l8o TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 



of 13,000 archers which had been made but never satisfied 

 nineteen years before. But the force was to be called out 

 before Michaelmas 1474, or the grant was to drop. At the 

 same time, and as if in emulation of this grant, the Peers grant 

 a tenth on their lordships, lands, tenements, 5cc. But the gift 

 is to be void, and the payments restored to the grantors, in case 

 the king does not pass out of the realm before Michaelmas 

 1474. In this year the costs of the archers were stated to 

 amount to the estimate made by the Commons of a fifteenth 

 and tenth, to be devoted to this object, or as an equivalent to 

 it, viz. 51,147 4^. 7f< The exceptions to payment are 

 Lincoln, Great Yarmouth, New Shoreham, and Cambridge. 

 This grant however is to be void if the king do not make his 

 journey before Midsummer 1476. In the Parliament of 1475, 

 the grant, estimated now at a whole fifteenth and tenth, and 

 three-quarters of a fifteenth and tenth, is expedited. In 1482 

 the Parliament again grants a fifteenth and tenth, with the 

 customary deduction. Licence duties are also renewed on 

 strangers, 6s. %d. a year on all resident aliens being house- 

 holders, with a proviso that the tax shall be paid per capita on 

 those who dwell in common, zs. a year on all whf> are not 

 householders. Foreigners brewing beer are to pay zos. a year. 

 Foreign merchants, brokers, and factors of divers nationalities, 

 chiefly Italian, holding a house in England for three months 

 and upwards, 40^. a year, and if not holding a house, 20^. a 

 year. In case such persons leave the realm without payment, 

 the owners of the premises are to be liable. The merchants 

 of the Hanse Towns are exempt. 



The Parliamentary grants made to Edward the Fourth are, 

 it will be seen, comparatively infrequent. It has been said by 

 Hallam that Edward's reign was a despotism, and this author 

 comments upon the absence of any statute relieving the subject 

 or giving guarantees for liberty. I am however struck with 

 the singular leniency of this king towards his political enemies. 

 The rolls of Parliament are full of petitions for the reversal 

 of attainders. I do not recollect a single case in which the 



