112 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



as paid in the margin by the Earl, at least in the earlier leaves 

 of the book, and every page is checked and certified by his 

 signature. The smallest quantities are sold at the same rate as 

 the largest, except when the quality varies, or the market rises 

 and falls. When Elizabeth's government fixed part of the rents 

 of corporate estates by the market prices of the towns in which 

 the corporation was situated, it was merely giving legal effect 

 to custom, and the only particular in the law that was not 

 strictly carried out, was the practice of making the prices 

 conform to the market nearest to the estate. 



But the effect of the practice of enclosures and the substitu- 

 tion of sheep farming for agriculture proper produced slight 

 effects on society, compared with those of Henry's boundless 

 and reckless extravagance l . No English king, considering the 

 times in which he lived, spent nearly so much on his pleasures 

 and his caprices as Henry did. Charles the Second and George 

 the Fourth were rapacious, sordid and lavish. Henry was not 

 sordid, but his rapacity and waste were immeasurable and all- 

 devouring. Let any one consult his statutes, and look, for 

 example, at the slightest of his outlay, that which was expended 

 on the manors of Ampthill and Grafton, places which were the 

 whim of a day with this prodigal monarch. As he grew older, 

 he grew more wasteful ; as he grew more headstrong, more sus- 

 picious and more cruel. That he was popular is probable. 

 He employed labour largely. He gave away profusely. He 

 destroyed influences and institutions which had been odious to 

 many, and had been disliked by nearly all Englishmen. He 

 flattered national vanity, for one of his whims was to describe 



1 It is the highest impertinence and presumption,' says Adam Smith, ' in kings and 

 ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their 

 expense either by sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries. 

 They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in 

 the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trur 

 people with theirs. If their extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects 

 never will.' Smith, i. 350. Smith wrote this when George the Third lived thriftily, and 

 ran into debt in order to corrupt the House of Commons, and the proceeds of corruption 

 and peculation were spent as Mr. Trevelyan describes in his Early Years of Fox. 



