ly; for though the money
had been regularly repaid, which was seldom the case,[*] it lay in the
prince's hands without interest, which was a sensible loss to the
persons from whom the money was borrowed.[**]

There remains a proposal, made by Lord Burleigh, for levying a general
loan on the people, equivalent to a subsidy;[***] a scheme which would
have laid the burden more equally, but which was, in different words, a
taxation imposed without consent of parliament. It is remarkable, that
the scheme thus proposed, without any visible necessity, by that wise
minister, is the very same which Henry VIII. executed, and which
Charles I., enraged by ill usage from his parliament, and reduced to
the greatest difficulties, put afterwards in practice, to the great
discontent of the nation.

The demand of benevolence was another invention of that age for taxing
the people. This practice was so little conceived to be irregular, that
the commons in 1585 offered the queen a benevolence; which she very
generously refused, as having no occasion at that time for money.[****]
Queen Mary, also, by an order of council, increased the customs in some
branches; and her sister imitated the example.[v] There was a species
of ship money imposed at the time of the Spanish invasion: the several
ports were required to equip a certain number of vessels at their own
charge: and such was the alacrity of the people for the public defence,
that some of the ports, particularly London, sent double the number
demanded of them.[v*]

* Bacon, vol. iv. p. 362.

** In the second of Richard II., it was enacted that in
loans which the king shall require of his subjects, upon
letters of privy seal, such as have "reasonable" excuse of
not lending, may there be received without further summons,
travel, or grief. See Cotton's Abridg. p. 170. By this law,
the king's prerogative of exacting loans was ratified; and
what ought to be deemed a "reasonable" excuse was still left
in his own breast to determine.

*** Haynes, p. 518, 519.

**** D'Ewes, p. 494.

v Bacon, vol. iv p. 362.

v* Monson, p 267.

When any levies were made for Ireland, France, or the Low Countries, the
queen obliged the counties to levy the soldiers, to arm and clothe them,
and carry them to the seaports at their own charge. New-year's gifts
were at that time expected from the nobility, and from the more
considerable gentry