HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 237 



maintenance of the navy, ordained ; &quot; That wines 

 &quot; and woods from the parts of Gascoign and Lan- 

 &amp;lt;e guedoc, should not be brought but in English 

 &quot; bottoms ;&quot; bowing the ancient policy of this estate, 

 from consideration of plenty to consideration of 

 power. For that almost all the ancient statutes 

 incite by all means merchant-strangers, to bring in 

 all sorts of commodities ; having for end cheapness, 

 and not looking to the point of state concerning the 

 naval power. 



The king also made a statute in that parliament, 

 monitory and minatory towards justices of peace, 

 that they should duly execute their office, inviting 

 complaints against them, first to their fellow-justices, 

 then to the justices of assize, then to the king or 

 chancellor, that a proclamation which he had pub 

 lished of that tenor, should be read in open sessions 

 four times a year to keep them awake. Meaning 

 also to have his laws executed, and thereby to reap 

 either obedience or forfeitures, wherein towards his 

 latter times he did decline too much to the left hand, 

 he did ordain remedy against the practice that was 

 grown in use, to stop and damp informations upon 

 penal laws, by procuring informations by collusion, 

 to be put in by the confederates of the delinquents, 

 to be faintly prosecuted, and let fall at pleasure ; and 

 pleading them in bar of the informations, which were 

 prosecuted with effect. 



He made also laws for the correction of the mint, 

 and counterfeiting of foreign coin current. And 



