England under Charles II. from the Restoration to the Treaty of Nimeguen, 1660-1678: English History from Contemporary Writers
Taylor, W. F.
1889
Parity of the two parties in Parliament; the king is refused the supply which he demands, but obtains £300,000 for the navy; inferiority of the English navy.
Reresby : Memoirs, , pp. 2(-2). , April. | |
The court side was very pressing and urgent for money for the king's present occasion; the county party thought of nothing less, except some laws were enacted for the better security of the Protestant religion, and the grand point of property. But the two were so equal that nothing but mere words passed between them; mere words without any effect, for neither dared stand the chance of a question put ..... The king had in his speech acquainted | |
136 | us, that he was four millions in debt, exclusive of what he owed to the goldsmiths or bankers for which he paid neither principal nor interest to the ruin of many families. It being put the vote whether money should be given or not, it was carried in the negative by four voices, and that when near four hundred members were in the house. But it appearing, that both the Dutch and French exceeded us, in the proportion and number of their shipping, a sum of three hundred thousand pounds was voted to the king for the building of twenty ships, namely, one of the first rate, five of the second and fourteen of the third. The state of the fleet was now given in, by which it appeared that we had no more than eight first rates, nine second rates, and forty-three third rates; while the French exceeded us in the number of these rates by six and twenty and the Dutch by fourteen. |
