[21] “He issued,” says Rapin, “writs of enquiry to two commissioners in every county, to enquire what his royalties, and the liberties and prerogatives of his crown were; who were his tenants _in capito;_ and how many and what fees they held of him. Also of his tenants in ancient demesne—how they had behaved themselves, and in what condition the lands were. Also of the sheriffs, coroners, and bailiffs, and their clerks—whether they had extorted money, or had wronged any one, or had taken bribes. This first step,” says Rapin, “produced a wonderful effect upon the people.”
[22] “But Edward never faltered in his purpose, and the inquiry went on, at intervals, through a period of more than twenty years.”—Pearson’s Hist. Eng., vol. ii., p. 298.
[23] This appears to us now a punishment of terrible severity. Yet we ourselves, in the days of George III., were in the habit of hanging men in great numbers for fabricating imitative bank‐notes. All our modern civilization, at the beginning of the present century, had not carried us beyond the usages of Edward’s day.
The prime or maturity of Edward’s life was spent in works of quiet usefulness. The rebellion and reduction of Wales formed, indeed, an apparent exception; but the period of actual hostility on this occasion was very short. Edward was forced by the sudden outbreak of Llewellyn and David, to draw the sword; but it was returned to its scabbard in a very few weeks. Prejudiced historians have delighted in describing this sovereign as a man who, like the great Corsican of the beginning of the present century, was ever plotting some new acquisition; ever coveting his neighbour’s possessions. But in the actual records of his reign, we see him, from his fortieth to his fifty‐second year, dwelling in peace, and “thinking no evil.” The only instance in which we find him in the battle‐field is just ‘the exception which proves the rule.’ He took arms because he was assailed; because his enemy had left him no option.
His fortieth year, the eighth of his reign, was distinguished in the way in which he best loved to distinguish it—by a great act of wise and useful legislation. Doubtless we owe its authorship mainly to the counsel and the legislative skill of Robert Burnel; but we must not refuse to the king the possession of that sagacious patriotism which we shall continue to discern in his actions long after that valued counsellor had been removed from his side.