itchell had the monopolies
of gold lace, which they sold in a counterfeit state; and not only cheated
the people, but, by a mixture of copper, the ornaments made of it are said
to have rotted the flesh. As soon as the grievance was shown to James, he
expressed his abhorrence of the practice, and even declared that no person
connected with the villanous fraud should escape punishment. The brother
of his favourite, Buckingham, was known to be one, and with Sir Giles
Overreach (as Massinger conceals the name of Mompesson), was compelled to
fly the country. The style of James, in his speech, is indeed different
from kings' speeches in parliament: he speaks as indignantly as any
individual who was personally aggrieved: "Three patents at this time have
been complained of, and thought great grievances; my purpose is to strike
them all dead, and, that time may not be lost, I will have it done
presently. Had these things been complained of to me, before the
parliament, I could have done the office of a just king, and have punished
them; peradventure more than now ye intend to do. No private person
whatsoever, were he ever so dear unto me, shall be respected by me by many
degrees as the public good; and I hope, my lords, that ye will do me that
right to publish to my people this my heart purposes. Proceed judicially;
spare none, where ye find just cause to punish: but remember that laws
have not their eyes in their necks, but in their foreheads."--Rushworth,
vol. i. p. 26.]

[Footnote B: The credit which these knavish traders gave their customers,
who could not conveniently pay their money down, was carried to an
exorbitant charge; since, even in Elizabeth's reign, it was one of the
popular grievances brought into Parliament--it is there called, "A bill
against _Double Payments_ of Book Debts." One of the country members, who
made a speech consisting entirely of proverbs, said, "Pay the reckoning
overnight, and you shall not be troubled in the morning."]

[Footnote C: In the life of a famous usurer of that day, who died worth
400,000_l_., an amazing sum at that period, we find numberless expedients
and contrivances of the money trader, practised on improvident landholders
and careless heirs, to entangle them in his nets. He generally contrived
to make the wood pay for the land, which he called "making the feathers
pay for the goose." He never pressed hard for his loans, but fondly
compared his bonds "to infants, which battle best