on of Indulgence which Charles, who was
beginning to show signs of favouring the Roman Church, had by a stretch of
prerogative recently caused to be issued, and (2) the passing of a Test
Act which should bind all public officers to take the oaths of supremacy
and allegiance, receive the sacrament, and abjure the doctrine of
transubstantiation. By this means parliament hoped to maintain the
supremacy of the Church.

(M703)

The assessments which the City was now called upon to pay were far beyond
its powers, seeing that many merchants and traders who had left the city
at the time of the Plague and Fire refused to return, preferring to live
in the suburbs, and thus a large number of the houses that had recently
been re-built were left unoccupied. Every exertion was made to get some
remission of the burden, but although the king signified his intention of
making some abatement, little appears to have been done.(1393)

(M704)

In March of this year (1673) an individual named Philip De Cardonel came
forward with a scheme for raising money by way of annuities to be granted
by the city to every subscriber of L20 or more.(1394) The matter was in
the first instance brought before the Court of Aldermen, who, upon
consideration, declared that the proposal appeared to them "very faire and
reasonable, and in all likelihood of very great advantage to the city,"
and forthwith resolved themselves into a committee of the whole court to
treat with Cardonel and take such further proceedings as might be thought
requisite.(1395) In the following month (11 April) the same proposals were
submitted to the Common Council, where they met with similar favour. The
court also appointed a committee to take them into further consideration,
promising in the meantime that no advantage should be taken or benefit
derived from the scheme without the special leave and consent of the
proposer.(1396) Although the committee reported favourably on the
scheme(1397) it was allowed to drop.

(M705)

By February of the next year (1674) trade had become so bad that a number
of the inhabitants of the city petitioned the Common Council (13 Feb.) to
seek some relief from parliament. An address was accordingly drawn up,
setting forth the miserable state to which the city had been reduced by
the ravages of the plague and the fire, the increase of new buildings in
the suburbs, which not only injured the trade of the city, but afforded a
retreat for disorderly pers