--Journals, vi. 372.] they were careful
to pay into the treasury the price of the meal from which they had
abstained. If others would not fast, it was at least possible to make them
pay; and commissioners were appointed by ordinance to go through the city,
to rate every housekeeper at the price of one meal for his family, and to
collect the money on every Tuesday during the next six months. By these
expedients the two houses contrived to carry on the war, though their
pecuniary embarrassments were continually multiplied by the growing
accumulation of their debts, and the unavoidable increase of their
expenditure.[1] With respect to the king, his first resource was in the
sale of his plate and jewels, his next in the generous devotion of his
adherents, many of whom served him during the whole war at their own cost,
and, rather than become a burthen to their sovereign, mortgaged their last
acre, and left themselves and their families without the means of future
subsistence. As soon as he had set up his standard, he solicited loans from
his friends, pledging his word to requite their promptitude, and allotting
certain portions of the crown lands for their repayment--a very precarious
security as long as the issue of the contest should remain uncertain.
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