The last statute that it will be necessary to refer to, is that of the xxxix. Eliz. c. 4, for the punishment and suppression of rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, by which houses of correction are for the first time established; and all persons calling themselves scholars, and going about begging, fellows pretending losses by sea, persons using unlawful games, fortune-tellers, procurers, collectors for gaols and hospitals, fencers, bearwards, common players of interludes, minstrels (except such players as are licensed by any baron of the realm), jugglers, tinkers, pedlars, common labourers able in body but begging and refusing labour for reasonable wages, persons delivered from gaol and begging for fees, all persons whatever that beg in any manner as wanderers, and all gypsies or pretending to be so, shall be adjudged rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and be liable to the punishment of whipping till the blood come, and passed to their respective parishes, and committed to the house of correction until further provision by work, or placing in almshouses. If any of the above persons shall appear to be dangerous to the inferior sort of people, or will not otherwise be reformed, they shall be committed to the house of correction or county gaol, and at the quarter-sessions, if necessary, banished from the kingdom to such places as shall be assigned by the privy council, or otherwise be sent to the galleys of the kingdom for life, with pain of death on returning from banishment. No vagabonds or beggars to be imported from Ireland, Scotland, or the Isle of Man, or, if already here, to be sent back to their respective countries. No diseased poor persons to be suffered to repair to the baths of Bath or Buxton for cure, unless they forbear to beg, and are licensed by two justices; and that the above cities be not charged with finding relief for such persons. This statute not to extend to children under seven years old, nor to _glassmen_ of good behaviour, travelling with licence, and forbearing to beg. It is impossible to look upon a more finished picture of the general manners of the begging classes, a little before the Reformation, than in the following extract from the once deservedly celebrated satire entitled the _Ship of Fools_. Although of foreign construction, it is not the less calculated for the meridian of England; and indeed the translator has in some degree adapted it to his own country. The author thus addresses the parties in question:--