author having remarked:--"Il nest an Jour Duy nulle chose qui tant
grieue Rome ne ytalie com~e fait le college Des notaires publiques Car
ilz ne sont mie en accort ensemble"--Caxton improves the passage thus:--

"For ther is no thynge at this day that so moche greueth rome and
Italye as doth the college of notaries and aduocates publicque. For
they ben not of oon a corde/ Alas and in Engeland what hurte doon the
aduocats. men of law. And attorneyes of court to the comyn peple of
y'e royame as well in the spirituell lawe as in the temporall/ how
torne they the lawe and statutes at their pleasir/ how ete they the
peple/ how enpouere they the comynte/ I suppose that in alle
Cristendom ar not so many pletars attorneys and men of the lawe as
ben in englond onely/ for yf they were nombrid all that lange to the
courtes of the channcery kinges benche. comyn place. cheker. ressayt
and helle And the bagge berars of the same/ hit shold amounte to a
grete multitude And how alle thyse lyue & of whome. yf hit shold be
vttrid & told/ hit shold not be beleuyd. For they entende to theyr
synguler wele and prouffyt and not to the comyn/"

Another addition is the brief passage in the first chapter of the fourth
tract in which the "good old times" are lamented and contrasted with the
decadence of the then present--now the four centuries past.

"Alas what haboundance was some tymes in the royames. And what
prosþite/ In whiche was Iustice/ And euery man in his office
contente/ how stood the cytees that tyme in worship and renome/ how
was renomed the noble royame of Englond Alle the world dredde hit And
spack worship of hit/ how hit now standeth and in what haboundance I
reporte me to them that knowe hit yf ther ben theeuis wyth in the
royame or on the see/ they knowe that laboure in the royame And sayle