4]

* See note HH, at the end of the volume.

Elizabeth took care, by the mouth of Sir Thomas Egerton, lord keeper,
to inform this assembly of the necessity of a supply. She said, that the
wars formerly waged in Europe had commonly been conducted by the parties
without further view than to gain a few towns, or at most a province,
from each other; but the object of the present hostilities, on the part
of Spain, was no other than utterly to bereave England of her religion,
her liberty, and her independence: that these blessings, however, she
herself had hitherto been able to preserve, in spite of the devil, the
pope, and the Spanish tyrant, and all the mischievous designs of all her
enemies; that in this contest she had disbursed a sum triple to all the
parliamentary supplies granted her; and, besides expending her ordinary
revenues, had been obliged to sell many of the crown lands: and that she
could not doubt but her subjects, in a cause where their own honor and
interests were so deeply concerned, would willingly contribute to
such moderate taxations as should be found necessary for the common
defence.[*] The parliament granted her three subsidies and six
fifteenths; the same supply which had been given four years before, but
which had then appeared so unusual, that they had voted it should never
afterwards be regarded as a precedent.

The commons, this session, ventured to engage in two controversies about
forms with the house of peers; a prelude to those encroachments which,
as they assumed more courage, they afterwards made upon the prerogatives
of the crown. They complained, that the lords failed in civility to
them, by receiving their messages sitting with their hats on; and that
the keeper returned an answer in the same negligent posture: but the
upper house proved, to their full satisfaction, that they were
not entitled, by custom and the usage of parliament, to any more
respect.[**] Some amendments had been made by the lords to a bill sent
up by the commons; and these amendments were written on parchment, and
returned with the bill to the commons. The lower house took umbrage at
the novelty: they pretended that these amendments ought to have
been written on paper, not on parchment; and they complained of this
innovation to the peers. The peers replied that they expected not such
a frivolous objection from the gravity of the house; and that it was not
material, whether the amendments were written on parch