civil law, and the law of France: one in buying and selling must gain half in half.

. . in his French Pladoys hath this case: one sold a horse to a young gallant, to be paid five times the worth of him at the day of death or marriage of the buyer. This by the judgment of the court of parliament of Paris was adjudged a contract against good manners; but the court allowed the true value of the horse. By the capitulations of Charles the Great, conductionis titulo habere, is to have a lease for years. So in a synod . .

in

France, anno Domini 1404: no person or persons shall let per admediationem fructus beneficii, that is, to let out his benefice for years. Balsamon calls letting out of years the possessor; the lessee the taker of leased lands by Alciat may be called, and by the Novels is Colonarius. These premises I would have to enforce your opinions, that I am an alien, if not an alien to the mind of Peter Blesensis in our Henry the Second's time, who writes, "I read the "code and the pandects in the vacation time for some so"lace, but not to reap any profit."

Jonathan, when he came into a wood where was great store of honey, took only a little upon the point of a stick ; for provisions which were reserved in foreign states as well as ours, the auctorities are so plentiful that I will write only

one or two.

Cæsar, being consul with Tibullus, in the year 601 of the city, made a law to the magistrates of the city of Rome, when they passed by any province, the towns and the people should furnish them with hay and victuals: this is called Julia de magistratibus. An ancient by her husband had Egypt given her . . .

The Jews likewise, as upon their leases, sometimes reserved provision.

To give an instance in each out of the text; for the former, by the Canticles; Solomon had a vineyard in Balhamon, he gave the vineyard unto the keepers, every one

brought for his part a thousand pieces of silver, but the provision was reserved.

Christ himself proveth it, where he shews the vineyard, whereof rent-grapes were reserved, the tenants killed the heir apparent of their landlord; where the crafty steward in the Gospel bid the debtors of his master write down so many ton of oil less than was owing his master, and so many quarters of wheat. I were a I should write these oils and wheat was due to the master in respect of rent and provision, and not for any personal or collateral contract. Varro, saith Plebei .

. that is as much as to say, he let out soccage land, yielding yearly the third or half sheaves of corn, or provision, or victual: and as the religious houses in England in the Saxons' time, as formerly appeareth, procured deeds for being discharged from the entertaining the king and his officers of provisions, and from taking up of their houses by their harbingers; generally in other countries of Europe they procure like deeds. Sigonius observes, that Charles the Great, being at ., at the request of Germanus the bishop, gave unto Clero Mutinensi the lands which were formerly given by the king of the Longobards, and also provided that this judge or officer should feudum erigere aut mansiones aut paratus aut fide jussores acceperit. Choppine recites the letters of Ludovicus Pius, the emperor, to the church of St. Maurice in Anjou, wherein it is ordained no judges shall enter in the lands belonging to the church to hear causes, vel feuda exigenda, aut mansiones, aut paratus faciendos, aut fidejussores tollendos, aut homines ecclesiæ distringendos. The like words are in the charter of Dagobert king of France, in the year 718, founding ecclesiæ canonica with further words, nec ullus pastus dabitur. The auctorities are plentiful in this kind. I remember Christiana, the wife of Udislaus the Second, king of Poland, craving of her neighbours in kindness to send her some provision for her house; after, lex regia ordained it to endure for ever.

LETTERS.

To Prince Henry; touching the Model of a Ship.

Most excellent prince,

If the ship your highness intends to build be bigger than

the Victory, then her beams which are laid overthwart from side to side will not serve again, and many other of her timbers and other stuff will not serve; whereas if she be a size less, the timber of the old ship will serve well to the building of a new.

If she be bigger, she will be of less use, go very deep to water, and of mighty charge, our channels decaying every year; less nimble, less manageable, and seldom to be used: Grande navio grande fatica, saith the Spaniard.

A ship of six hundred tons will carry as good ordnance as a ship of twelve hundred tons, and where the greater hath double her ordnance, the less will turn her broadside twice before the great ship can wind once, and so no advantage in that overplus of guns. The lesser will go over clear, where the greater shall stick and perish; the lesser will come and go, leave or take, and is yare; whereas the greater is slow, unmanageable, and ever full of encumber.

In a well conditioned ship these things are chiefly required.

1. That she be strong built.

2. Swift in sail.

3. Stout-sided.

4. That her ports be so laid as that she may carry out her guns all weathers.

5. That she hull and try well.

6. That she stay well when boarding or turning on a wind is required.

To make her strong, consisteth in the care and truth of

the workman; to make her swift is to give her a large run or way forward, and so afterward, done by art and just proportion; and that in laying out her bows before, and quarters behind, the shipwright be sure that she neither sink nor hang into the water, but lie clear and above it; wherein shipwrights do often fail, and then is the speed in sailing utterly spoiled.

That she be stout-sided, the same is provided by a long bearing floor, and by sharing off from above water to the lower edge of the ports, which done, then will she carry out her ordnance all weathers.

To make her to hull and to try well, which is called a good sea ship, there are two things principally to be regarded, the one that she have a good draught of water, the other that she be not overcharged: and this is seldom done in the king's ships, and therefore we are forced to lie, or try in them with our main course and mizzen, which with a deep keel and standing streak she would perform.

The extreme length of a ship makes her unapt to stay, especially if she be floaty, and want sharpness of way forward. And it is most true, that such overlong ships are fitter for the narrow seas in summer than for the ocean, or long voyages; and therefore an hundred foot by the keel, and thirty-five foot broad, is a good proportion for a great ship.

It is to be noted, that all ships sharp before, not having a long floor, will fall rough into the sea from a billow, and take in water over head and ears; and the same quality have all narrow quartered ships to sink after the tail. The high charging of ships is that that brings many ill qualities; it makes them extreme leeward, makes them sink deep into the seas, makes them labour sore in foul weather, and ofttimes overset. Safety is more to be respected than shows, or niceness for ease; in sea journeys both cannot well stand together, and therefore the most necessary is to be chosen.

Two decks and a half is enough, and no building at all above that but a low master's cabin. Our masters and mariners will say, that the ships will bear more well enough; and true it is, if none but ordinary mariners served in them.

But men of better sort, unused to such a life, cannot so well endure the rolling and tumbling from side to side, where the seas are never so little grown, which comes by high charging. Besides those high cabin works aloft are very dangerous in fight, to tear men with their splinters.

Above all other things have care that the great guns be four foot clear above water when all lading is in, or else these best pieces are idle at sea: for if the ports lie lower and be open, it is dangerous; and by that default was a goodly ship, and many gallant gentlemen lost in the days of Henry the Eighth, before the Isle of Wight, in a ship called by the name of Mary Rose.

To Mr. Secretary Winwood, before his Journey to Guiana. Honoured sir,

I was lately persuaded by two gentlemen, my ancient friends, to acquaint your honour with some offers of mine made heretofore for a journey to Guiana, who were of opinion, that it would be better understood now than when it was first propounded, which advice having surmounted my despair, I have presumed to send unto your honour the copies of those letters which I then wrote, both to his majesty and to the treasurer Cecil, wherein as well the reasons that first moved me are remembered, as the objections by him made are briefly answered.

What I know of the riches of that place, not by hearsay, but what mine eyes have seen, I have said it often, but it was then to no end: because those that had the greatest trust were resolved not to believe it, not because they doubted the truth, but because they doubted my disposition towards themselves; where (if God had blessed me in the enterprise) I had recovered his majesty's favour and good opinion. Other cause than this, or other suspicion, they never had any. Our late worthy prince of Wales was extreme curious in searching out the nature of my offences: the queen's majesty hath informed herself from the beginning; the king of Denmark at both times of his being here