thing pleasing to all,' says the letter writer, but least of
all to the women." To encourage gentlemen to live
more willingly in the country,' says another letter writer,
'all game-fowl, as pheasants, partridges, ducks, as also
hares, are this day by proclamation forbidden to be dressed
or eaten in any inn.' Here we find realized the argument
of Mr Justice Best, in favour of the game-laws.

It is evident that this severe restriction must have produced great inconvenience to certain persons who found a residence in London necessary for their pursuits. This appears from the manuscript diary of an honest antiquary, Sir Symond D'Ewes: he has preserved an opinion, which, no doubt, was spreading fast, that such prosecutions of the attorney-general were a violation of the liberty of the subject. "Most men wondered at Mr Noy, the attorneygeneral being accounted a great lawyer, that so strictly took away men's liberties at one blow, confining them to reside at their own houses and not permitting them freedom to live where they pleased within the king's dominions. I was myself a little startled upon the first coming out of the proclamation; but having first spoken with the Lord Coventry, lord keeper of the great seal, at Islington, when I visited him; and afterwards with Sir William Jones, one of the king's justices of the bench, about my condition and residence at the said town of Islington, and they both agreeing that I was not within the letter of the proclamation, nor the intention of it neither, I rested satisfied, and thought myself secure, laying in all my provisions for housekeeping for the year ensuing, and never imagined myself to be in danger, till this unexpected censure of Mr Palmer passed in the Star-chamber: so, having advised with my friends, I resolved for a remove, being much troubled not only with my separation from Recordes, but with my wife, being great with child, fearing a winter journey might be dangerous for her.'* He left Islington and the records in the Tower to return to his country-seat, to the great disturbance of his studies.

It is, perhaps, difficult to assign the cause of this marked anxiety of the government for the severe restriction of the limits of the metropolis, and the prosecution of the nobility and gentry to compel a residence on their estates.Whatever were the motives, they were not peculiar to the existing sovereign, but remained transmitted from cabinet to cabinet, and were even renewed under Charles the Second. At a time when the plague often broke out, a close and growing metropolis might have been considered to be a great evil; a terror expressed by the manuscript writer before quoted, complaining of this deluge of building, that we shall be all poisoned with breathing in one another's faces. The police of the metropolis was long imbecile, notwithstanding their 'strong watches and guards' set at times; and bodies of the idle and the refractory often assumed some mysterious title, and were with difficulty governed. We may conceive the state of the police, when London apprentices,' growing in number and insolence, frequently made attempts on Bridewell, or pulled down houses. One day the citizens, in proving some ordnance, terrified the whole court of James the First with a panic, that there was a rising in the city.' It is possible that the government might have been induced to pursue this singular conduct for I do not know that it can be paralleled, of pulling down new-built houses by some principle of political economy which remains to be explained, or ridiculed, by our modern adepts.

It would hardly be supposed that the present subject may be enlivened by a poem, the elegance and freedom of which may even now be admired. It is a great literary curiosity, and its length may be excused for several remarkable points.

AN ODE,

BY SIR RICHARD FANSHAW, Upon Occasion of his Majesty's Proclamation in the year 1630, commanding the Gentry, to reside upon their Estates in the Country.

Now war is all the world about,
And every where Eyrnnis reigns;
Or of the torch so late put out

The stench remains.
Holland for many years hath been
Of christian tragedies the stage,
Yet seldom hath she play'd a scene
Of bloodier rage:
* Harl. MSS, 6, fʊ. 152.

And France that was not long compos'd,
With civil drums again resounds,
And ere the old are fully clos'd,

Receives new wounds.

The great Gustavus in the west
Plucks the imperial eagle's wing,
Than whom the earth did ne'er invest
A fiercer king.

Only the island which we sow,
A world without the world so far
From present wounds, it cannot show
An ancient scar.

White peace, the beautifull'st of things,
Seems here her everlasting rest
To fix, and spread the downy wings
Over the nest.

As when great Jove, usurping reign,
From the plagued world did her exile,
And tied her with a golden chain

To one blest isle,

Which in a sea of plenty swam,
And turtles sang on every bough,
A safe retreat to all that came,

As ours is now;

Yet we, as if some foe were here,
Leave the despised fields to clowns,
And come to save ourselves, as 'twere,
In walled towns.

Hither we bring wives, babes, rich clothes,
And gems-till now my sovereign
The growing evil doth compose:

Counting in vain,

His care preserves us from annoy
Of enemies his realms to invade,
Unless he force us to enjoy

The peace he made.
To roll themselves in envied leisure;
He therefore sends the landed heirs,
Whilst he proclaims not his own pleasure
So much as their's.

The sap and blood of the land, which fled
Into the root, and chok'd the heart,
Are bid their quick'ning power to spread
Through every part.

O'twas an act, not for my muse
To celebrate, nor the dull age,
Until the country air infuse

A purer rage.
And if the fields as thankful prove
For benefits receiv'd, as seed,
They will be 'quite so great a love
A Virgil breed.

Nor let the gentry grudge to go
Into those places whence they grew,
But think them blest they may do so.
Who would pursue

The smoky glory of the town,
That may go till his native earth,
And by the shining fire sit down

Of his own hearth,
Free from the griping scriveners' bands,
And the more biting mercers' books;
Free from the bait of oiled hands,

And painted looks?
The country too even chops for rain
You that exhale it by your power,
Let the fat drops fall down again
In a full shower.

And you bright beauties of the time,
That waste yourselves here in a blaze,
Fix to your orb and proper clime

Your wandering rays.

Let no dark corner of the land
Be unimbellish'd with one gem,
And those which here too thick do stand
Sprinkle on them.

Believe me, ladies you will find
In that sweet life more solid joys,
More true contentment to the mind
Than all town-toys.

The satires and the comedies of the age have been consulted by the historian of our manners, and the features of the times have been traced from those amusing records of folly. Daines Barrington enlarged this field of domestic history, in his very entertaining Observations on the Statutes.' Another source, which to me seems not to have been explored, is the Proclamations which have frequently issued from our sovereigns, and were produced by the exigences of the times.

These proclamations, or royal edicts, in our country were never armed with the force of laws-only as they enforce the execution of laws already established; and the proclamation of a British monarch may become even an illegal act, if it be in opposition to the law of the land. Once, indeed, it was enacted, under the arbitrary government of Henry the Eighth, by the sanction of a pusillanimous parliament, that the force of acts of parliament should be given to the king's proclamations; and at a much later period, the chancellor Lord Eisemere was willing to have advanced the king's proclamations into laws, on the sophistical maxim, that all precedents had a time when they began; but this chancellor argued ill, as he was told with spirit by Lord Coke, in the presence of James the First, who probably did not think so ill of the chancellor's logic. Blackstone, to whom on this occasion I could not fail to turn, observes, on the statute under Henry the Eighth, that it would have introduced the most despotic tyranny, and must have proved fatal to the liberties of this kingdom had it not been luckily repealed in the minority of his successor, whom he elsewhere calls an amiable prince -all our young princes, we discover, were amiable! Blackstone has not recorded the subsequent attempt of the Lord Chancellor, under James the First, which tended to raise proclamations to the nature of an ukase of the autocrat of both the Russias. It seems that our national freedom, notwithstanding our ancient constitution, has had several narrow escapes.

Royal proclamations, however, in their own nature are innocent enough; for since the manner, time, and circumstances of putting laws into execution must frequently be left to the discretion of the executive magistrate, a proclamation that is not adverse to existing laws need not create any alarm; the only danger they incur is that they seem never to have been attended to, and rather testified the wishes of the government than the compliance of the subjects. They were not laws, and were therefore considered as sermons or pamphlets, or any thing forgotten in a week's

noticed in our history. Many indications of the situation of affairs, the feelings of the people, and the domestic history of our nation, may be drawn from these singular records. I have never found them to exist in any collected form, and they have been probably only accidentally preserved.

The proclamations of every sovereign would characterize his reign, and open to us some of the interior operations of the cabinet. The despotic will, yet vacillating conduct of Henry the Eighth, towards the close of his reign, may be traced in a proclamation to abolish the translation of the scriptures, and even the reading of B bles by the people; commanding all printers of English hooks and pamphlets to affix their names to them, and forbidding the sale of any English books printed abroad. When the people were not suffered to publish their opin ions at home, all the opposition flew to foreign presses, and their writings were then smuggled into the country in which they ought to have been printed. Hence many volumes printed in a foreign type at this period are found in our collections. The king shrunk in dismay from that spirit of reformation which had only been a party-business with him, and making himself a pope, decided that nothing should be learnt but what he himself designed to teach!

The antipathies and jealousies, which our populace too long indulged by their incivilities to all foreigners, are characterized by a proclamation issued by Mary, commanding her subjects to behave themselves peaceably towards the strangers coming with King Philip; that noblemen and gentlemen should warn their servants to refrain from 'strife and contention, either by outward deeds, taunting words, unseemly countenance, by mimicking them, &c. The punishment not only her grace's displeasure, but to be committed to prison without bail or mainprise.'

The proclamations of Edward the Sixth curiously exhi bit the unsettled state of the reformation, where the nights and ceremonies of catholicism were still practised by the new religionists, while an opposite party, resolutely bent on eternal separation from Rome, were avowing doctrines which afterwards consolidated themselves into puritamam and while others were hatching up that demoralizing fanaticism, which subsequently shocked the nation with those monstrous sects, the indelible disgrace of our country! In one proclamation the king denounces to the people those who despise the sacrament by calling it idol, or such other vile name.' Another is against such as innovate any ceremony,' and who are described as 'certain private preachers and other laiemen who rashly attempt of their oum and singular wit and mind, not only to persuade the people from the old and accustomed rites and ceremonies, but also themselves bring in new and strange orders according to their phantasies. The which, as it is an evident token of pride and arrogancy, so it tendeth both to confusion and disorder.' Another proclamation, to press 'a godly conformity throughout his realm,' where we learn the following curious fact, of divers unlearned and indiscreet priests of a devilish mind and intent, teaching that a man may forsake his wife and marry another, his first wife yet living; likewise that the wife may do the same to the husband. Others that a man may have two wives or ware at once, for that these things are not prohibited by God's law, but by the Bishop of Rome's law; so that by such evil and phantastical opinions some have not been afraid indeed to marry and keep two wives.' Here, as in the bud, we may unfold those subsequent scenes of our story, which spread out in the following century; the branching out of the non-conformists into their various sects; and the indecent haste of our reformed priesthood, who, in their zeal to cast off the yoke of Rome, desperately submitted to the liberty of having two wives or more! There is a proclamation to abstain from flesh on Fridays and Saturdays; exhorted on the principle, not only that men should abstain on those days, and forbear their pleasures and the meats wherein they have more delight, to the intent to subdue their bodies to the soul and spirit, but also for worldly policy. To use fish for the benefit of the commonwealth, and profit of many who be fishers and men using that trade, unto the which this realm, in every part environed with the seas, and so plentiful of fresh waters, be increased the nourishment of the land by saving flesh.' It did not seem to occur to the king in council that the butchers might have had cause to petion against this monopoly of two days in the week granted to the fishmongers; and much less, that it was better to let the people cat flesh or

fish as suited their conveniency. In respect to the religious rite itself, it was evidently not considered as an essential point of faith, since the king enforces it on the principle for the profit and commodity of his realm.' Burnet has made a just observation on religious fasts.*

A proclamation against excess of apparel, in the reign of Elizabeth, and renewed many years after, shows the luxury of dress, which was indeed excessive: I shall shortly notice it in another article. There is a curious one against the iconoclasts, or image-breakers and picture-destroyers, for which the antiquary will hold her in high reverence. Her majesty informs us, that several persons, ignorant, malicious, or covetous, of late years, have spoiled and broken ancient monuments, erected only to show a memory to posterity, and not to nourish any kind of superstition. The queen laments, that what is broken and spoiled would be now hard to recover, but advises her good people to repair them; and commands them in future to desist from committing such injuries' A more extraordinary circumstance than the proclamation itself was the manifestation of her majesty's zeal, in subscribing her name with her own hand to every proclamation dispersed throughout England! These image-breakers first appeared in Elizabeth's reign; it was afterwards that they flourished in all the perfection of their handicraft, and have contrived that these monuments of art shall carry down to posterity the memory of their shame and of their age. These imagebreakers, so famous in our history, had already appeared under Henry the Eighth, and continued their practical zeal, in spite of proclamations and remonstrances, till they had accomplished their work. In 1641, an order was published by the commons, that they should take away all scandalous pictures out of churches:' but more was intended than was expressed; and we are told that the people did not at first carry their barbarous practice against all Art, to the lengths which they afterwards did, till they were instructed by private information! Dowsing's Journal has been published, and shows what the order meant. He was their giant-destroyer! Such are the Machiavelian secrets of revolutionary governments; they give a public order in moderate words, but the secret one, for the deeds, is that of extermination! It was this sort of men who discharged their prisoners by giving a secret sign to lead them to their execution!

The proclamations of James the First, by their number, are said to have sunk their value with the people. He was fond of giving them gentle advice, and it is said by Wilson that there was an intention to have this king's printed proclamations bound up in a volume, that better notice might be taken of the matters contained in them. There is more than one to warn the people against 'speaking too freely of matters above their reach,' prohibiting all ⚫undutiful speeches.' I suspect that many of these proclamations are the composition of the king's own hand; he was often his own secretary. There is an admirable one against private duels and challenges. The curious one respecting Cowell's Interpreter' is a sort of royal review of some of the arcana of state: I refer to the quotation.†

I will preserve a passage of a proclamation against excess of lavish and licentious specch.' James was a king of words!

It seems that the bold speakers,' as certain persons were then denominated, practised an old artifice of lauding his majesty, while they severely arraigned the counsels of the cabinet; on this James observes, Neither let any man mistake us so much as to think that by giving fair and specious attributes to our person, they cover the scandals which they otherwise lay upon our government, but conceive that we make no other construction of them but as fine and artificial glosses, the better to give passage to the rest of their imputations and scandals.'

This was a proclamation in the eighteenth year of his reign; he repeated it in the nineteenth, and he might have proceeded to the crack of doom' with the same effect!

Rushworth, in his second volume of Historical Collections, has preserved a considerable number of the proclamations of Charles the First, of which many are remarkable; but latterly they mark the feverish state of his reign. One regulates access for cure of the king's evil-by which his majesty, it appears, hath had good success therein;' but though ready and willing as any king or queen of this realm ever was to relieve the distresses of his good subjects, 'his majesty commands to change the seasons for his "sacred touch" from Easter and Whitsuntide to Easter and Michaelmas, as times more convenient for the temperature of the season,' &c. Another against departure out of the realm without licence.' One to erect an office for the suppression of cursing and swearing," to receive the forfeitures; against libellous and seditious pamphlets and discourses from Scotland,' framed by factious spirits, and re-published in London-this was in 1640; and Charles, at the crisis of that great insurrection in which he was to be at once the actor and the spectator, fondly imagined that the possessors of these 'scandalous' pamphlets would bring them, as he proclaimed, 'to one of his majesty's justices of peace, to be by him sent to one of his principal secretaries of state!

On the Restoration, Charles the Second had to court his people by his domestic regulations. He early issued a remarkable proclamation, which one would think reflected on his favourite companions, and which strongly marks the moral disorders of those depraved and wretched times. It is against vicious, debauched, and profane persons!" who are thus described:

'A sort of men of whom we have heard much, and are sufficiently ashamed; who spend their time in taverns, tipling-houses and debauches; giving no other evidence of their affection to us but in drinking our health, and inveighing against all others who are not of their own dissolute temper and who, in truth, have more discredited our cause, by the licence of their manners and lives, than they could ever advance it by their affection or courage. We hope all persons of honour, or in place and authority, will so far assist us in discountenancing such men, that their discretion and shame will persuade them to reform what their conscience would not; and that the displeasure of good men towards them may supply what the laws have not, and, it may be, cannot well provide against; there being by the licence and corruption of the times, and the depraved nature of man, many enormities, scandals, and impieties in practice and manners, which laws cannot well describe, and consequently not enough provide against, which may, by the example and severity of virtuous men, be ea