Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/123

1552.] enough for indulgence. Again, as every member of the body was obliged 'to work and take pains,' so there should be no unit in the commonwealth which was not 'laboursome in his vocation.' 'The gentleman should do service in his country, the serving-man should wait diligently on his master, the artisan should work at his trade, the husbandman at his tillage, the merchant in passing the tempests;' the vagabond should be banished as 'the superfluous humour of the body,' 'the spittle and filth which is put out by the strength of nature.'

Looking at England, however, as England was, the young King saw 'all things out of order.' 'Farming gentlemen and clerking knights,' neglecting their duties as overseers of the people, 'were exercising the gain of living.' 'They would have their twenty miles square of their own land or of their own farms.' Artificers and clothiers no longer worked honestly; the necessaries of life had risen in price, and the labourers had raised their wages, 'whereby to recompense the loss of things they bought.' The country swarmed with vagabonds; and those who broke the laws escaped punishment by bribery or through foolish pity. The lawyers, and even the judges, were corrupt. Peace and order were violated by religious dissensions and universal neglect of the law. Offices of trust were bought and sold; benefices impropriated, tillage-ground turned to pasture, 'not considering the sustaining of men.' The poor were robbed by the enclosures; and extravagance in dress and idle luxury of living were eating like ulcers into the State. These were the vices of the age: nor