The words about the purity of the Thames need some modification in the light of such incidents as those recorded (for instance) in Mr. Sharpe's calendar of "Letter Book" G, pp. xxvii. ff.;[139] but the most serious gap in Riley's picture is the absence of any clear allusion to the almost incredible gulfs which are frequently to be found between 14th-century theory and practice. We have already seen how openly the city officials broke their own brand-new resolution about lodgings over the city gates; and the surviving records of all medieval cities tell the same tale, for which we might indeed be prepared by the wearisome iteration with which we find the same enactments re-enacted again and again, as if they had never been thought of before. As Dean Colet said, when the world of the Middle Ages was at its last gasp, it was not new laws that England needed, but a new spirit of justice in enforcing the old laws. Seldom, indeed, had these become an absolute dead letter--we find them invoked at times where we should least have expected it--but at the very best they were enforced with a barefaced partiality which cannot be paralleled in modern civilized countries even under the most unfavourable circumstances. From Norwich, one of the greatest towns in the kingdom, and certainly not one of the worst governed, we have fortunately surviving a series of Leet Court Rolls, which have been admirably edited by Mr. Hudson for the Selden Society, and commented on more briefly in his "Records of the City of Norwich."[140] He shows that, whereas the breach of certain civic regulations should nominally have been punished by a fine for the first offence, pillory for the second, and expulsion for the third, yet in fact there was no pretence, in an ordinary way, of taking the law literally. "The price of ale was fixed according to the price of wheat. Almost every housewife of the leading families brewed ale and sold it to her neighbours, and invariably charged more than the fixed price. The authorities evidently expected and wished this course to be taken, for these ladies were regularly presented and amerced every year for the same offence, paid their amercements and went away to go through the same process in the future as in the past. Much the same course was pursued by other trades and occupations. Fishmongers, tanners, poulterers, cooks, etc., are fined wholesale year after year for breaking every by-law that concerned their business. In short, instead of a trader (as now) taking out a license to do his business on certain conditions which he is expected to keep, he was bound by conditions which he was expected to break and afterwards fined for the breach. The same financial result was attained or aimed at by a different method." Moreover, the fines themselves were collected with the strangest irregularity. "Some are excused by the Bailiffs without reason assigned; some 'at the instance' of certain great people wishing to do a good turn for a friend. Again, others make a bargain with the collector, thus expressed, as for instance, 'John de Swaffham is not in tithing. Amercement 2_s._ He paid 6_d._, the rest is excused. He is quit.' Sometimes an entry is marked 'vad,' i.e. _vadiat_, or _vadiatur_, 'he gives a pledge,' or, 'it is pledged.' The Collector had seized a jug, or basin, or chair. But by far the larger number of entries are marked 'd,' i.e. _debet_, 'he owes it.' The Collector had got nothing. At the end of each (great) Leet is a collector's account of moneys received and paid in to the Bailiffs or the City Chamberlain in three or four or more payments. By drawing out a balance sheet for the whole city in this year it appears that the total amount of all the amercements entered is £72 18_s._ 10_d._ This is equivalent to more than £1000 at the present value of money. But all that the Collectors can account for, even after Easter, is £17 0_s._ 2_d._ It is clear that however efficient the system was in preventing offences from passing undetected, it did not do much to deter offenders from repeating them."