[205] The Privy Council write that they "are given to understand that divers of the inhabitants of the Town of Cambridge seeking their own private gain with the public hurt and incommodity of the whole University and Town have heretofore accustomed to build and erect houses upon sundry spare grounds in and about the said Town; but of late and at this present especially they do not only increase and continue the same but do more usually divide one house into many small tenements and those for the most part do let and hire out to the meanest and poorest persons, which tenements ... are a means ... as we are informed whereby the University and Town are overburthened in yearly allowance towards the maintenance of the poor." The Mayor and Vice-chancellor therefore with the assistance of the "best and discretest persons and officers of the University and Town" are to cause inquiry to be made as to how many tenements there are and as to how many people inhabit them, and are also to find out if the tenements had been built or divided within ten years. They were then to take measures to alter as many tenements and to remove as many of the inmates as they should deem expedient. The letter is dated June 8th, 1584, and is signed by Burghley, Walsingham, and several other members of the Privy Council. Cooper, _Annals of Cambridge_, Vol. II. p. 398. [206] _Cal. of State Papers_, Vol. 133, No. 56. There is enough to show that the Privy Council was often active and that its interference had a considerable effect, but that before 1597 this interference was only occasionally exercised. This pressure exerted by the Privy Council on justices and municipal authorities becomes the most important factor in the development of the English system of poor relief in the next century. Law was not yet enforced merely because it had been enacted, and in regard to the poor no force of continued habit as yet made public opinion compel negligent officials to do their duty. So far men objected to pay rates; they were not firmly convinced of the duty of the state to relieve the poor. The pressure of the Privy Council was therefore necessary to enforce the law. But the habit of interference in these matters and the organisation that alone could make interference have much effect grew very slowly. Before 1597 we can see this habit of interference and this organisation growing, but as yet it is only utilised occasionally and to meet some special emergency; it is not part of a general system which almost everywhere commanded obedience. CHAPTER VII. 1569-1597. LOCAL ORGANISATION OF POOR RELIEF AND THE EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1594-1597. 1. The organisation of London with regard to the poor. 2. The organisation of Norwich. 3. The action of other towns, (1) Concerning the settlement of new-comers. (2) Concerning the unemployed. (3) Concerning the raising of funds. 4. The events of the years of scarcity 1594-1597. 5. Summary of the period 1569-1597.