Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/142

122 downwards, had vied with each other in the race of rapacity, were not forthcoming and in order, they were to be proceeded against without mercy.

The sale of chantry lands was expected to yield 40,000l.; the surrendered lands of the bishopric of Worcester would produce 5000l. more; the church plate and linen 20,000l.; the confiscated estates of the late fraudulent Master of the Rolls, and of Sir Thomas Arundel, who had been executed as an accomplice in Somerset's conspiracy, with a fine inflicted on Lord Paget for the same cause, were estimated at 25,000l., 'or thereabouts;' from 90,000l. to 100,000l. might be expected from the remaining commissions, could those commissions be enforced. But setting aside the injustice of calling suddenly for the accounts of twenty years, when the disorders had been so universal and the example of the ruling powers so flagrantly bad, the conduct of Northumberland and Northumberland's friends could bear inspection as little as any man's. Another large sum of 40,000l. might be looked for from the sale of the estates of the See of Durham, which was about to be suppressed; but these estates Northumberland designed for himself, and obtained a grant of them; and as he now really intended to pay off the Crown debts —as, in fact, he was supplying, and intended to continue to supply, the 1200l. weekly for which Gresham