CERTIFICATE TOUCHING THE PENAL LAWS. 363 



that he that embraceth much, straineth and holdeth 

 the less, and that propositions have wings, but opera 

 tion and execution have leaden feet ; I most humbly 

 desire pardon of your majesty, if I do for the present 

 only select some one or two principal points, and 

 certify my opinion thereof; reserving the rest as a 

 sheaf by me to draw out, at further time, further 

 matter for your majesty s information for so much as 

 I shall conceive to be fit or worthy the consideration. 

 For that part, therefore, of these projects which 

 concerneth penal laws, I do find the purpose and 

 scope to be, not to press a greater rigour or severity 

 in the execution of penal laws ; but to repress the 

 abuses in common informers, and some clerks and 

 under-ministers, that for common gain partake with 

 them : for if it had tended to the other point, I for 

 my part should be very far from advising your 

 majesty to give ear unto it. For as it is said in the 

 psalm, &quot; If thou, Lord, should be extreme to mark 

 &quot; what is done amiss, who may abide it ?&quot; So it is 

 most certain, that your people is so ensnared in a 

 multitude of penal laws, that the execution of them 

 cannot be borne. And as it followeth ; &quot; But with 

 l( thee is mercy, that thou mayest be feared :&quot; so it 

 is an intermixture of mercy and justice that will 

 bring you fear and obedience : for too much rigour 

 makes people desperate. And therefore to leave 

 this, which was the only blemish of king Henry VII. s 

 reign, and the unfortunate service of Empson and 

 Dudley, whom the people s curses, rather than any 

 law, brought to overthrow ; the other work is a work 



