388 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 



on work, and to give way to new coins of silver, 

 which should be then minted. 



There likewise was a long statute against vaga 

 bonds, wherein two things may be noted ; the one, 

 the dislike the parliament had of gaoling of them, as 

 that which was chargeable, pesterous, and of no 

 open example. The other, that in the statutes of 

 this king s time, for this of the nineteenth year is 

 not the only statute of that kind, there are ever 

 coupled the punishment of vagabonds, and the for 

 bidding of dice and cards, and unlawful games, unto 

 servants and mean people, and the putting down 

 and suppressing of alehouses, as strings of one root 

 together, and as if the one were unprofitable with 

 out the other. 



As for riot and retainers, there passed scarce 

 any parliament in this time without a law against 

 them : the king ever having an eye to might and 

 multitude. 



There was granted also that parliament a sub 

 sidy, both from the temporalty and the clergy. And 

 yet nevertheless, ere the year expired, there went 

 out commissions for a general benevolence, though 

 there were no wars, no fears. The same year the 

 city gave five thousand marks, for confirmation of 

 their liberties ; a thing fitter for the beginnings of 

 kings reigns, than the latter ends. Neither was it 

 a small matter that the mint gained upon the late 

 statute, by the recoinage of groats and half-groats, 

 now twelve-pences and six-pences. As for Empson 



