Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/147

] to repeat the very conduct which parliament had so strongly condemned, and which must render its meeting the more formidable. He required one hundred and seventy-three thousand four hundred and eleven pounds for the outfit of the expedition to Rochelle, and instead of waiting a grant from parliament, Charles ordered the money to be raised by a commission from the counties, and that within three weeks. With that irritating habit which he had inherited from his father, he added a menace, saying that if they paid this tax cheerfully, he would meet his parliament, if not, "he would think of some more speedy way"



Conduct so reckless and insulting on the very eve of the opening of parliament, raised the wildest ferment in the public: the commissioners shrank in terror from their task, and Charles hastened to revoke the commission, saying