Page:Landholding in England.djvu/98

 and Guolphango Rohlingero, and he could not even pay the interest. Sir Thomas Gresham was in Antwerp, taking up money wherever he could. There were attempts at retrenchment: on the Lord Privy Seal's pensioners, on discharging the Admiralty, giving up certain bulwarks by the sea, now thought "superfluous," discharging men in Ireland, at Berwick, and at Guisnes ; taking advantage of the forfeitures of the merchants of the Steelyard, reviving old statutes fallen into desuetude, and enforcing fines from the unwary—as in the good old times of Henrv VII. of course the King got a subsidy, "to defend the English robbed by the French"; but in December and January, 1551-1552, money was raised by the old obnoxious and unconstitutional method of Commission—that is, taking it without asking. Tonnage and poundage had been granted to Edward for his life—a thing never done before. The clappers of the church bells had been taken away after the insurrections, that the bells might not be rung to call the people together. The bells themselves were now torn out of the towers and steeples, and sold for bell metal.

And all through the reign prices were high. There was a "dearth," which seems to have meant only a "dearness," for it is not attributed to bad harvests, but to artificial causes, regrating, etc. What wars and civil commotions had not done, the greed of the upper classes had brought about. A great mass of poverty, too vast to cope with, was turned loose on England, and the condition of the poorer classes has not recovered from the effects to this day.

Edward VI.'s Primer of 1552 has some curious prayers—for Rich men, that they may give cheerfully; for "Poor People," that they may "by no means envy, murmur, or grudge "at the rich, but be "like that Lazarus of whom we read," who chose to die patiently rather than get any man's goods "unjustly or by force"; and for Landlords.