[324] _Privy Council Register_, 8th Mar. 1622. In a letter from Locke to Carleton it is stated that in the cloth-making counties the poor have assembled in troops of forty and fifty and have gone to the houses of the rich demanding meat and money; they had also taken provisions which were for sale in the market. _Cal. of State Papers_, Feb. 16, 1622. The Council adopted the usual methods; the Scarcity Book of Orders was amended and reissued, and two proclamations were drawn up ordering the restraint of maltsters and a reduction in the number of alehouses; the proclamation of October, 1622, expressly states that this was done because "barley is in time of scarcitie the bread-corne of the poore[325]." [325] Minute of the proclamation. _Dom. S. P._, Jac. I., Vol. 133, No. 52. The enforcement of the orders is again especially commended in another proclamation issued on the 22nd Dec. 1622. _Large Proc. Bk._, No. 109. Besides this the special commands addressed to the country gentlemen to return home were more emphatic than in former times, especially at Christmas in 1622. Their presence was necessary for two reasons. English gentlemen still kept great households and relieved many by their hospitality, and they also were expected to maintain order in their districts. They furnished information to the Government, arranged measures of relief for the poor and, if necessary, quelled and punished disorder. James I. had a great idea of their importance: he is credited with the remark to the effect that a country gentleman in town is like a ship at sea, which looks very small, while a country gentleman in the country is like a ship in a river, which looks very big. In 1622, therefore, two proclamations were issued ordering gentlemen to return to the country. In the earlier of these one of the reasons for the regulation is stated to be because of "inconveniences which of necessity must ensue by the absence of those out of their countries upon whose care a great and principall part of the subordinate government of this realme doth depend[326]." In the second the king expressed his pleasure that so many had obeyed, and his displeasure with those who remained in London because he was "perswaded that by this way of reviving the laudable and ancient housekeeping of this realme the poore and such as are most pinched in times of scarcity and want will be much releeved and comforted[327]." [326] _Large Proc. Bk._, No. 108, 20th Nov. 1622. [327] _Ib._, No. 109.