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The Saltpetre-Man Notes And Queries, 1853 |
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April 1853 |
In a book said to be an address by Lord Coke at Norwich Assizes in 1607, there is printed a "Discoverie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers". Part of this was reprinted in the Victorian journal 'Notes And Queries,' in 1853. One of the officers referred to is the "Salt-peter-man", which generated some correspondence as to this officers role. The following is extracted: 16 April 1853 "The Lord Coke, his Speech and Charge, with a Discoverie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers. 8vo. Lond. N.Butter, 1607."The following officer is unknown in the present day, I give his character in extenso: "There is also a Salt-peter-man, whose commission is not to break up any man's house or ground without leave. And not to deale with any house, but such as is unused for any necessarie imployment by the owner. And not to digge in any place without leaving it smooth and levell: in such case as he found it. This Salt-peter-man under shew of his authoritie, though being no more than is specified, will make plaine and simple people beleeve, that hee will without their leave breake up the floore of their dwelling house, unlesse they will compound with him to the contrary. Any such fellow, if you can meete with all, let his misdemenor be presented, that he may be taught better to understand his office: For by their abuse the country is oftentimes troubled."I ask for a further reference to "The Salt-peter-man." J.O. 30 April 1853 "For the Maintaining and Increasing of the Salt-petre Mines of England, for the Necessary and Important Manufacture of Gunpowder."This proclamation states: "That our realm naturally yields sufficient mines of saltpetre without depending on foreign parts; wherefore, for the future, no dovehouse shall be paved with stones, bricks, nor boards, lime, sand, nor gravel, nor any other thing whereby the growth and increase of the mine and saltpetre may be hindered or impaired; but the proprietors shall suffer the ground floors thereof, as also all stables where horses stand, to lie open with good and mellow earth, apt to breed increase of the said mine. And that none deny or hinder any saltpetre-man, lawfully deputed thereto, from digging, taking, or working any ground which by commission may be taken and wrought for saltpetre. Neither shall any constable, or other officer, neglect to furnish any such saltpetre-man with convenient carriages, that the King's service suffer not. Non shall bribe any saltpetre-man for the sparing or forbearing of any ground fit to be wrought for saltpetre," &c.It would appear that the saltpetre-man abused his authority, and that the people suffered a good deal of annoyance from the manner in which this absurd system was carried out; for two years afterwards we find that another proclamation was published by the King, notifying, "that the practice of making saltpetre in England by digging up the floors of dwelling-houses, &c. &c., tended too much to the grievance of his loving subjects . . . that not withstanding all the trouble, not one third part of the saltpetre required could be furnished." It proceeds to state that Sir John Brooke and Thomas Russell, Esq., had proposed a new method of manufacturing the article, and that an exclusive patent had been granted to them. The King then commands his subjects in London and Westminster, that after notice given, they "carefully keep in proper vessels all human urine throughout the year, and as much of that of beasts as can be saved." This appeared to fail; for at the end of the same year, the "stable" monarch proclaimed a return to the old method, giving a commission to the Duke of Buckingham, and some others, to ". . . . break open . . . . and work for saltpetre," as might be found requisite; and in 1634 a further proclamation was issued renewing the old ones, but excepting the houses, stables, &c. of persons of quality. During the Commonwealth the nuisance was finally got rid of; for an act was passed in 1656, directing that "none shall dig within the houses, &c. of any person without their leave first obtained. BROCTUNA. Bury,Lancashire. J.O. treats The Lord Coke, his Speech and Charge, with a Discoverie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers, 8vo. London: N.Butter, 1607, as a genuine document; but it is not so; and lest the error should gain ground, the following account of the book, from the Preface, by Lord Coke, to the seventh part of his Reports, is subjoined: "And little do I esteem an uncharitable and malicious practice in publishing of an erroneous and illspelled pamphlet under the name Pricket(*), and dedicating it to my singular good lord and father-in-law, The Earl of Exeter, as a charge given to the assizes holden at the city of Norwich, 4th August, 1606, which I protest was not only published without my privity, but (besides the omissions of divers principal matters) that there is no one period therein expressed in that sort and sense that I delivered: wherein it is worthy of observation, how their expectation (of scandalizing me) was wholy deceived; for behold the catastrophe! Such of the readers as were learned in the laws, finding not only gross errors and absurdities on laws, but palpable mistakings in the very words of art, and the whole context of that rude and ragged style wholly disonant (the subject being legal) from a lawyers dialect, concluded that inimiens et iniquus homo superseminavit zizania in medin tritici, the other discreet and indifferent readers, out of sense and reason, found out the same conclusion, both in respect of the vanity of the phrase, and for that I, publishing about the same time one of my commentaries, would, if I had intended the publication of any such matter, have done it myself, and not to have suffered any of my works pass under the name of Pricket; and so tinu vece conclamaverunt omnes, that it was a shameful and shameless practice, and the author thereof to be a wicked and malicious falsary." J.G. Exon. (*) No doubt the author of an ultra-Protestant poem entitled Times Anatomie, made by Robert Prickett, a Souldier. Imprinted, 1606. |
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