ssor. The subsidy which should have paid the crown debts had
gone as the opposition had foretold, and the country had been dragged
after all into the war so long dreaded and so much deprecated. The
forced loan of L100,000 had followed, and money was again wanted.

But ordinary occasions of discontent disappeared in the enormous
misfortune of the loss of Calais; or rather, the loss of Calais had so
humbled the nation in its own eyes, that it expected {p.306} to be
overrun with French armies in the approaching summer. The church had
thriven under Mary's munificence, but every other interest had been
recklessly sacrificed. The fortresses were without arms, the ships
were unfit for service, the coast was defenceless. The parliament
postponed their complaints till the national safety had been provided
for.

On the 26th, a committee, composed of thirty members of both houses,
met to consider the crisis.[633] "That no way or policy should be
undevised or not thought upon," they divided themselves into three
sub-committees; and after three days' separate consultation the thirty
met again, and agreed to recommend the heaviest subsidy which had been
ever granted to an English sovereign, equivalent in modern computation
to an income-tax of 20 per cent, for two years. If levied fairly such
a tax would have yielded a large return. Michele, the Venetian, says
that many London merchants were worth as much as L60,000 in money; the
graziers and the merchants had made fortunes while the people had
starved. But either from hatred of the government, or else from
meanness of disposition, the money-making classes generally could not
be expected to communicate the extent of their possessions. The
landowners, truly or falsely, declared that, "for the most part, they
received no more rent than they were wont to receive," "yet, paying
for everything, they provided thrice as much by reason of the baseness
of the money."[634] It was calculated that the annual proceeds of the
subsidy would be no more than L140,000;[635] and even this the House
of Commons declared that the country would not bear for more than one
year. They did not choose perhaps to leave the queen at liberty to
abuse their confidence by giving her the full grant to squander on the
clergy. They were unanimous that the country must and should be
defended. They admitted that the sum which they were ready to vote
would fall short of the indispensable outlay; nevertheless, when the
re