The Connection between Land and Trade. 267 



been already said on this subject, it will be evident that at the 

 cessation of the civil wars these huge retinues of idle men, 

 gathered about the great houses under the system of livery, 

 had neither excuse for their continuance nor opportunity for 

 their employment. Maintenance, however, furnished both, 

 and it was against this abuse that Henry VIII. proceeded to 

 legislate. The term had long been used to cover sundry and 

 manifold malpractices. As early as the thirteenth century the 

 maintenance of pleas or suits for lands by the king's ofEcers in 

 the royal courts had been prohibited by 3 Ed. I. c. 25. The 

 maintenance of quarrels to the let and disturbance of common 

 law, had been disallowed by 3 Ed. III. c. 33, and 28 Ed. III. 

 c. 11. The statute 1 Eich. II. c. 4 inflicted pains and penalties 

 on everybody (king's counsellors, officers and servants included) 

 who sustained maintenance. But that particular branch of 

 this system which alone concerns us at present received its 

 death blow by 32 Hen. VIII. c. 9, which not only prohibited 

 on pain of forfeiture the acquisition by purchase or otherwise 

 of any pretended right or title to land, but placed the unlaw- 

 ful maintenance of any suit concerning land, or the retention 

 of any person for maintenance by letters, rewards, or promises, 

 under a penalty of £10 for every such offence. 



So far our remarks have applied to a minute though power- 

 ful class of the nation, which it seems probable scarcely reached 

 the small total of eighty peers at the time we are discussing. 



By striking a rough average between the 2,300,000 estimated 

 by the census of 1378 and the 4,400,000 estimated by that of 

 1588, Mr. Hallam has computed the entire English population 

 in the seventh Henry's times at about 3,000,000 souls. ^ Ex- 

 cluding the peers, both spiritual and temporal, but including 

 their children, the whole population was legally distinguished 

 as commoners. Though equal in the eye of the law, there 

 were many distinctions apparent to that of society. Such were 

 the landed gentry, many of whom were knights, and all of 

 whom were allowed to wear armour; the yeomanry, some occu- 

 pying their own lands as small freeholders, and others farming 

 the property of their landlords ; the peasantry, a class composed 

 ' Hallam, Constlt. Hist, of Engl., cli. i. 



