414 ADVICE TO SIR GEORGE VILL1ERS. 



the true state of his whole kingdom, of the disposi 

 tion of the people, of their inclinations, of their inten 

 tions and motions, which are necessary to be truly 

 understood. 



7. To this end I could wish, that against every 

 circuit all the judges should, sometimes by the king 

 himself, and sometimes by the lord Chancellor or 

 lord Keeper, in the king s name, receive a charge of 

 those things which the present times did much re 

 quire ; and at their return should deliver a faithful 

 account thereof, and how they found and left the 

 counties through which they passed, and in which 

 they kept their assizes. 



8. And that they might the better perform this 

 work, which might be of great importance, it will 

 not be amiss that sometimes this charge be public, as 

 it useth to be in the Star-chamber, at the end of the 

 terms next before the circuit begins, where the king s 

 care of justice, and the good of his people, may be 

 published ; and that sometimes also it may be pri 

 vate, to communicate to the judges some things not 

 so fit to be publicly delivered. 



9. I could wish also, that the judges were di 

 rected to make a little longer stay in a place than 

 usually they do ; a day more in a county would be 

 a very good addition ; although their wages for their 

 circuits were increased in proportion : it would stand 

 better with the gravity of their employment ; whereas 

 now they are sometimes enforced to rise over-early, 

 and to sit over-late, for the dispatch of their busi 

 ness, to the extraordinary trouble of themselves and 



