Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/249

1553.] and himself were setting generally to work. The expenses of the household were to be reduced to the scale of Henry VII., or the early years of Henry VIII.; the garrisons at Berwick and Calais were to be placed on a more economical footing, the navy reduced, the irregular guard dismissed or diminished. Bribery was to be put an end to in the courts of Westminster, at quarter sessions, and among justices of the peace; 'the laws were to be restored to their authority without suffering any matters to be ordered otherwise than as the laws should appoint.' These first essentials having been attended to, the famous or infamous book of sales, grants, and exchanges of the Crown lands was to be looked into; the impropriation of benefices was to cease, and decency to be restored to the parish churches, where the grooms and game-keepers should give way to competent ministers. Economy, order, justice, and reverence were to heal the canker of profligate profanity which had eaten too long into the moral life of England.

In happier times Mary might have been a worthy Queen, and Gardiner an illustrious minister; but the