Under the personal rule of James I we have the best instance in Scottish history of government in accordance with what would now be called the theory of the Scottish constitution. But it was not "constitutional government" in our modern derived sense of the word. The Parliament was not intended to be the ruling body. King James was a masterful man, and he aimed at using the Parliament as the best means of creating a powerful monarchy, not at giving it a power to rival his own. His experience immediately on his return does not strengthen our belief in the "Parliamentarianism" of the preceding century. He found it impossible to persuade the smaller barons to attend, even by deputy, and he had to threaten with the penalties of treason his great lords who declined to be present. The burgesses alone seem to have regarded with sympathy his meditated reorganization of the kingdom. The acts of his reign provided for the defence of the country on the analogy of the English Assize of Arms. They dealt with labour disputes; they instituted the system of licensed beggars to which we are indebted for Edie Ochiltree, and forbade anyone to beg between the ages of fourteen and seventy. The numerous Parliaments that met between 1424 and 1437 are full of police regulations, some of them petty enough, but all bearing the impress of the master-mind of the king. He vindicated his orthodoxy by enactments against Lollardry, while he emulated the English kings in their prohibitions of papal interference.[95] But, above all, the reign is memorable for the king's attempt to enforce justice.[96] His great difficulty lay in the independence of the sheriffs, who continued to impede all improvements for three centuries after his death. The history of Scotland is full of complaints on this subject. "The greatest hindrance to the execution of our lawes in this countrie," wrote a later king, "are these heritable Shiredomes and Regalities, which being in the hands of the great men, do wracke the whole countrie."[97] It was more easy to ordain frequent sessions of "the Chancellor and discreet persons," to forbid riding to the court "with multitudes of folkis na with armys," and to threaten the punishment of negligent sheriffs, than to carry out these schemes. The only guarantee for their receiving any obedience lay in the personal strength of the king. With the tragedy at Perth, which rendered the Christmas of 1437 for ever memorable, the great plans of the first James lost all chance of fruition. Parliament had done good work during his reign. It had conferred a legality on his ordinances which rendered them less the creatures of the royal will and weakened the protests of the nobles against the king's tyranny.[98] But we cannot reasonably credit the Estates with any initiative. The acts are the king's acts. Even the judges--the lords of session--were no longer elected by Parliament; they were chosen by the king.