polies, under pretext of granting patents for new inventions. Not only falt, foap, leather, and other useful articles, were put under harsh restrictions; but grants were made out for gauging red herrings, for marking butter cafks, and for gathering rags. The king, afraid of the confequences, or afhamed of having adopted fuch ridiculous expedients for raifing money, abolished about thirty of thefe deftructive patents, when he undertook the first expedition against Scotland; but the people were not fatisfied with a partial conceffion, and the long parliament had no fooner affembled, than it annulled all the remaining monopolies; and as a proof how much they detefted fo illegal a meafure, expelled at once fuch of its members as were at all concerned in them. Loans of all kinds were extorted, and those who refifted the demands of the monarch were punished by imprisonment, or by the more ruinous method of having foldiers illegally quartered on them; and the ill-advised and illfated prince, went fo far as to attempt raising money by commiffioners appointed by himself, and independent of parliament. Although the fpirit of the Houfe of Commons obliged him to cancel this commiffion, yet many arbitrary measures were purfued; large fees were annexed to new invented offices; every county was obliged to maintain a mufter-mafter, appointed by the crown, for exercifing the militia. The vintners were driven, by the terrors of fines and profecutions, to fubmit to an illegal impofition on all the wine they retailed; an ancient duty for furnishing the foldiery with coat and conduct money, which had long been abolished, was revived; it was intended to coin bafe money, and to circulate it by proclamation. Heavy fines were alfo impofed in the ftar-chamber, and high commiflion courts; Sir David Fowles was amerced in 500cl., for diffuading a friend from compounding with the commiffioners of knighthood; thirty thoufand pounds were exacted from those who had trefpaffed on an obfolete law, against converting arable land into pafture; encroachments on the king's forefts were punifhed in a fimilar manner; proclamations were iffued, commanding the nobility and gentry to retire to their country feats, and not spend their time idly in London, and if convicted of tranfgreffing this arbitrary regulation, they were feverely mulcted in the ftar-chamber: it was contended, that proclamations had equal authority with laws; and fuch as ventured to difobey them, where heavily fined, and, in fome inftances, condemned to the pillory. Another expedient, though fanctioned by law and the practice of remote times, was not lefs, nor lefs juftly, odious; it was that of compelling all who poffeffed 40/. a-year in land to receive knighthood, or pay a heavy compofition. If no other reafon could have been

alleged

alleged against this proceeding, the altered value of money fince the reign of Henry VI. when the rate was fixed, would alone have made it an intolerable hardfhip on those whofe eftates barely amounted to, or little exceeded 40l. a-year.

But all these measures, and all the evil intentions imputed to the unfortunate king, although they well justified a strenuous parliamentary oppofition, afforded no excufes for the atrocious act which terminated his days. The principles of defpotifm came to him by direct inheritance, and his predeceffors on the throne had avowed and acted on them to a greater extent, without the fame or fimilar motives. They had not to encounter in parliament a factious and obftinate oppofition, but found their behefts received with proftrate reverence: they were not fettered by the continual efforts of the legislature, to restrain the exercife of prerogative, but ftatutes of moft pofitive prohibition were difpenfed with to gratify the wants, or defires of the fovereign. It was furely time that the representatives of the nation fhould be raised from this abject ftate, but a vigorous parliamentary oppofition would have been fully fufficient to effect the purpose, especially when the voice of the whole people, raised in behalf of their deareft intereft, could be brought to fupport those who made exertions in their favour. Parliament could not complain that they wanted fufficient power, when they could procure the abolition of the court of chivalry and the ftar-chamber, and could obtain the recognition of the famous petition of right, which declared that "no gift, loan, "benevolence, tax, or fuch like charge fhould be exacted with"out common confent by act of parliament." Nor was it neceffary that the wants of the king should remain unsupplied, unless he were at liberty to opprefs the fubject: an honeft application to the true principles of finance would have indicated many means of raifing money from the increafing luxuries of the times, a fpecimen of which was given in the tax now firft impofed on cards. And it fhould not be forgotten in speaking of this unhappy king, that his total income, including all that was produced by ship money, and other illegal means, did not in years of war amount to 900,000/., of which more than 200,000l. were raised by the devices which parliament so much reprobated, but which a decent liberality on their part would have rendered unneceffary.

INTERREGNUM. The period termed the Interregnum, or Commonwealth, will be ever memorable in the annals of finance; in the first place, as having furnifhed most of the permanent modes of taxation now in ufe, and in the next, as difproving, by irrefiftible experience, the faying attributed to Milton, that the trappings of monarchy would defray all the

charges

charges of an ordinary republic. The time in which the property of the people of England was fubject to the difpofal of an authority exclufive of the lords and of the crown, may be confidered as commencing with the feffions of the long parliament they voted fix fubfidies and a poll-tax, for the purpofe of disbanding the armies; but the product was confided to the management of parliamentary commiffioners, and not, as formerly, paid into the treafury. When hoftilities against the king were confidered neceffary, voluntary contributions produced incredible fums; the plate of almoft every inhabitant in London was brought in, to be coined for fupport of the army; no article, however mean, no ornament, however valuable, was fpared; even the thimbles and bodkins of the women were not withheld.

When these ceafed to be productive, the parliament levied affeffments on perfonal and landed property. These assessments varied, according to the exigencies of the times, from 35,000l. to 120,000 a month. They were found fo productive, and in every respect fo much fuperior to the ancient mode of fubfidies, that under the denomination of a land-tax, they have fince formed a confiderable branch of the public revenue.

To recruit the armies, every perfon was obliged to retrench a meal in a week, and pay the amount into the treasury; and this strange tax produced for fix years 100,000l. a-year.

To the long parliament we owe the establishment of the excife, the plan originating, as is fuppofed, with the famous Pym. It was at first laid on liquors only; and it was folemnly declared, that at the end of the war all excifes fhould be abolished; but the conteft continuing longer than was expected, this obnoxious mode of levying money was extended to bread, meat, falt, and many other neceffary articles. The excife on bread and meat was afterward repealed.

In the time of the Commonwealth, confiderable additions were made to the revenue of the customs by the duties on coals and currants. Four fhillings a chaldron on coals levied at Newcaftle, brought in about 50,000l. The customs and excife, notwithstanding the deftruction with which civil wars are neceffarily accompanied, had become fo productive, that Cromwell, in 1657, was offered 1,100,000l. a-year for a leafe of both the branches.

The poft office, as already has been mentioned, began now to be a fource of revenue; all the feudal prerogatives of the crown, except the odious one of purveyance, were exercised with rigour, licences for inns and ale-houses, the profits of which had been claimed by James I. as a monopoly, but wrefted from him by parliament, were made a fource of revenue;

the

the fequeftration of the income of fome public offices yielded a large fupply; the lands and chattels of the crown were fold, though at a low rate; all ecclefiaftical property including even glebe lands was in a fimilar manner difpofed of; the tythes were fequeftered for the public ufe; the royalifts were either put to death and their eflates confifcated, or obliged to pay heavy ranfoms, and even perfons fufpected of attachment to that party were termed malignants; and under colour of this crime, it is faid that one half of the real and perfonal property in the kingdom was fold and fequeftrated. Under fo military and tyrannical a government, a variety of oppreflive exactions must neceffarily have taken place. Among many others, that of free quarter was particularly complained of. The foldiers were billetted on private houses; paid nothing for their maintenance; were fpies on the actions of thofe upon whom they were quartered; and though guilty of the most shocking abuses, their crimes were only fubject to the cognizance of their own officers; no civil court, or magiftrate, daring to interfere. But when Cromwell affumed the government of the ftate, a general fyftem of oppreffion was for fome time put in practice. The whole kingdom was divided into twelve districts, each of which was intrufted to the care of a major general, who was empowered to levy any tax the Protector thought proper to impofe. An edict was iffued, commanding the exaction of the tenth penny from all the royal party; and this oppreffive tax, known by the name of decimation, Cromwell's military fubftitutes very rigorously enforced. The whole country was expofed to their extortions; hardly any diftinction was made; nor were the firmeft friends to the exifting government always exempted.

By an authentic document it appears that in the period of nineteen years which clapfed from the meeting of the long parliament till the restoration, 83,331,1987. were raised, making an average of 4,385,850l. per annum. But fuppofing all that was poffeffed and fold by government to be public property, and confidering at what rate it was fold, and how much was given away to gratify beggarly intriguers, and embezzled by unprincipled agents, it must be evident that the nation was plundered to an infinitely greater amount. It is not neceffary nor defirable here to particularize all the means ufed to convert to private advantage this immenfe revenue. The neceffary and honourable expences of government, befides the civil administration, were incurred in the fuppreffion of hoftile movements in Ireland and Scotland, in the wars with Holland and Spain, to which may be added the fums expended for fecret intelligence, in which the Protector was moit wifely liberal. Large however as were the fums extorted from the nation, the

army

army and navy were in mifery through the non-payment of arrears, and Cromwell died 2,274,2907. in debt. Such was the faving effected by a government, established on the ruins of one which coft at the utmost 900,000l. year.

RESTORATION. The reftoration fo ardently and reasonably defired by the people at large, was not fuddenly productive of all the good effects which were expected. The national expences were confiderably reduced, but ftill contentions were. perpetually maintained between the wants of a thoughtless, extravagant monarch, and the jealoufies of a parfimonious parliament. The reign of Charles II. firft exhibited the formation of a regular peace eftablishment, or a provifion, even in times of peace, for the national protection and defence: whence have permanent naval, military, and ordnance expences. In Charles's reign, the navy required large fums annually expended to counterbalance the force maintained by Holland, and that which Lewis XIV. was fo affiduously employed in creating; a regular army in time of peace was alfo now for the first time maintained, and although it never exceeded 8000 men, and was sometimes as low as 4000, the public felt much jealousy and alarm, and the Houfe of Commons pronounced it contrary to law; the ordnance was alfo a charge on government, but very moderate in comparison with that of fucceeding times. The civil lift expences amounted to 462,115/., and the geral expenditure was within 1,200,0007., the fum which parliament had first voted, but which was never fully made up. There were befides many incidental expences, arifing from the neceffity of replacing the property of the crown alienated by the republicans, the debts contracted by the late king during the civil war, and by Charles II. during his refidence on the continent and a still larger debt was due to thofe loyal individuals who had sustained fuch cruel loffes by their unexampled firmnefs in adhering to the royal caufe, but this was never satisfactorily discharged. The disbanding of Cromwell's army was attended with much expence in paying their arrears, and Charles, who had learnt during his exile, the value of fuch a fine military body, yielded with regret to the prudent advice of Lord Clarendon, in omitting to retain it in his fervice. The garrifon of Tangiers, the dowry received with Catharine of Portugal, was for fome time a fource of great expence; as were thé wars which arofe in the course of the reign. To these must be added the profufeness of Charles himself, a quality which obfcur ed the excellent talents he was allowed to poffefs; and deprived his character of every pretence to virtue or patriotifm. This propenfity was checked during the latter part of his life, with a vigour which demonstrated that his previous errors had arisen VOL. II. only

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