The earlier centuries of our history were not distinguished by the quiet and orderly habits of the people. Whenever, as in the reigns of Henry III. and Richard II., we had little war abroad there was disorder at home. In the sixteenth century we have seen every season of scarcity produce riots, insurrections or rebellion. In 1529 Norfolk and Kent were in insurrection, in 1586 Gloucestershire was discontented, in 1596 the peasants of Oxfordshire took up arms; while in 1549 the economic distress was mainly responsible for the rebellion which caused the fall of the Duke of Somerset and nearly produced a revolution. Even in ordinary times property was not safe; bands of vagrants roamed the country who compelled the inhabitants to grant them relief; petty thefts were committed and were neither detected nor punished, sometimes robbery even was successfully attempted in open daylight and was unrepressed. In Scotland a like state of things lasted at least as late as the end of the seventeenth century and indeed much later still. Louise Michelle on her visit to England was more struck by English poor relief than by any other English institution: she said that a like system in France would have prevented the French revolution. The distress of the masses of the people and the existence of a large number of hungry men always ready to join the forces of disorder, are at all times a danger to the stability of governments. It may well be therefore that the law-abiding characteristics of the nation and the absence of violent changes in the political constitution have been at least partly due to the regular relief which has been granted under the English poor law. Ever since its provisions were first thoroughly put in execution through the efforts of the Privy Council and of the justices in the reign of Charles I. no man has been able truthfully to plead that he was driven to crime or desperation by absolute want. APPENDIX I. EXTRACTS from the Journals of the Common Council of London. These Journals begin with the entries for the year 1416 and are still continued. They are contained in large folio volumes and are written on paper in French, Latin and English. The entries made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are generally in English. The resolutions of the Common Council and the chief letters, precepts and proclamations concerning the government of the City were copied within a few days of the time they were made by one of the officials under the Town Clerk[731]. [731] There were four clerks under the Town Clerk whose duties were defined in 1537. The youngest of these was to enter into the Journals acts of Common Council, degrees, proclamations and precepts and all other things necessary for the business of the City. Repertory ix. f. 251 b. quoted by Dr Sharpe, "Calendar of Letters from the Mayor and Corporation of the City of London 1350 to 1370." Intro. p. xxiv. seq.