s the
outward show is concerned; and most easily of all where it concurs with
their own pleasure and profit."[48]

The ambassador, Giovanni Micheli, was one of that order of
merchant-princes employed by Venice in her foreign missions; men whose
acquaintance with affairs enabled them to comprehend the resources of
the country to which they were sent, as well as the intrigues of its
court. Their observations were digested into elaborate reports, which,
on their return to Venice, were publicly read before the doge and the
senate. The documents thus prepared form some of the most valuable and
authentic materials for the history of Europe in the sixteenth century.
Micheli's report is diffuse on the condition of England under the reign
of Queen Mary; and some of his remarks will have interest for the reader
of the present day, as affording a standard of comparison with the
past.[49]

London he eulogizes, as one of the noblest capitals in Europe,
containing, with its suburbs, about a hundred and eighty thousand
souls.[50] The great lords, as in France and Germany, passed most of
their time on their estates in the country.

The kingdom was strong enough, if united, to defy any invasion from
abroad. Yet its navy was small, having dwindled, from neglect and an
ill-judged economy, to not more than forty vessels of war. But the
mercantile marine could furnish two thousand more, which, at a short
notice, could be well equipped and got ready for sea. The army was
particularly strong in artillery, and provided with all the munitions of
war. The weapon chiefly in repute was the bow, to which the English
people were trained from early youth. In their cavalry they were most
defective. Horses were abundant, but wanted bottom. They were, for the
most part, light, weak, and grass-fed.[51] The nation was, above all, to
be envied for the lightness of the public burdens. There were no taxes
on wine, beer, salt, cloth, nor, indeed, on any of the articles that in
other countries furnished the greatest sources of revenue.[52] The whole
revenue did not usually exceed two hundred thousand pounds. Parliaments
were rarely summoned, except to save the king trouble or to afford a
cloak to his designs. No one ventured to resist the royal will; servile
the members came there, and servile they remained.[53]--An Englishman of
the nineteenth century may smile at the contrast presented by some of
these remarks to the condition of the nation at the present