ard still brought back the
grievance upon them, though contrary both to the Great Charter and to
many statutes. This disorder was in a great measure derived from the
state of the public finances, and of the kingdom; and could therefore
the less admit of remedy. The prince frequently wanted ready money; yet
his family must be subsisted: he was therefore obliged to employ force
and violence for that purpose, and to give tallies, at what rate he
pleased, to the owners of the goods which he laid hold of. The kingdom
also abounded so little in commodities, and the interior communication
was so imperfect, that had the owners been strictly protected by law,
they could easily have exacted any price from the king; especially in
his frequent progresses, when he came to distant and poor places, where
the court did not usually reside, and where a regular plan for supplying
it could not be easily established. Not only the king, but several
great lords, insisted upon this right of purveyance within certain
districts.[****]

The magnificent Castle of Windsor was built by Edward III., and his
method of conducting the work may serve as a specimen of the condition
of the people in that age. Instead of engaging workmen by contracts and
wages, he assessed every county in England to send him a certain
number of masons, tilers, and carpenters, as if he had been levying an
army.[*****]

They mistake, indeed, very much the genius of this reign, who imagine
that it was not extremely arbitrary. All the high prerogatives of the
crown were to the full exerted in it; but what gave some consolation,
and promised in time some relief to the people, they were always
complained of by the commons: such as the dispensing power;[******]
the extension of the forests;[*******] erecting monopolies;[********]
exacting loans--[*********]

* 36 Edward III. etc.

** 14 Edward III. cap. 19.

*** 36 Edward III. cap. 2.

**** 7 Richard II. cap. 8.

***** Ashmole's Hist, of the Garter, p. 129.

***** Cotton's Abridg. p. 148.

****** Cotton's Abridg. p. 71.

******* Cotton's Abridg. p. 56, 61, 122.

******** Rymer, vol. v. p. 491, 574. Cotton's Abridg. p. 56.

--stopping justice by particular warrants;[*] the renewal of the
commission of "trailbaton;"[**] pressing men and ships into the public
service;[***] levying arbitrary and exorbitant fines;[****] extending
the authority of the privy council or star-c