of Philip and of
Rome, to the revolutions of France, to the pressure from Mary Stuart. No
one had watched these outer dangers so closely as the Queen. But buried
as she seemed in foreign negotiations and intrigues, Elizabeth was above
all an English sovereign. She devoted herself ably and energetically to
the task of civil administration. At the first moment of relief from the
pressure of outer troubles, after the treaty of Edinburgh, she faced the
two main causes of internal disorder. The debasement of the coinage was
brought to an end in 1560. In 1561 a commission was issued to enquire
into the best means of facing the problem of social pauperism.

[Sidenote: The Poor Laws.]

Time, and the natural developement of new branches of industry, were
working quietly for the relief of the glutted labour market; but a vast
mass of disorder still existed in England, which found a constant ground
of resentment in the enclosures and evictions which accompanied the
progress of agricultural change. It was on this host of "broken men"
that every rebellion could count for support; their mere existence was
an encouragement to civil war; while in peace their presence was felt in
the insecurity of life and property, in bands of marauders which held
whole counties in terror, and in "sturdy beggars" who stripped
travellers on the road. Under Elizabeth as under her predecessors the
terrible measures of repression, whose uselessness More had in vain
pointed out, went pitilessly on. We find the magistrates of
Somersetshire capturing a gang of a hundred at a stroke, hanging fifty
at once on the gallows, and complaining bitterly to the Council of the
necessity for waiting till the Assizes before they could enjoy the
spectacle of the fifty others hanging beside them. But the Government
were dealing with the difficulty in a wiser and more effectual way. The
old powers to enforce labour on the idle and settlement on the vagrant
class which had been given by statutes of Henry the Eighth were
continued; and each town and parish was held responsible for the relief
of its indigent and disabled poor, as well as for the employment of
able-bodied mendicants. But a more efficient machinery was gradually
devised for carrying out the relief and employment of the poor. Funds
for this purpose had been provided by the collection of alms in church;
but by an Act of 1562 the mayor of each town and the churchwardens of
each country parish were directed to draw