[157] _Ib._, Dec. 28, 1572. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, to Lord Burghley. In the reports from the North the political motives of the Government are obvious, but the character of the organisation is shown better in the replies sent by the justices of the Southern and Midland counties. [Sidenote: 7. Nature of general measures.] To enforce these measures orders were decided upon by the Council and then sent with letters directing their enforcement to the sheriffs and justices of the peace of every county. These justices reported to the Council the methods adopted by them to carry out these orders and the condition of affairs within their jurisdictions. Many of the reports are still to be found among the State Papers and afford us considerable information as to the state of the country and the extent to which the law was executed. The justices' reports concerning vagrants from 1569 to 1571 are preserved from nineteen different counties. These were made directly to the Privy Council. From some counties like Gloucester and Northampton there are many reports, but from others like Lincoln and Hereford only one was returned. Although the justices of Holland in Lincolnshire only report once they say they will keep watches every month in order that vagabonds may be punished and suppressed[158]. [158] _Dom. State Papers, Queen Elizabeth_, Vol. 86, No. 12. The accounts from different parts of the country vary very much. The Oxfordshire answer is usually "All things be well[159]," but in Northamptonshire there were many vagrants, and apparently they were mostly sturdy rogues for they were usually "stocked" and whipped[160]. Gloucestershire is a fairly average county; in the country round Cirencester we are told there were no "persons disorderly found," but in the division of Thornbury there were ninety-two vagrant men and fifteen children. In Tewkesbury and Deerhurst there were fifteen sturdy vagrants, twenty impotent beggars, and four children[161]. [159] _Ib._, Vol. 81, 42. Hundred of Dorchester. [160] _Ib._, Vol. 81, Nos. 14 and 44. Other reports from Northampton show that many rogues were found and severely punished, Vol. 81, Nos. 45 and 46, Vol. 86, 22. That from Bullington however is an exception, for there a watch was kept, but no vagrants were taken, Vol. 81, 16. [161] Cirencester, Vol. 80, No. 42. The report for Thornbury and five other hundreds is for the searches made on Aug. 20th and Aug. 21st, 1571. The division contained six hundreds, and was nearly a quarter of the shire, Vol. 80, No. 33. Tewkesbury and Deerhurst, Vol. 80, No. 59. At Normancross in Huntingdon eleven vagrants were found on September 13th, of whom three were pedlars, one was a "tynker," and two "minstrells," Vol. 83, 36. III.