at he would revive the rights of the Parliament.
But in this respect he followed the example of the house of York. He
too imposed Benevolences, like Edward IV, and that to a yet greater
extent; he made an ordinance that what was voluntarily promised should
be exacted with as much strictness as if it were an ordinary tax.
Another source of financial gain, which has brought on him still worse
reproaches, was his commission against infractions of the law. It was
inevitable that in the fluctuation of authority and of the statutes
themselves innumerable illegalities should have taken place. And they
were still always going on. The King took it especially ill that men
omitted to pay the dues which belonged to the crown in right of its
feudal superiority. All these negligences and failures were now
visited and punished with the severity of the old Norman system, and
at the same time with the officiousness of party-men of the day, who
saw their own advantage in it. This proceeding pressed very many
heavily on private persons and communities, and ruined families, but
it filled the King's coffers. One of his maxims was that his laws
should not be broken under any circumstances, another that a sovereign
who would enjoy consideration must always have money: in this instance
both worked together.

If we look at the lists of his receipts we find that they consist, as
in other kingdoms, of the crown's revenue proper, which was
considerably increased by the escheated possessions of great families
which had become extinct, the customs duties settled on him for life,
the tenth from the clergy, and the feudal dues. It was estimated that
they produced nearly the same revenue as that of the French kings at
this time, but it was remarked that the King of England only spent
about two-thirds of his income. He did not need a Parliamentary grant,
especially as he kept out of dangerous foreign entanglements. In his
last thirteen years he never once called a Parliament.

This precisely corresponded to the idea of his government. After all
had become doubtful owing to the alternate fluctuations of parties he
had established his personal claim by the fortune of arms, and made it
the central point of his government. Was he to allow it to be again
endangered by the ceaseless ebb and flow of popular opinion? He
founded a supreme court independent of popular agitation, a finance
system independent of the grants of a popular assembly.

But he thus fou