3. More, there ys two whole yeares charg_es_ be hinde vn payde, to the greate hinderaunce of the poore Artyfycers that wourke there. In so mvche that there be A greate parte of them that haue byn dryven to sell there billes or debentars for halfe that is dewe vnto them by the same.
4. More, yt hath broughte the offyce in suche dyscredet with those that dyd delyver wares into the offyce, that theye will delyuer yt in for A thirde parte more then it is woorthe, or ellce we can get no credet of them for the same, which thinge is A very greate hinderaunce to the Queenes ma_ies_tie and A greate discredet to those that be offecers in that place, which thinge for my parte I Ame very sory to see.
'For the Reuels. Matters to be redressed there.'
The documents are proposals for reform rather than statements of existing practice; but proposals for reform made by permanent officials are not generally very sweeping, and I think it may be taken that we get a pretty fair notion of the actual working of a Government department in the sixteenth century, not without certain hints of jealousies and disputes between the various officers as to their respective functions and privileges, which in those days as in these occasionally tended to interfere with the smooth working of the machine. The determination of these functions and privileges by regulation; the keeping of regular books, inventories, journals, and ledgers; the institution of a system of finance which would avoid the necessity of employing credit; the prohibition of the hiring-out of Revels stuff; these are amongst the improvements in organization which suggested themselves to practical men who were not in the least likely to suggest the transference of the duties of their own rather superfluous Office to the Office of Works or the Wardrobe. Both Buggin and Blagrave ask that the hands of the officers might be strengthened by a commission; that is, apparently, a warrant entitling them to enforce service on behalf of the Crown, such as the Master of the Children of the Chapel had to 'take up' singing-boys, and other departments of the Household, including probably the Tents, had for the purveyance of provisions and cartage. Probably the Revels had already enjoyed this authority upon special occasions. The _Account_ for the banqueting house of 1572 includes an item for 'flowers of all sortes taken up by comyssion and gathered in the feeldes'.[272] At the bottom of the documents there is a feeling that the weak point in the organization is the Mastership. The Master had to be a courtier, dancing attendance on the Queen and the Lord Chamberlain, and was likely to have the qualities and failings of a courtier; and then he came to the office, and gave instructions to people who knew their own business much better than he did.