timates and supplies of the ensuing year, the king
demanded forty thousand men for the navy, and above one hundred thousand
for the purposes of the land service. Before the house considered these
enormous demands, they granted four hundred thousand pounds by way of
advance, to quiet the clamours of the seamen, who were become mutinous
and desperate for want of pay, upwards of one million being due to them
for wages. Then the commons voted the number of men required for the
navy; but they were so ashamed of that for the army, that they thought
it necessary to act in such a manner as should imply that they still
retained some regard for their country. They called for all the treaties
subsisting between the king and his allies; they examined the different
proportions of the troops furnished by the respective powers; they
considered the intended augmentations, and fixed the establishment of
the year at four-score and three thousand, one hundred, and twenty-one
men, including officers. For the maintenance of these they allotted the
sum of two millions, five hundred and thirty thousand, five hundred and
nine pounds. They granted two millions for the navy, and about five
hundred thousand pounds, to make good the deficiencies of the annuity
and poll bills; so that the supplies for the year amounted to about
five millions and a half, raised by a land-tax of four shillings in the
pound, by two more lives in the annuities, a further excise on beer, a
new duty on salt, and a lottery.

Though the malcontents in parliament could not withstand this torrent of
profusion, they endeavoured to distress the court interest, by reviving
the popular bills of the preceding session; such as that for regulating
trials in cases of high treason, the other for the more frequent calling
and meeting of parliaments, and that concerning free and impartial
proceedings in parliament. The first was neglected in the house of
lords; the second was rejected; the third was passed by the commons, on
the supposition that it would be defeated in the other house. The lords
returned it with certain amendments, to which the commons would not
agree: a conference ensued; the peers receded from their corrections,
and passed the bill, to which the king however refused his assent.
Nothing could be more unpopular and dangerous than such a step at this
juncture. The commons, in order to recover some credit with the people,
determined to disapprove of his majesty's conduct.