C ss ] 
thereto, it may be neceffary to obferve, that very proba- 
bly, the unfettled flate of the kingdom for many years 
preceding, might pave a way to that alteration. There 
had been feveral contefts about the crown, between the 
two houfes of York and Lancafter, till henry vii. by 
conquelf , mounted the throne ; and in fuch times of pub- 
lic difturbance, the laws of aflize were more likely to be 
infringed, than well kept. For, after henry vii. was 
well fettled on his throne, we find complaint was made 
in the nth year of his reign, that the laws of afilze had 
not been obferved and kept. Whereupon he made frefli 
ftandards of weights and meafures, and fent them to the 
feveral fhires and Towns in the kingdom. But in the 
very next year (the 1 2th of his reign) there came out that 
particular ftatute, under which, the weights and meafures 
were altered. Reciting, that the king, in the former year, 
had made weights and meafures of brafs^ according to the 
eld fiandards thereof remaining in his treafury-^ which 
weights and meafures are faid, on a more diligent exami- 
nation, to have been approved defective. It is not faid, 
whether they were the old flandard weights and mea- 
fures, or the new ones, made in the former year, that 
had been approved defecftive ; nor how much they were 
fo: all this is left to conjecture. Therefore we may, 
with great probability, conjecture, they were not defec- 
tive in refpeCt to their old original flandard ; but only in 
refpeCt to the heavier new Troy pound, intended to be 
then introduced. And what warrants fuch conjecture is, 
the exprefs declaration of his fon henry viii. when he 
I abolifhed 
