It is quite possible that this side of government was enforced by the orders in Council simply as a matter of convenience; it might have been difficult to pass new legislation contrary to the interests of the middle classes through a body in which the representation of those classes was so great as it was in the Tudor and Stuart House of Commons. But if the danger of allowing the royal prerogative to be used apart from statute law was seen and protested against under the popular Queen Elizabeth, it would certainly also excite opposition in the reign of Charles I. The substance of the orders however does not appear to have excited opposition. Men of both sides sent in their reports to the Privy Council, and more energetic measures to execute the poor law were taken in the Puritan counties of the east than in any other part of England. [Sidenote: 3. Effect of the enforcement of the Book of Orders in the reign of Charles I.] The effects of the enforcement of the Elizabethan poor law and of the Book of Orders were considerable both in the reign of Charles I. and ever since that time. Harman's book, the many insurrections and riots of the sixteenth century, the letter of Justice Hext and the statements in many proclamations show us how great was the disorder in England during the reigns of the Tudors and James I. The Somersetshire justice almost unconsciously reveals the main part of the reason. Many people, he tells us, were emboldened to say, "They must not starve, They will not starve," and so the honest countryman suffered from the depredations of rogues and could hardly endure the burdens laid upon him[720]. "Maximus magister venter" quotes another writer of the period; repression did little good until it was accompanied by relief. Moreover it was impossible to enforce the repressive regulations against vagrants until relief was administered because the "foolish pity" of the inhabitants and of the justices prevented punishments from being inflicted. Throughout the sixteenth century and, after a short interval after 1597, again in the reign of James I. there are complaints of the increase of vagrants and of the disorder in the country[721]. [720] Strype's _Annals_, No. 213. See p. 126. [721] E.g. _Little Proc. Bk._, James I., No. 27.