ten sore defrauded, and findeth to his
cost that haste maketh waste, according to the proverb.

Oh, how many trades and handicrafts are now in England whereof the
commonwealth hath no need! How many needful commodities have we which are
perfected with great cost, etc., and yet may with far more ease and less
cost be provided from other countries if we could use the means! I will
not speak of iron, glass, and such like, which spoil much wood, and yet
are brought from other countries better cheap than we can make them here
at home; I could exemplify also in many other. But to leave these things
and proceed with our purpose, and herein (as occasion serveth) generally,
by way of conclusion, to speak of the commonwealth of England, I find that
it is governed and maintained by three sorts of persons--

1. The prince, monarch, and head governor, which is called the king, or
(if the crown fall to a woman) the queen: in whose name and by whose
authority all things are administered.

2. The gentlemen, which be divided into two sorts, as the barony or estate
of lords (which containeth barons and all above that degree), and also
those that be no lords, as knights, esquires, and simple gentlemen, as I
have noted already. Out of these also are the great deputies and high
presidents chosen, of which one serveth in Ireland, as another did some
time in Calais, and the captain now at Berwick, as one lord president doth
govern in Wales, and the other the north parts of this island, which
later, with certain counsellors and judges, were erected by King Henry
the Eighth. But, for so much as I have touched their conditions elsewhere,
it shall be enough to have remembered them at this time.

3. The third and last sort is named the yeomanry, of whom and their
sequel, the labourers and artificers, I have said somewhat even now.
Whereto I add that they may not be called _masters_ and _gentlemen_, but
_goodmen_, as Goodman Smith, Goodman Coot, Goodman Cornell, Goodman
Mascall, Goodman Cockswet, etc.: and in matters of law these and the like
are called thus, _Giles Jewd, yeoman_; _Edward Mountford, yeoman_; _James
Cocke, yeoman_; _Harry Butcher, yeoman_, etc.; by which addition they are
exempt from the vulgar and common sorts. Cato calleth them "_Aratores et
optimos cives rei publicae_," of whom also you may read more in the book of
commonwealth which Sir Thomas Smith some time penned of this land.[69]

CHAPTER II.

OF CITIES AND TOWNS