PREFACE. XXIX 



&quot; if the nobility be too many, tbe commons will be 

 &quot; base and heartless, and you will bring it to that, 

 &quot; that not the hundredth pole will be fit for an 

 &quot; helmet ; especially as to the infantry, which is the 

 &quot; nerve of an army ; and so there will be great po- 

 &quot; pulation and little strength. This which I speak 

 &quot; of hath been in no nation more clearly confirmed 

 &quot; than in the examples of England and France, 

 u whereof England, though far inferior in territory 

 &quot; and population, hath been nevertheless always an 

 &quot; overmatch in arms ; in regard the middle-people 

 &quot; of England make good soldiers, which the peasants 

 &quot; of France do not. And herein the device of Henry 

 &quot; the Seventh King of England (whereof I have 

 &quot; spoken largely in the history of his life) was pro- 

 &quot; found and admirable, in making farms and houses 

 &quot; of husbandry of a standard ; that is maintained 

 &quot; with such a proportion of land unto them, as may 

 &quot; breed a subject to live in convenient plenty, and 

 &quot; to keep the plough in the hands of the owners, or 

 &quot; at least usu-fructuary, and not hirelings and mer- 

 &quot; cenaries ; and thus a country shall merit that cha- 

 &quot; racter whereby Virgil expresses ancient Italy, 

 &quot; Terra potens Armis, atque ubere Gleba.&quot; 

 His love of familar illustration is to be found in 

 various parts of the history ; speaking of the commo 

 tion by the Cornish men in behalf of the impostor 

 Perkin Warbeck,* he says &quot; The course he held to- 

 &quot; wards the rebels, it was utterly differing from his 



* Page 331. 



