e done? It was only a choice of difficulties between the
disorder and the remedy. At the moment, the duke got up what he called
"The council of the sea;" was punctual at its first meeting, and
appointed three days in a week to sit--but broke his appointment the
second day--they found him always otherwise engaged; and "the council of
the sea" turned out to be one of those shadowy expedients which only
lasts while it acts on the imagination. It is said that thirty thousand
pounds would have quieted these disorganised troops; but the exchequer
could not supply so mean a sum. Buckingham in despair, and profuse of
life, was planning a fresh expedition for the siege of Rochelle; a new
army was required. He swore, "if there was money in the kingdom it
should be had!"

Now began that series of contrivances, and artifices, and persecutions
to levy money. Forced loans, or pretended free-gifts, kindled a
resisting spirit. It was urged by the court party, that the sums
required were, in fact, much less in amount than the usual grants of
subsidies; but the cry, in return for "a subsidy," was always "a
Parliament!" Many were heavily fined for declaring that "they knew no
law, besides that of Parliament, to compel men to give away their own
goods." The king ordered that those who would not subscribe to the loans
should not be forced; but it seems there were orders in council to
specify those householders' names who would not subscribe; and it
further appears that those who would not pay in purse should in person.
Those who were pressed were sent to the _depot_; but either the soldiers
would not receive these good citizens, or they found easy means to
return. Every mode which the government invented seems to have been
easily frustrated, either by the intrepidity of the parties themselves,
or by that general understanding which enabled the people to play into
one another's hands. When the common council had consented that an
imposition should be laid, the citizens called the Guildhall the
_Yield-all_! And whenever they levied a distress, in consequence of a
refusal to pay it, nothing was to be found but "Old ends, such as nobody
cared for." Or if a severer officer seized on commodities, it was in
vain to offer pennyworths where no customer was to be had. A wealthy
merchant, who had formerly been a cheesemonger, was summoned to appear
before the privy council, and required to lend the king two hundred
pounds, or else to go himself to the