Previous  statutes  on  this  subject  were  summarised  and
amended  by  the  Act  of  1598  (39  &  40  Eliz.  4)  and  further
amended  in  the  following  reign  (i  Jas.  I.  7  ;  7  &  8  Jas.  I.  4).
Under  these  Acts,  the  justices  set  up  houses  of  correction,
enforced  labour,  instituted  house-to-house  visitations,  exe-
cuted the  sanguinary  penalties  of  the  law,  and  even  trans-
ported offenders  out  of  the  countiy.  Another  section  of
their  duties  was  connected  with  the  penal  laws  against
Eomanists  and  Dissenters.  They  discovered  and  reported
recusants,  tried  offences  against  the  Act  of  Uniformity  and
similar  Acts,  administered  the  oath  of  allegiance,  broke  up
conventicles,  and  searched  the  houses  of  recusants  for  arms
and  superstitious  relics.  There  was  little  indeed,  whether
in  town  or  country,  that  escaped  the  surveillance  of  the
justices  of  the  peace  :  they  nipped  treason  in  the  bud,  and
a  country  parson  had  to  obtain  their  licence  before  he  could
many  (p.  187  and  index).
It  is  clear  that  a  judicial  system,  so  complex  and  incon-
gruous as  that  of  the  Tudors,  must  have  suffered  from  great
defects.  There  were,  no  doubt,  many  failures  of  justice  and
frequent  conflicts  of  jurisdiction.  But  on  the  whole  it
seems  clear  that  ordinaiy  justice  was  better  done  between
man  and  man,  that  crime  was  more  rapidly  and  surely
punished,  and  general  order  more  strictly  maintained  than

h  2


cxvi  Introduction.
