termine the price of beef, pork, mutton, and veal. Beef and pork were ordered to be sold at a halfpenny a pound; mutton and veal at a half-penny half a farthing, money of that age. In the year 1544, it appears that an acre of good land in Cambridgeshire, was let at a shilling, or about fifteen-pence of our present money; a proof of the low ebb at which agriculture was in that age.

In 1546, a law was made for fixing the inte. rest of money at 10 per cent. the first legal interest known in England. Formerly all loans of that nature were regarded as usurious. The preamble of this very law treats the interests of money as illegal and criminal; and the prejudices still remained so strong, that the law permitting interest was repealed in the following reign.

In this reign also, some laws were made relative to beggars and vagrants. To provide for the poor is an object that powerfully recommends itself to a benevolent legislator, and appears at a first view, the most easy thing to be adjusted; but nothing, as long and painful experience has shown, is more difficult to fix on such a basis, as may answer the purpose, without destroying industry. The convents were formerly a support to the poor; but they tended to encourage idleness and beggary; and the laws which were passed in the subsequent reign, in favour of the aged and infirm, by weakening the pride of independ ence, and lessening the demands of industry, have in a great measure been perverted from their original design.

A. D. 1547.

CHAP. XI.

The Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary.

DWARD, at his accession, was little more than nine years of age, and as his majority was fixed at eighteen complete, his father had appointed sixteen executors; to whom, during the minority, he intrusted the government of the kingdom. Among these were, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury; lord Wriothesely, chancellor; lord St. John, great master; lord Russel, privy seal; the earl of Hertford, chamberlain; viscount Lisle, admiral; Tonstal, bishop of Durham; Sir Anthony Brown, master of horse; and other officers of state, with two or three private persons. Το these executors, with whom was intrusted the whole regal authority, were associated twelve counsellors, who possessed no immediate power, and could only assist with their advice when any affair was laid before them. The council was composed of the earls of Arundel and Essex; Sir Thomas Cheyney, treasurer of the household; Sir John Gage, comptroller; Sir Anthony Wingfield, vice chamberlain; Sir William Petre, secretary of state; Sir Richard Rich, Sir John Baker, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Thomas Seymour, Sir Richard Southwel, and Sir Edmund Peckham. The usual caprice of Henry is visible in this nomination, by giving only the place of counsellors to persons of such high rank as the earl of Arundel and Sir Thomas Seymour, the king's uncle.

The executors were no sooner met than it was represented government would lose its dignity for want of some head to represent the royal majesty. Though this alteration from the king's will was opposed by chancellor Wriothesely, it was nevertheless carried; and the choice fell of course on the earl of Hertford, the king's maternal uncle.

Henry had intended before his death to make a new creation of nobility, and as in his will he had charged his executors to make good all his promises, Hertford was created duke of Somerset, mareschal, and lord treasurer; Wriothesely, earl of Southampton; the earl of Essex, marquis of Northampton; viscount Lisle, earl of Warwick; sir Thomas Seymour, lord Seymour of Sudley, and admiral; while Rich, Willoughby, and Sheffield, were raised to the dignity of barons.

The earl of Southampton had always been engaged in an opposite party to Somerset; and it was not likely that factions, which had secretly prevailed even during the arbitrary reign of Henry, should be suppressed in the weak administration that usually attends a minority. The former nobleman, that he might have the greater leisure for attending to public business, had, of himself and from his own authority, put the great seal in commission, and had empowered four lawyers, two of whom were canonists, to execute in his absence the office of chancellor. Complaints were made of this irregularity to the council, who, influenced by the protector, gladly laid hold of the opportunity to depress Southampton. They consulted the judges with -regard to so unusual a case, and received for anVOL. XX. G

swer, that the commission was illegal, and that the chancellor, by his presumption in granting it, had justly forfeited the great seal, and was even liable to punishment. The council summoned him to appear before them; and notwithstanding his able defence, declared that he had forfeited the great seal; that a fine should be imposed upon him; and that he should be confined to his own house, during pleasure.

The removal of Southampton, however, did not satisfy the ambition of Somerset. He procured a patent from the young king by which he entirely overturned the will of Harry VIII. and produced a total revolution in the government. He named himself protector with full regal power, and appointed a council, consisting of all the former counsellors, and all the executors, except Southampton, reserving a power of naming any other counsellors at pleasure, and of consulting with such only as he thought proper. The protector and his council were likewise empowered to act at discretion, and to execute whatever they deemed for the public service, without incurring any penalty or forfeiture whatsoever.

Somerset had long been regarded as a secret partisan of the reformers; and he took care that all persons intrusted with the king's education, should be attached to the same principles. In his schemes for advancing the reformation, he had recourse to the counsels of Cranmer, who, being a man of moderation, was averse to all violent changes. By his advice, a visitation was made of all the dioceses of England, by a mixture of clergy and laity; and the chief purport of their instructions was, besides correcting immo

ralities and irregularities in the clergy, to abolish the ancient superstitions, and to bring the discipline and worship somewhat nearer the practice of the reformed churches.

In these measures the protector met with no inconsiderable opposition from Gardiner, bichop of Winclicster, who, though he had not obtained a place in the council of regency, on account of late disgusts which he had given to Henry, was entitled, by his age and capacity, to the highest confidence of his party; he represented the perils of perpetual innovations, and the necessity of adhering to some system. For this freedom he was sent to the Fleet prison, and treated with some severity.

In Scotland the partisans of the ancient and the reformed religion had daily become more violent; and the cardinal primate Beaton soon brought matters to a decision. One Wishart, a gentleman by birth, and celebrated for the purity of his morals and his extensive learning, had employed himself with great success in preaching against the ancient superstitions. By the punishment of so distinguished an innovator, the cardinal hoped to strike terror into all others. He was arrested, and, after a short trial, condemned to the flames for heresy. Wishart suffered with the usual patience; but could not forbear remarking the triumph of his insulting enemy. He foretold, that, in a few days, he should in the very same place lie as low as now he was exalted aloft in opposition to true piety and religion.

This prophecy was probably the immediate cause of the event which it foretold. The disciples of this martyr, enraged at the cruel exe