'The benevo

was strictly enforced in many cases. lence goes on,' writes mr. Mead to sir Martin Stuteville, in February, 1622. A merchant of London who had been a cheesemonger, but now rich, was sent for by the council, and required to give the king 200l., or go into the Palatinate and serve the army with cheese, being a man of eighty years of age. He yielded rather to pay, though he might better have given nine subsidies according as he stands valued. This was told me by one that heard it from his own mouth.'1

But this form of exaction and the cognate exactions of forced loans were eventually suppressed, in the next reign, by the Petition of Right, to which king Charles gave his assent in March, 1627, in the following terms:

That no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax or such-like charge, without common consent by Act of parliament; and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or give attendance, or be confined or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same, or for refusal thereof.'

2. Monopolies.

The question of monopolies raised in 1621. The statute against monopolies in 1624. Noy's project of soap in 1637. Culpepper's observations on the monopolists in 1640.

The monopolies that caused so much debate in the third parliament of king James were the patent for patent for gold

inns, the patent for alehouses, and the

and silver thread, which was opposed by the goldsmiths; and in the fourth parliament of the king, a statute was passed to restrict the grant of monopolies to patents for fourteen years and no more, for newinvented manufactures and arts never practised before and not mischievous to the state. A patent to sir Robert Maunsell for the manufacture of glass was excepted, and another to Edward lord Digby for smelting iron with coal, and also all charters granted or to be granted to towns or public companies. It was under cover of this last exemption that Noy's famous corporation of soap boilers was formed, in evasion of the statute, by means of which it was hoped that king Charles would be able to derive, in effect, a tax upon soft soap made in the kingdom.1 But numerous other monopolies were granted by the king under various pretexts; so that in his attack on the monopolists, in the long parliament, in November, 1640, Culpepper, could say: These men, like the frogs of Egypt, have gotten possession of our dwellings, and we have scarce a room free from them. They sup in our cup, they dip in our dish, they sit by our fire; we find them in the dye-vat, the wash-bowls, and the powdering-tub ; they share with the butler in his box; they have marked and scaled us from head to foot. They have a vizard to hide the brand made by that good law in

The corporation of soap boilers paid a duty of 87. per ton on all soap manufactured, in addition to the 10,000l. for their patent. Foedera, xix. 92, 381. As to the attempts made to 'hinder the king's good intentions' in this matter of soap, and his rigorous measures for enforcing his intentions, see a proclamation for the well ordering of the making of soft soap, and for the settling the price thereof.' Foedera, xix. 566.

the last parliament of king James; they shelter themselves under the name of a corporation; they make bye-laws which serve their turns to squeeze us and fill their purses."

1

3. The Tariff of Honors.

Copied from the measures of Sully in France. Creation of the new ord of baronets. The price of other titles.

A considerable sum of money in the whole was derived by king James from the sale of honors and dignities, a method of obtaining revenue copied from the measures taken in France by Sully, the famous minister of Henri IV. The charge best known is that for admission into the order of baronets, a new hereditary knighthood created by the king. The price was fixed at the amount of the 'maintenance of thirty foot soldiers for three years, at 8d. a day each,' to assist the king's troops in the reduction of Ulster, in Ireland, that is to say, 1,0957. The price for a barony was fixed at 10,000.; that for a viscounty, at 15,000l.; and that for an earldom, at 20,000l. It must not be assumed that these titles could be bought at random; purchasers were required to be of sufficient position to maintain the dignity granted to them.

1 Rushworth, iv. 33.

2 Clamageran, L'impôt en France, vol. ii. Book iii. cap. 1. It was probably also in imitation of the tax on cards in France that, in 1631, an office was established for sealing packs of playing cards, to which the master and wardens of the company of makers of playing cards sent, in pursuance of a contract made with the king, a certain number of packs of cards weekly. A similar contract was made with the company of dicemakers. The imposts were farmed; and the packs of cards and dice were required to be sealed and stamped. Rushworth, ii. 103; Foedera, xx 145.

APPENDICES.

No. I.

THE ORDINANCE OF THE SALADIN TITHE, 1188.

LATIN TEXT.

No. II.

SOME PARTICULARS OF THE SCHEDULES OF ASSESSMENT FOR THE TAXES ON MOVEABLES.

COLCHESTER, 1295 AND 1301.

No. III.

FORM OF ORDINANCE FOR THE TENTH AND SIXTH, GRANTED IN 1322.

No. IV.

THE SHIP-WRITS. PARTICULARS OF A WRIT, OF THE SECOND ISSUE, 1635, FOR DORSETSHIRE, TO SHOW THE FORM OF THESE WRITS.

No. V.

THE SHIP WRITS. DISTRIBUTION OF SHIPS TO THE

SEVERAL COUNTIES.