either bench, whereby they be fallen into the penalties limited by the
said statute; as by due proof made by examination taken is well known--but
also having in their hands great abundance of wine, by them acquired and
bought to be sold, obstinately and maliciously, since their said attemptate
and defaults proved, have refused to bargain and sell to many of the king's
subjects any of their said wines remaining and being in their hands;
purposing and intending thereby their own singular and unreasonable lucres
and profits, to have larger and higher prices of their said wines, to be
set according to their insatiable appetites and minds; it is therefore
ordained and enacted, by authority of this present parliament, that every
merchant now having, or which shall hereafter have, wines to be sold, and
refusing to sell or deliver, or not selling and delivering any of the said
wines for ready money therefore to be paid, according to the price or
prices thereof being set, shall forfeit and lose the value of the wine so
required to be bought.... For due execution of which provision, and for the
relief of the king's subjects, it shall be lawful to all and singular
justices of the peace, mayors, bailiffs, and other head officers in shires,
cities, boroughs, towns, etc., at the request of any person to whom the
said merchant or merchants have refused to sell, to enter into the cellars
and other places where such wines shall lie or be, and to sell and deliver
the same wine or wines desired to be bought to the person or persons
requiring to buy the same; taking of the buyer of the wine so sold to the
use and satisfaction of the proprietor aforesaid, according to the prices
determined by the law."

The next which I select is the eleventh of the second and third of Philip
and Mary; and falling in the midst of the smoke of the Smithfield fires,
and the cruelties of that melancholy time, it shines like a fair gleam of
humanity, which will not lose anything of its lustre because the evils
against which it contends have in our times, also, furnished matter for
sorrow and calamity--calamity which we unhappily have been unable even to
attempt to remedy. It is termed "An Act touching Weavers," and runs:

"Forasmuch as the weavers of this realm have, as well at this present
parliament as at divers other times, complained that the rich and wealthy
clothiers do in many ways oppress them--some by setting up and keeping in
their houses divers looms