a
similar Act being passed.(304)

(M119)

The disastrous expedition to Cadiz increased the necessity of summoning a
new parliament, and on the 16th December the lord keeper was directed to
issue the necessary writs. The enforcement of the recusancy laws, wrung
from Charles by the last parliament, had in the meantime been carried out,
and fresh proclamations were issued as the day for the meeting of
parliament (6 Feb.) approached.(305) As soon as the Commons assembled they
chose Sir Heneage Finch, the city's Recorder, for their Speaker.(306) The
new parliament was not a whit more inclined to subject its ancient
privileges to the control of the Crown than its predecessor had been.
Buckingham himself, the king's bosom friend and most trusted adviser, was
impeached; and the Commons declined to vote supplies until they had
presented their grievances to the king and received his majesty's answer.
This was more than Charles could stand. He summoned them to Whitehall and
commanded them to cancel the condition. He would give them "liberty of
counsel, not of control." To the urgent entreaty of the Peers that he
would grant a short respite he replied, "Not a minute," and on the 15th
June the parliament of 1626 was dissolved.(307)

(M120)

If the war was to go on it was necessary that money should be found with
or without parliament. Application was made to the City by the lords of
the council, at first verbally, afterwards by letter, for a loan of
L100,000, and a deputation was ordered to wait upon the king at Greenwich
on Sunday, the 25th June, with the City's answer.(308) The answer given
was to the effect that the City was unable to advance the sum required,
and it occasioned no little disappointment to the king, who referred the
matter back to the mayor and aldermen once more. It was not that Charles
had not offered sufficient security for the loan. The money could not be
raised. At length it was agreed (30 June) at another special court that
the aldermen themselves should advance the sum of L20,000 for one year on
the security of the petty customs.(309) In such haste was this trifling
sum required, in order to guard the coast against a rumoured attack from
Spain, that the mayor and aldermen were requested by the lords of the
council to part with the money before the exchequer tallies could be made
out.(310)

(M121)

Not only was money wanted, but men and ships. A demand made on the 15th
July by the lords of the counci