FOOTNOTES:
[19] Birch, I. 12;—Hutch. Mem.
[20] Strafford, Letters and Despatches, I. 28.
[21] A subsidy was an income tax of 4s. in the pound upon the annual value of lands, and a property-tax of 2s. 8d. in the pound upon the actual value of goods. Those whose lands were not worth 20s. a year, or whose personal property was less than £3 in value, were not taxed. These subsidies were levied by commissioners, appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from amongst the inhabitants of the county or borough. The assessment was made with great laxity; owing to this fact and to a constant rise in the money-value of lands, and goods (the price of wheat for instance, doubling in Elizabeth’s reign), the real state of the subsidy was very much less than the nominal. A tenth or a fifteenth was generally voted in addition to the subsidy. These were originally the real tenth or fifteenth of all the movables or personal property of the subject. Each county or borough was responsible for a certain sum, which was levied by commissioners, appointed by its representatives in the Commons. Since the last valuation had been made in the reign of Edward III., in that of Charles I., when the purchasing power of money had decreased five times, the tenths and fifteenths instead of being taxes of 2s., and of 1s. 4d., were more like taxes of 5d. and 3d., in the £ respectively.
[22] This has been proved by Forster’s Life of Sir John Eliot, i. v. 6.
[23] See Forster’s Life of Sir John Eliot. i. vi. 4.
[24] Tac. Ann. iv. 1.
[25] Forster’s Life of Sir J. Eliot, i. vii. 6.
[26] Ellis. 3rd Series, 227, 228.
[27] Vessels were not then required, as they happily are now, to have on board a sufficient supply of lime juice, or other preventives against consequences of a salt diet. Hence the fatal ravages of scurvy in those times. The symptoms of this disease are described as—discoloured spots, swelled legs, extraordinary lassitude and dejection, sudden death resulting on the least motion or exertion of strength. See G. Anson’s Voyage, I. x.
[28] Straff. Letters, I. 38; Birch. 190, 154, 157, 164.
[30] Kings of England had indeed always exercised the right of issuing ordinances of war for the regulation of their armies. But this military law had been confined to military offences committed on actual service, while these ‘soldiers, mariners, and other dissolute persons,’ were (1) not on actual service, and (2) had committed offences which were cognizable at the courts of common law; hence fears were naturally entertained that so tempting a method of procedure would be extended to civilians. Since England has had a standing army, a Mutiny Act is annually passed, allowing courts-martial for punishment of military offences, and reserving the crown power to frame further articles in case of actual war.
[32] Forster’s Life of Sir J. Eliot, ii. ix. 2.
[33] Lavallée, Hist. de France.