The creation of the first Bridewell and the organisation depending upon it was the work of the citizens of London. It needed great liberality: gifts were then for the most part voluntary, and the result shows considerable public spirit on the part of the richer classes and a great sense of the corporate unity of the City by the whole body of citizens. It is true that the liberality did not last; that the isolated action of single towns could not deal with a national difficulty, but the town rulers began to make experiments, to train officials and to create the custom of relieving the poor. They did not themselves succeed in solving the problem, but without their incomplete regulations the national organisation of the future would hardly have been possible. CHAPTER VI. 1569-1597. PARLIAMENT AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL. A. _Parliamentary History._ 1. Discussions, Bills and Statutes between 1566 and 1576. 2. Parliamentary history between 1576 and 1597. 3. The Bills and Statutes of 1597. 4. General features of the discussion in Parliament. B. _The action of the Privy Council._ 5. The chief characteristics of the action of the Privy Council. 6. The whipping campaign. 7. The scarcity measures. 8. The influence of the Privy Council on (1) the Mayor and Corporation of London, (2) other local officials. The action of municipal authorities in particular towns, which, before 1569, is the main feature in the development in the English system of poor relief, becomes of relatively less importance after that date. Matters concerning the poor attract increased notice in Parliament and the statutes become more definite and more effective until 1597. An enactment was then passed, the provisions of which, as re-enacted in 1601, have remained almost unaltered until the present century. The leading feature therefore of the period from 1569 to 1597 is the improvement in legislation. But besides the improvement in legislation we must notice the pressure exercised by the Privy Council on the justices of the peace. This becomes more operative and frequent throughout the reign of Elizabeth, but before 1597 it had not attained anything like the same degree of success that it was destined to achieve under Charles I. At the same time local organisation must not be altogether neglected, and now the measures of the justices in the country are important as well as the orders of the towns. We will consider, therefore, so far as they affect the poor, first, the Parliamentary history from 1569 to 1597; secondly, the action of the Privy Council; lastly, some of the more important local measures and the events of the concluding years of the period 1594 to 1597. [Sidenote: A. Parliamentary history.]