8o ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



to make terms with a far wealthier and more powerful people, 

 though for a long time that detestable element in their 

 political existence made the Scotch more than reasonably 

 exacting, and the English more than prudently contemptuous, 

 for if by Scotland one must understand the Scotch nobles, 

 the scorn of England for the northern kingdom was up to 

 the Reform Bill of 1832 very just, and in some particulars 

 even politic. Now during the fifteenth century, the opulence 

 and the folly of the English people made them peculiarly the 

 victims of Scotch poverty and French policy. England was 

 always vulnerable on the border, and the Scotch thieves gained 

 property and the reputation of patriotism by border raids. 

 One of the wisest acts which the government of Henry the 

 Sixth effected was the Scotch truce of 1451 1 , settled for three 

 years, but with a condition that notice should be given of 

 denunciation. It is not strange that the Border Counties were 

 greatly impoverished during the period immediately preceding 

 the grant of 1453. 



On turning from the towns to the counties, we shall be 

 struck with the high rateable value of Oxfordshire. This 

 county was no doubt very early enclosed, the proof lying in 

 the singular paucity of common or customary roads. It was 

 already very wealthy when the assessment of 1341 was made, 

 for it was rated at the same amount per acre with Middlesex 

 (excluding the city of London), and was second to Norwich 

 only. In 1453, it: is wealthier per acre than Norfolk (including 

 Norwich) and a great deal wealthier than Middlesex (excluding 

 the city of London). The fact is the more remarkable, because 

 it was the regular custom to exclude the University and 

 Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge from the assessments made 

 to the crown by parliamentary commissions. Kent has sunk 

 from the fifth to the tenth place, Suffolk from the tenth to 



1 This truce was negotiated by Richard Andrew, Dean of York, and first warden of 

 All Souls' College, Oxford. He was the King's secretary, and became exceedingly 

 opulent. He got his deanery by Papal provision and a heavy bribe. But he appears 

 to have been a man of great ability. See Rymer, passim. 



