[352] _Proclamation Book_, Chas. I., No. 109. Record Office, 17th May, 5 Chas. I. [Sidenote: Special commands again to Suffolk and Essex.] Some of the justices seem to have doubted whether they had legal power to themselves levy a rate for providing employment for the poor. A few days after the proclamation therefore a further letter is sent to the Deputy-Lieutenants and justices of Essex and Suffolk stating that in their part of the country there was special need for care in matters concerning the poor, and therefore the writers again particularly remind them of their duty and let them know "that it is the resolucon of all the judges that by the lawe yo^u have sufficient power and ought to raise meanes out of the severall parishes if they be of abilitie, or otherwise in their defect in their severall hundrethes etc. to sett the poore on worke and to relieve the aged and impotent not able to worke[353]." [353] _Privy Council Register_, 22nd May, 1629. See Appendix. Another crisis of the same kind occurred in 1639 near the end of the personal government of Charles I. The same methods are employed; it is the western counties that are suffering most, and letters are written to the justices of Devon and of Exeter urging them to make special efforts to remove the more pressing necessities of the poor ordinarily employed in the cloth trade[354]. [354] The Devonshire justices are told that people began to want employment "w^{ch} in a short time may (if not prevented) breede great inconveniences to the country." They in consultation with the justices of Exeter were to "settle some good course whereby the poore labouring people in generall may be provided of worke, and that in particular those who more especially belong to the trade and busines of cloathing." _Privy Council Register_, 13th April, 1639. [Sidenote: Summary.]