In Parliament legislative experiments were still tried, and many of the men in Parliament, as justices of the peace or as members of the Privy Council, were obtaining experience of the practical working of the law. At the beginning of the period more stress was laid upon repression than upon relief. But the events of the years of scarcity brought home to the minds of most people the weakness occasioned by the partial execution of the existing system. In most places it could not stand the strain. The fact that the difficulties of the poor were partly due to enclosures and not only to the idleness of the sturdy vagrant was fully recognised. The danger of the distress of the poor was also apparent: some rose in insurrection, many others, like the Norfolk peasant, "stayed butt for a drum," all must have greatly suffered. Consequently the whole question was re-opened, a statute laying stress on relief was produced and a more efficient organisation was made possible. A system of public poor relief could not be suddenly established in a country like Elizabethan England. It had its basis in the recognised local custom of parochial collections, and the growing sense of municipal duty in the matter. Still, but for the development of the action of the Privy Council, but for the growing experience of members of Parliament, and but for the training of local officials and of the general public during these years, probably the conception, and certainly the execution, of the act of 1597 would have been impossible. CHAPTER VIII. PARLIAMENT AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 1597-1644. 1. Characteristics of the period. 2. Legislation from 1597 to 1644. Administrative machinery. 3. Action of the Privy Council before 1629. 4. Action of the Privy Council after 1629 with regard to the provision of corn. 5. Action of the Privy Council after 1629 with regard to the unemployed. 6. The Book of Orders as a whole and the royal commission of 1630/1. 7. Interference with wages as a method of helping the poor. 8. Summary. [Sidenote: 1. Characteristics of the period.] The years between 1597 and 1644 are in many respects a unique period in the history of English poor relief. A great deal of evidence exists, which seems to indicate, that in many places during some of these years the whole of the Elizabethan poor law was put in execution: that is, work was provided for the unemployed as well as relief for the impotent.