ity of the Act for assessment of L90,000 per month
and the Act for sale of fee-farm rents. The security was not liked,
nevertheless the council nominated a committee to confer with parliament
as to the best means of raising the money.(950)

(M486)

Want of money was not the only difficulty that Cromwell had to contend
with. The levelling spirit which two years before had displayed itself in
the ranks of the army, and had ever since been fostered by speeches and
writings of the wrong-headed and impracticable John Lilburne, again
asserted itself. The troops refused to serve in Ireland. A mutiny broke
out at "The Bull," in Bishopsgate Street, the soldiers refusing to obey
their colonel's orders and seizing the regimental colours. An example had
to be made, so one of the ringleaders was shot in St. Paul's Churchyard.
Five others condemned to death were pardoned. The funeral of the
unfortunate man who was executed was made the occasion of a public
demonstration against parliament and the army,(951) and for some time
afterwards the Levellers continued to give trouble in different parts of
the country.

(M487)

Time was passing rapidly and yet the establishment of the Commonwealth
still remained unproclaimed in the city. On the 10th May Colonel Venn, one
of the city members, was ordered to enquire and report to the House as to
the cause of the delay.(952) At length, on the 30th May, the formal
proclamation was made by Andrews, the new mayor, assisted by twelve of his
brother aldermen(953) and by a _posse_ of troops which had to be sent for
to preserve order. "It was desired," wrote the secretary of the French
ambassador in England to Cardinal Mazarin, "that this act should be
effected in the ordinary form of a simple publication, without the mayor
and aldermen being supported by any soldiers, in order to show that no
violent means had been resorted to; but a crowd of people having gathered
around them with hootings and insults, compelled them to send for some
troops, who first drove away all bystanders, and thus they finished their
publication."(954) A man named Prior was arrested for attempted riot and
was sent by the mayor to the Council of State, by whom he was committed to
the gatehouse.(955)

(M488)

Two aldermen, Sir Thomas Soame and Richard Chambers, who had absented
themselves on the occasion, were called before the bar of the House (1
June) to answer for their conduct. Soame, who was himself a member of the
Ho