ng,
idle people, were intolerable to the poor countrymen, and obliged them
to keep a perpetual watch over their sheepfolds, their pastures, their
woods, and their cornfields: that the other counties of England were in
no better condition than Somersetshire; and many of them were even in
a worse: that there were at least three or four hundred able-bodied
vagabonds in every county, who lived by theft and rapine; and who
sometimes met in troops to the number of sixty, and committed spoil on
the inhabitants: that if all the felons of this kind were assembled,
they would be able, if reduced to good subjection, to give the greatest
enemy her majesty has a "strong battle:" and that the magistrates
themselves were intimidated from executing the laws upon them; and there
were instances of justices of peace who, after giving sentence against
rogues, had interposed to stop the execution of their own sentence,
on account of the danger which hung over them from the confederates of
these felons.

In the year 1575, the queen complained in parliament of the bad
execution of the laws; and threatened, that if the magistrates were not
for the future more vigilant, she would intrust authority to indigent
and needy persons, who would find an interest in a more exact
administration of justice.[*] It appears that she was as good as
her word. For in the year 1601, there were great complaints made in
parliament of the rapine of justices of peace; and a member said, that
this magistrate was an animal who, for half a dozen of chickens, would
dispense with a dozen of penal statutes.[**] It is not easy to account
for this relaxation of government, and neglect of police, during a reign
of so much vigor as that of Elizabeth. The small revenue of the crown is
the most likely cause that can be assigned. The queen had it not in
her power to interest a great number in assisting her to execute the
laws.[***] [39]

* D'Ewes, p. 234.

** D'Ewes, p. 661-694.

*** See note MM, at the end of the volume.

On the whole, the English have no reason, from the example of their
ancestors, to be in love with the picture of absolute monarchy; or
to prefer the unlimited authority of the prince and his unbounded
prerogatives, to that noble liberty, that sweet equality, and that happy
security, by which they are at present distinguished above all nations
in the universe. The utmost that can be said in favor of the government
of that age and perhaps i