stake.

This violence (for such it really was) fell chiefly on the commercial
part of the nation, who were possessed of the ready money. London
alone contributed to the amount of near ten thousand pounds. Archbishop
Morton, the chancellor, instructed the commissioners to employ a
dilemma, in which every one might be comprehended: if the persons
applied to lived frugally, they were told that their parsimony must
necessarily have enriched them; if their method of living were splendid
and hospitable, they were concluded to be opulent on account of their
expenses. This device was by some called Chancellor Morton's fork, by
others his crutch.

So little apprehensive was the king of a parliament on account of his
levying this arbitrary imposition, that he soon after summoned that
assembly to meet at Westminster; and he even expected to enrich himself
further by working on their passions and prejudices. He knew the
displeasure which the English had conceived against France on account of
the acquisition of Brittany; and he took care to insist on that topic,
in the speech which he himself pronounced to the parliament. He told
them, that France, elated with her late successes, had even proceeded to
a contempt of England, and had refused to pay the tribute which Lewis XI
had stipulated to Edward IV.: that it became so warlike a nation as
the English to be roused by this indignity, and not to limit their
pretensions merely to repelling the present injury: that, for his part,
he was determined to lay claim to the crown itself of France, and to
maintain by force of arms so just a title, transmitted to him by his
gallant ancestors: that Crecy, Poictiers, and Azincour were sufficient
to instruct them in their superiority over the enemy; nor did he despair
of adding new names to the glorious catalogue; that a king of France
had been prisoner in London, and a king of England had been crowned at
Paris; events which should animate them to an emulation of like glory
with that which had been enjoyed by their forefathers: that the domestic
dissensions of England had been the sole cause of her losing these
foreign dominions; and her present internal union would be the effectual
means of recovering them: that where such lasting honor was in view, and
such an important acquisition, it became not brave men to repine at the
advance of a little treasure: and that, for his part, he was determined
to make the war maintain itself; and hoped by the in