1. It was with visible reluctance that they voted the monthly tax of one
hundred and twenty thousand pounds for the support of the military and
naval establishments. They were, indeed, careful not to complain of the
amount; their objections were pointed against the nature of the tax, and
the inequality of the assessments;[1] but this pretext could not hide their
real object from the jealousy of their adversaries, and their leaders were
openly charged with seeking to reduce the number of the army, that they
might lessen the influence of the general.
2. From the collection of the taxes they proceeded to the administration of
the law. In almost every petition presented of late years to the supreme
authority of the nation, complaints had been made of the court of Chancery,
of its dilatory proceedings, of the enormous expense which it entailed on
its suitors, and of the suspicious nature of its decisions, so liable to be
influenced by the personal partialities and interests of
[Footnote 1: In some places men paid but two; in others, ten or twelve
shillings in the pound.--Exact Relation, 10. The assessments fell on the
owners, not on the tenants.--Thurloe, i. 755.]
the judge.[1] The long parliament had not ventured to grapple with the
subject; but this, the little parliament, went at once to the root of the
evil, and voted that the whole system should be abolished.
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