brought into port by the master and a few lads. The press gangs looked
for trained seamen, though when a war lasted for some years they took
what they could get; landsmen were impressed, and the press was
sometimes abused as a means of getting rid of a personal enemy, a rival
in love, or an inconvenient claimant. The system was expensive; it was
stated that from 4,000 to 5,000 seamen were employed on the business,
and that every pressed man who was found to be fit for sea cost the
nation L30. High bounties were offered, but they failed to entice men to
enter a service which the press might make practically continuous, and a
proposal for a limited term of service was rejected by the commons. The
supplies for the year amounted to L12,592,534. New taxes calculated to
yield L237,000 were laid on male servants, a guinea on each, stamps,
imported glass, auctioneers, and sales by auction; and the deficiency of
L5,500,000 was met by a loan, raised at 4 per cent., with a premium of
1/2 per cent. to meet the state of the stocks.

[Sidenote: _ARREARS OF THE CIVIL LIST._]

While war was thus increasing the burden of the nation, the king again
applied to parliament for payment of the arrears of the civil list,
amounting to L618,000. The ministers exhibited accounts which failed to
satisfy the opposition. Wilkes pointed out that payments since 1769 of
L171,000 and L114,000 for secret service were each noted in a single
line, and that there was a general charge of L438,000 for pensions. As
in 1769, the arrears must be traced to an expenditure which increased
the king's influence. Wilkes said this plainly, Burke in less broad
terms, and Fox taunted North with the pledge given when he was in office
in 1769 that no such demand should be made again. Besides money
deliberately spent in corruption, vast sums were wasted on abuses in the
royal household, on sinecures, and on other useless places of profit.
One of the king's turnspits was a member of the house of commons, and
paid L5 a year to a humble deputy, and no fewer than twenty-three
separate tables were kept up, eleven for the nurses. For such abuses
George was only partially responsible. Though he lived with a frugality
which was almost meanness, he was in dire distress for money; the wages
of his menial servants were six quarters in arrear, and he owed his
coal-merchant L6,000.[120] After much discussion the money was voted,
and the civil list was increased to L900,000 a year. In pr