Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/193

1546.] deliberation, ahd satisfied that so extreme a measure was justified by necessity, the council had applied for a temporary loan from the Mint, which would occasion a debasement of the currency. It was a proceeding not distinguishable, except in form, from the suspension of specie payments in 1797, and it was caused by a similar pressure. The effect was less immediately felt in the enhancement of prices, because at the earlier period the tariff of the necessaries of life was assessed by law, and the shilling, whatever was its purity, was for a time equally efficacious in the market. But artificial prices are, in their nature, incapable of being long maintained, and the evil of a depreciated currency was no mystery to the able ministers of Henry. The loan was accompanied with a definite engagement from the Lord Chancellor that it should be repaid at the earliest moment; and inevitable as the war had been at its outset, yet prudence and honesty alike recommended a return to peace when the credit of the country had been adequately maintained, without a further drain on its resources. Sir William Paget had been so earnest for the acceptance of the French offers, as to have displeased the King by his warmth; but he still persisted: 'No man living,' he wrote to Petre, 'taketh so much care as I do for the avoiding every manner of thing which might offend his Majesty; not for any servile fear, for