Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/315

1540.] —were to forfeit their security. An Act was passed for the better maintenance of the navy; and next, bringing inevitable ill-will with it to the unpopular minister, appeared the standard English grievance, a Money Bill. In the preceding session the Duke of Norfolk had laid before the Lords a statement of the extraordinary expenses which had been cast upon the Crown, and of the inadequacy of the revenue. Twelve months' notice had been given, that the Houses might consider at their leisure the demand which was likely to be made upon them. It appeared in a bill introduced on the 3rd of May, requiring a subsidy of four fifteenths and four tenths, the payments to be spread over a period of four years.

The occasion of a demand of money was always carefully stated; the preamble set forth that the country had prospered and had lived in wealth, comfort, and peace under the King, for thirty-one years. His Highness, in the wisdom which God had given him, had brought his subjects out of blindness and ignorance to the