memorial. Charles acceded.
Afterward, when Charles spoke to him about the monument, the treasurer
replied, What would the world say if your majesty were to build a
monument to the Duke before you erect one for your father? So the plan
was abandoned, and Buckingham had no other monument than the universal
detestation of his countrymen.

CHAPTER V.

THE KING AND HIS PREROGATIVE.

1628-1636

Difficulty in raising funds.--The king's resources.--Modes of raising
money.--Parliaments abandoned.--The government attaches the property
of a member of Parliament.--Confusion in the House of
Commons.--Resolutions.--The Commons refuse to admit the king's
officers.--Members imprisoned.--Dissolution of Parliament.--The king
in the House of Lords.--The king's speech on dissolving
Parliament.--The king resolves to do without Parliaments.--Forced
loans.--Monopolies of the necessaries of life.--Tonnage and
poundage.--Ship money.--Origin of these taxes.--John Hampden.--He
refuses to pay ship money.--Hampden's trial.--He is compelled to
pay.--A fleet raised.--Its exploits among the herring-busses.--Court
of the Star Chamber.--Its constitution.--Trial by jury.--No jury in
the Star Chamber.--Crimes tried by the Star Chamber.--Origin of the
term.--Immense power of the Court of Star Chamber.--Oppressive
fines.--King's forests.--Offenses against the king and his lords.--A
gentleman fined for resenting an insult.--Murmurs silenced.--The
kingdom of Scotland.--The king visits Scotland.--He is crowned
there.--The king returns to London.--Increasing discontent.

The great difficulty in governing without a Parliament was the raising
of funds. By the old customs and laws of the realm, a tax upon the
people could only be levied by the action of the House of Commons; and
the great object of the king and council during Buckingham's life, in
summoning Parliaments from time to time, was to get their aid in this
respect. But as Charles found that one Parliament after another
withheld the grants, and spent their time in complaining of his
government, he would dissolve them, successively, after exhausting all
possible means of bringing them to a compliance with his will. He
would then be thrown upon his own resources.

The king had _some_ resources of his own. These were certain estates,
and lands, and other property, in various parts of the country, which
belonged to the crown, the income of which the king could appropriate.
But the amount whic