profane, irreligious, lascivious, riotous, epicures, factious,
covetous, ambitious, illiterate, so will the commons most part be,
idle, unthrifts, prone to lust, drunkards, and therefore poor and needy
(ἡ πενια στάσιν ἐμποιει καὶ κακουργίαν, for poverty begets sedition and
villainy) upon all occasions ready to mutiny and rebel, discontent
still, complaining, murmuring, grudging, apt to all outrages, thefts,
treasons, murders, innovations, in debt, shifters, cozeners, outlaws,
Profligatae famae ac vitae. It was an old [499]politician's aphorism,
They that are poor and bad envy rich, hate good men, abhor the present
government, wish for a new, and would have all turned topsy-turvy. When
Catiline rebelled in Rome, he got a company of such debauched rogues
together, they were his familiars and coadjutors, and such have been
your rebels most part in all ages, Jack Cade, Tom Straw, Kette, and his
companions.
Where they be generally riotous and contentious, where there be many
discords, many laws, many lawsuits, many lawyers and many physicians,
it is a manifest sign of a distempered, melancholy state, as [500]Plato
long since maintained: for where such kind of men swarm, they will make
more work for themselves, and that body politic diseased, which was
otherwise sound. A general mischief in these our times, an insensible
plague, and never so many of them: which are now multiplied (saith Mat.
Geraldus, [501]a lawyer himself,) as so many locusts, not the parents,
but the plagues of the country, and for the most part a supercilious,
bad, covetous, litigious generation of men. [502]Crumenimulga natio &c.
A purse-milking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures, [503]qui
ex injuria vivent et sanguine civium, thieves and seminaries of
discord; worse than any pollers by the highway side, auri accipitres,
auri exterebronides, pecuniarum hamiolae, quadruplatores, curiae
harpagones, fori tintinabula, monstra hominum, mangones, &c. that take
upon them to make peace, but are indeed the very disturbers of our
peace, a company of irreligious harpies, scraping, griping catchpoles,
(I mean our common hungry pettifoggers, [504]rabulas forenses, love and
honour in the meantime all good laws, and worthy lawyers, that are so
many [505]oracles and pilots of a well-governed commonwealth). Without
art, without judgment, that do more harm, as [506]Livy said, quam bella
externa, fames, morbive, than sickness, wars, hunger, diseases; and
cause a most incredible destruction of a commonwealth, saith
[507]Sesellius, a famous civilian sometimes in Paris, as ivy doth by an
oak, embrace it so long, until it hath got the heart out of it, so do
they by such places they inhabit; no counsel at all, no justice, no
speech to be had, nisi eum premulseris, he must be fed still, or else
he is as mute as a fish, better open an oyster without a knife. Experto
crede (saith [508] Salisburiensis) in manus eorum millies incidi, et
Charon immitis qui nulli pepercit unquam, his longe clementior est; I
speak out of experience, I have been a thousand times amongst them, and
Charon himself is more gentle than they; [509]he is contented with his
single pay, but they multiply still, they are never satisfied, besides
they have damnificas linguas, as he terms it, nisi funibus argenteis
vincias, they must be fed to say nothing, and [510]get more to hold
their peace than we can to say our best. They will speak their clients
fair, and invite them to their tables, but as he follows it, [511]of
all injustice there is none so pernicious as that of theirs, which when
they deceive most, will seem to be honest men. They take upon them to
be peacemakers, et fovere causas humilium, to help them to their right,
patrocinantur afflictis, [512]but all is for their own good, ut loculos
pleniorom exhauriant, they plead for poor men gratis, but they are but
as a stale to catch others. If there be no jar, [513]they can make a
jar, out of the law itself find still some quirk or other, to set them
at odds, and continue causes so long, lustra aliquot, I know not how
many years before the cause is heard, and when 'tis judged and
determined by reason of some tricks and errors, it is as fresh to
begin, after twice seven years sometimes, as it was at first; and so
they prolong time, delay suits till they have enriched themselves, and
beggared their clients. And, as [514]Cato inveighed against Isocrates'
scholars, we may justly tax our wrangling lawyers, they do consenescere
in litibus, are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they
will plead their client's causes hereafter, some of them in hell. [515]
Simlerus complains amongst the Swissers of the advocates in his time,
that when they should make an end, they began controversies, and
protract their causes many years, persuading them their title is good,
till their patrimonies be consumed, and that they have spent more in
seeking than the thing is worth, or they shall get by the recovery. So
that he that goes to law, as the proverb is, [516]holds a wolf by the
ears, or as a sheep in a storm runs for shelter to a brier, if he
prosecute his cause he is consumed, if he surcease his suit he loseth
all; [517]what difference? They had wont heretofore, saith Austin, to
end matters, per communes arbitros; and so in Switzerland (we are
informed by [518]Simlerus), they had some common arbitrators or daysmen
in every town, that made a friendly composition betwixt man and man,
and he much wonders at their honest simplicity, that could keep peace
so well, and end such great causes by that means. At [519]Fez in
Africa, they have neither lawyers nor advocates; but if there be any
controversies amongst them, both parties plaintiff and defendant come
to their Alfakins or chief judge, and at once without any farther
appeals or pitiful delays, the cause is heard and ended. Our
forefathers, as [520]a worthy chorographer of ours observes, had wont
pauculis cruculis aureis, with a few golden crosses, and lines in
verse, make all conveyances, assurances. And such was the candour and
integrity of succeeding ages, that a deed (as I have oft seen) to
convey a whole manor, was implicite contained in some twenty lines or
thereabouts; like that scede or Sytala Laconica, so much renowned of
old in all contracts, which [521]Tully so earnestly commends to
Atticus, Plutarch in his Lysander, Aristotle polit.: Thucydides, lib.
1, [522]Diodorus and Suidus approve and magnify, for that laconic
brevity in this kind; and well they might, for, according to
[523]Tertullian, certa sunt paucis, there is much more certainty in
fewer words. And so was it of old throughout: but now many skins of
parchment will scarce serve turn; he that buys and sells a house, must
have a house full of writings, there be so many circumstances, so many
words, such tautological repetitions of all particulars (to avoid
cavillation they say); but we find by our woeful experience, that to
subtle wits it is a cause of much more contention and variance, and
scarce any conveyance so accurately penned by one, which another will
not find a crack in, or cavil at; if any one word be misplaced, any
little error, all is disannulled. That which is a law today, is none
tomorrow; that which is sound in one man's opinion, is most faulty to
another; that in conclusion, here is nothing amongst us but contention
and confusion, we bandy one against another. And that which long since
[524]Plutarch complained of them in Asia, may be verified in our times.
These men here assembled, come not to sacrifice to their gods, to offer
Jupiter their first-fruits, or merriments to Bacchus; but an yearly
disease exasperating Asia hath brought them hither, to make an end of
their controversies and lawsuits. 'Tis multitudo perdentium et
pereuntium, a destructive rout that seek one another's ruin. Such most
part are our ordinary suitors, termers, clients, new stirs every day,
mistakes, errors, cavils, and at this present, as I have heard in some
one court, I know not how many thousand causes: no person free, no
title almost good, with such bitterness in following, so many slights,
procrastinations, delays, forgery, such cost (for infinite sums are
inconsiderately spent), violence and malice, I know not by whose fault,
lawyers, clients, laws, both or all: but as Paul reprehended the
[525]Corinthians long since, I may more positively infer now: There is
a fault amongst you, and I speak it to your shame, Is there not a
[526]wise man amongst you, to judge between his brethren? but that a
brother goes to law with a brother. And [527]Christ's counsel
concerning lawsuits, was never so fit to be inculcated as in this age:
[528]Agree with thine adversary quickly, &c. Matth. v. 25.
I could repeat many such particular grievances, which must disturb a
body politic. To shut up all in brief, where good government is,
prudent and wise princes, there all things thrive and prosper, peace
and happiness is in that land: where it is otherwise, all things are
ugly to behold, incult, barbarous, uncivil, a paradise is turned to a
wilderness. This island amongst the rest, our next neighbours the
French and Germans, may be a sufficient witness, that in a short time
by that prudent policy of the Romans, was brought from barbarism; see
but what Caesar reports of us, and Tacitus of those old Germans, they
were once as uncivil as they in Virginia, yet by planting of colonies
and good laws, they became from barbarous outlaws, [529]to be full of
rich and populous cities, as now they are, and most flourishing
kingdoms. Even so might Virginia, and those wild Irish have been
civilised long since, if that order had been heretofore taken, which
now begins, of planting colonies, &c. I have read a [530]discourse,
printed _anno_ 1612. Discovering the true causes why Ireland was never
entirely subdued, or brought under obedience to the crown of England,
until the beginning of his Majesty's happy reign. Yet if his reasons
were thoroughly scanned by a judicious politician, I am afraid he would
not altogether be approved, but that it would turn to the dishonour of
our nation, to suffer it to lie so long waste. Yea, and if some
travellers should see (to come nearer home) those rich, united
provinces of Holland, Zealand, &c., over against us; those neat cities
and populous towns, full of most industrious artificers, [531]so much
land recovered from the sea, and so painfully preserved by those
artificial inventions, so wonderfully approved, as that of Bemster in
Holland, ut nihil huic par aut simile invenias in toto orbe, saith
Bertius the geographer, all the world cannot match it, [532]so many
navigable channels from place to place, made by men's hands, &c. and on
the other side so many thousand acres of our fens lie drowned, our
cities thin, and those vile, poor, and ugly to behold in respect of
theirs, our trades decayed, our still running rivers stopped, and that
beneficial use of transportation, wholly neglected, so many havens void
of ships and towns, so many parks and forests for pleasure, barren
heaths, so many villages depopulated, &c. I think sure he would find
some fault.
I may not deny but that this nation of ours, doth bene audire apud
exteros, is a most noble, a most flourishing kingdom, by common consent
of all [533]geographers, historians, politicians, 'tis unica velut arx,
[534]and which Quintius in Livy said of the inhabitants of
Peloponnesus, may be well applied to us, we are testudines testa sua
inclusi, like so many tortoises in our shells, safely defended by an
angry sea, as a wall on all sides. Our island hath many such honourable
eulogiums; and as a learned countryman of ours right well hath it,
[535]Ever since the Normans first coming into England, this country
both for military matters, and all other of civility, hath been
paralleled with the most flourishing kingdoms of Europe and our
Christian world, a blessed, a rich country, and one of the fortunate
isles: and for some things [536]preferred before other countries, for
expert seamen, our laborious discoveries, art of navigation, true
merchants, they carry the bell away from all other nations, even the
Portugals and Hollanders themselves; [537]without all fear, saith
Boterus, furrowing the ocean winter and summer, and two of their
captains, with no less valour than fortune, have sailed round about the
world. [538] We have besides many particular blessings, which our
neighbours want, the Gospel truly preached, church discipline
established, long peace and quietness free from exactions, foreign
fears, invasions, domestical seditions, well manured, [539]fortified by
art, and nature, and now most happy in that fortunate union of England
and Scotland, which our forefathers have laboured to effect, and
desired to see. But in which we excel all others, a wise, learned,
religious king, another Numa, a second Augustus, a true Josiah; most
worthy senators, a learned clergy, an obedient commonalty, &c. Yet
amongst many roses, some thistles grow, some bad weeds and enormities,
which much disturb the peace of this body politic, eclipse the honour
and glory of it, fit to be rooted out, and with all speed to be
reformed.
The first is idleness, by reason of which we have many swarms of
rogues, and beggars, thieves, drunkards, and discontented persons (whom
Lycurgus in Plutarch calls morbos reipublicae, the boils of the
commonwealth), many poor people in all our towns. Civitates ignobiles,
as [540]Polydore calls them, base-built cities, inglorious, poor,
small, rare in sight, ruinous, and thin of inhabitants. Our land is
fertile we may not deny, full of all good things, and why doth it not
then abound with cities, as well as Italy, France, Germany, the Low
Countries? because their policy hath been otherwise, and we are not so
thrifty, circumspect, industrious. Idleness is the malus genius of our
nation. For as [541]Boterus justly argues, fertility of a country is
not enough, except art and industry be joined unto it, according to
Aristotle, riches are either natural or artificial; natural are good
land, fair mines, &c. artificial, are manufactures, coins, &c. Many
kingdoms are fertile, but thin of inhabitants, as that Duchy of
Piedmont in Italy, which Leander Albertus so much magnifies for corn,
wine, fruits, &c., yet nothing near so populous as those which are more
barren. [542]England, saith he, London only excepted, hath never a
populous city, and yet a fruitful country. I find 46 cities and walled
towns in Alsatia, a small province in Germany, 50 castles, an infinite
number of villages, no ground idle, no not rocky places, or tops of
hills are untilled, as [543]Munster informeth us. In [544]Greichgea, a
small territory on the Necker, 24 Italian miles over, I read of 20
walled towns, innumerable villages, each one containing 150 houses most
part, besides castles and noblemen's palaces. I observe in [545]Turinge
in Dutchland (twelve miles over by their scale) 12 counties, and in
them 144 cities, 2000 villages, 144 towns, 250 castles. In [546]Bavaria
34 cities, 46 towns, &c. [547]Portugallia interamnis, a small plot of
ground, hath 1460 parishes, 130 monasteries, 200 bridges. Malta, a
barren island, yields 20,000 inhabitants. But of all the rest, I admire
Lues Guicciardine's relations of the Low Countries. Holland hath 26
cities, 400 great villages. Zealand 10 cities, 102 parishes. Brabant 26
cities, 102 parishes. Flanders 28 cities, 90 towns, 1154 villages,
besides abbeys, castles, &c. The Low Countries generally have three
cities at least for one of ours, and those far more populous and rich:
and what is the cause, but their industry and excellency in all manner
of trades? Their commerce, which is maintained by a multitude of
tradesmen, so many excellent channels made by art and opportune havens,
to which they build their cities; all which we have in like measure, or
at least may have. But their chiefest loadstone which draws all manner
of commerce and merchandise, which maintains their present estate, is
not fertility of soil, but industry that enricheth them, the gold mines
of Peru, or Nova Hispania may not compare with them. They have neither
gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oil, or scarce any corn growing
in those united provinces, little or no wood, tin, lead, iron, silk,
wool, any stuff almost, or metal; and yet Hungary, Transylvania, that
brag of their mines, fertile England cannot compare with them. I dare
boldly say, that neither France, Tarentum, Apulia, Lombardy, or any
part of Italy, Valentia in Spain, or that pleasant Andalusia, with
their excellent fruits, wine and oil, two harvests, no not any part of
Europe is so flourishing, so rich, so populous, so full of good ships,
of well-built cities, so abounding with all things necessary for the
use of man. 'Tis our Indies, an epitome of China, and all by reason of
their industry, good policy, and commerce. Industry is a loadstone to
draw all good things; that alone makes countries flourish, cities
populous, [548]and will enforce by reason of much manure, which
necessarily follows, a barren soil to be fertile and good, as sheep,
saith [549]Dion, mend a bad pasture.
Tell me politicians, why is that fruitful Palestina, noble Greece,
Egypt, Asia Minor, so much decayed, and (mere carcases now) fallen from
that they were? The ground is the same, but the government is altered,
the people are grown slothful, idle, their good husbandry, policy, and
industry is decayed. Non fatigata aut effaeta, humus, as [550]Columella
well informs Sylvinus, sed nostra fit inertia, &c. May a man believe
that which Aristotle in his politics, Pausanias, Stephanus, Sophianus,
Gerbelius relate of old Greece? I find heretofore 70 cities in Epirus
overthrown by Paulus Aemilius, a goodly province in times past,
[551]now left desolate of good towns and almost inhabitants. Sixty-two
cities in Macedonia in Strabo's time. I find 30 in Laconia, but now
scarce so many villages, saith Gerbelius. If any man from Mount
Taygetus should view the country round about, and see tot delicias, tot
urbes per Peloponesum dispersas, so many delicate and brave built
cities with such cost and exquisite cunning, so neatly set out in
Peloponnesus, [552]he should perceive them now ruinous and overthrown,
burnt, waste, desolate, and laid level with the ground. Incredibile
dictu, &c. And as he laments, Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis?
Quis tam durus aut ferreus, (so he prosecutes it). [553]Who is he that
can sufficiently condole and commiserate these ruins? Where are those
4000 cities of Egypt, those 100 cities in Crete? Are they now come to
two? What saith Pliny and Aelian of old Italy? There were in former
ages 1166 cities: Blondus and Machiavel, both grant them now nothing
near so populous, and full of good towns as in the time of Augustus
(for now Leander Albertus can find but 300 at most), and if we may give
credit to [554]Livy, not then so strong and puissant as of old: They
mustered 70 Legions in former times, which now the known world will
scarce yield. Alexander built 70 cities in a short space for his part,
our sultans and Turks demolish twice as many, and leave all desolate.
Many will not believe but that our island of Great Britain is now more
populous than ever it was; yet let them read Bede, Leland and others,
they shall find it most flourished in the Saxon Heptarchy, and in the
Conqueror's time was far better inhabited, than at this present. See
that Doomsday Book, and show me those thousands of parishes, which are
now decayed, cities ruined, villages depopulated, &c. The lesser the
territory is, commonly, the richer it is. Parvus sed bene cultus ager.
As those Athenian, Lacedaemonian, Arcadian, Aelian, Sycionian,
Messenian, &c. commonwealths of Greece make ample proof, as those
imperial cities and free states of Germany may witness, those Cantons
of Switzers, Rheti, Grisons, Walloons, Territories of Tuscany, Luke and
Senes of old, Piedmont, Mantua, Venice in Italy, Ragusa, &c.
That prince therefore as, [555]Boterus adviseth, that will have a rich
country, and fair cities, let him get good trades, privileges, painful
inhabitants, artificers, and suffer no rude matter unwrought, as tin,
iron, wool, lead, &c., to be transported out of his country,—[556]a
thing in part seriously attempted amongst us, but not effected. And
because industry of men, and multitude of trade so much avails to the
ornament and enriching of a kingdom; those ancient [557]Massilians
would admit no man into their city that had not some trade. Selym the
first Turkish emperor procured a thousand good artificers to be brought
from Tauris to Constantinople. The Polanders indented with Henry Duke
of Anjou, their new chosen king, to bring with him an hundred families
of artificers into Poland. James the first in Scotland (as
[558]Buchanan writes) sent for the best artificers he could get in
Europe, and gave them great rewards to teach his subjects their several
trades. Edward the Third, our most renowned king, to his eternal
memory, brought clothing first into this island, transporting some
families of artificers from Gaunt hither. How many goodly cities could
I reckon up, that thrive wholly by trade, where thousands of
inhabitants live singular well by their fingers' ends: As Florence in
Italy by making cloth of gold; great Milan by silk, and all curious
works; Arras in Artois by those fair hangings; many cities in Spain,
many in France, Germany, have none other maintenance, especially those
within the land. [559]Mecca, in Arabia Petraea, stands in a most
unfruitful country, that wants water, amongst the rocks (as Vertomannus
describes it), and yet it is a most elegant and pleasant city, by
reason of the traffic of the east and west. Ormus in Persia is a most
famous mart-town, hath nought else but the opportunity of the haven to
make it flourish. Corinth, a noble city (Lumen Greciae, Tully calls it)
the Eye of Greece, by reason of Cenchreas and Lecheus, those excellent
ports, drew all that traffic of the Ionian and Aegean seas to it; and
yet the country about it was curva et superciliosa, as [560]Strabo
terms it, rugged and harsh. We may say the same of Athens, Actium,
Thebes, Sparta, and most of those towns in Greece. Nuremberg in Germany
is sited in a most barren soil, yet a noble imperial city, by the sole
industry of artificers, and cunning trades, they draw the riches of
most countries to them, so expert in manufactures, that as Sallust long
since gave out of the like, Sedem animae in extremis digitis habent,
their soul, or intellectus agens, was placed in their fingers' end; and
so we may say of Basil, Spire, Cambray, Frankfurt, &c. It is almost
incredible to speak what some write of Mexico and the cities adjoining
to it, no place in the world at their first discovery more populous,
[561]Mat. Riccius, the Jesuit, and some others, relate of the industry
of the Chinese most populous countries, not a beggar or an idle person
to be seen, and how by that means they prosper and flourish. We have
the same means, able bodies, pliant wits, matter of all sorts, wool,
flax, iron, tin, lead, wood, &c., many excellent subjects to work upon,
only industry is wanting. We send our best commodities beyond the seas,
which they make good use of to their necessities, set themselves a work
about, and severally improve, sending the same to us back at dear
rates, or else make toys and baubles of the tails of them, which they
sell to us again, at as great a reckoning as the whole. In most of our
cities, some few excepted, like [562]Spanish loiterers, we live wholly
by tippling-inns and alehouses. Malting are their best ploughs, their
greatest traffic to sell ale. [563]Meteran and some others object to
us, that we are no whit so industrious as the Hollanders: Manual trades
(saith he) which are more curious or troublesome, are wholly exercised
by strangers: they dwell in a sea full of fish, but they are so idle,
they will not catch so much as shall serve their own turns, but buy it
of their neighbours. Tush [564]Mare liberum, they fish under our noses,
and sell it to us when they have done, at their own prices.
———Pudet haec opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli.