all, be thieves or maintainers of thieves, which thing themselves will not let to confess, as I have presently heard; and have no other way to excuse their faults but that lack of justice forceth them to keep such people as may resist their neighbours, and revenge wrong with wrong, without which they are not able to live. Thus the poor be continually overrun, bereft of their lives, and spoiled of their goods; and no marvel, for neither is God's law nor the King's known nor obeyed. The father is at war with the son, the son with the father, brother with brother, and so forth. Wedlock is not had in any price; whoredom is counted as no offence; and so throughout the realm in effect vice hath the upper hand, and virtue is nothing at all regarded. The noblemen—at the least sundry of them—hang or pardon at their pleasure, whether it be upon a privilege granted unto them, or upon an usurped power, I know not; but, undoubtedly, it is needful to be reformed. There is no cause why these people should be out of order more than others. They have shape and