Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/586

566 'Well, well,' as some one said, winding up his epitaph, 'Mortuus est, et sepultus est, et descendit ad inferos; let us say no more about him.'

To return to the Parliament. On the 23rd of October a bull of Paul IV., confirming the dispensation of Julius, was read in the House of Commons. On the 29th the Crown debts were alleged as a reason for demanding a subsidy. The Queen had been prevented from indulging her desire for a standing army. The waste and peculation of the late reign had been put an end to; and the embarrassments of the treasury were not of her creation. Nevertheless the change in social habits, and the alteration in the value of money, had prevented the reduction of the expenditure from being carried to the extent which had been contemplated; the marriage had been in many ways costly, and large sums had been spent in restoring plundered Church plate. So great had been the difficulties of the treasury, that, although fresh loans had been contracted with the Jews, the wages of the household were again two years in arrear.

Parliament showed no disposition to be illiberal; they only desired to be satisfied that if they gave money it would be applied to the purpose for which it was demanded. The Subsidy Bill, when first introduced, was opposed in the House of Commons on the ground that the Queen would give the keys of the treasury to her