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The last years of the Protectorate, 1656-1658
The last years of the Protectorate 16561658 Author:Charles Harding Firth Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV THE MILITIA BILL Before the excited debates on Naylor's case were over Chap. a new occasion for discord revealed itself, and that was vj the que... more »stion of the maintenance of the new militia. l656 The proceeds of the decimation taximposed upon the Royalists were insufficient to provide the jsay of the various county troops raised by the government.1 The deficit was met by reducing the number of men contained in each troop from one hundred to eighty, and by other economies. By this method the cost of the militia had been reduced from £80,000 to £67,000 per annum. ItwasdQiibtful, however, whether it would be possible to continue to raise this sum, and consequently, whether the militia could be permanently maintained. For though it might be argued that the provisions of the Instrument allowed the government, during the intervals of Parliament, to raise an extraordinary tax to meet a temporary emergency, it was clear that, when Parliament met, the consent of that body was necessary to thejrolongatipnjrf such a tax.2 TheTtajor-Gfenerals and the military party in the Pro- tector's Council resolved to apply to Parliament for the purpose.3 1 Gardiner, Commonwealth and Protectorate, supplementary chapter, p. 2; popular edition, iv. 250. 1 Article thirty of the Instrument; of. Whitelooke's speech, Burton, Diary, i. 318. Cromwell does not appear to have suggested this application, and possibly disapproved of it. In his speech to the hundred officers, on February 28,1657,he said: 'You thought it was necessary to have Major-Generals and the first use to that motion (there was then the late general insurrection) was justifiable ; and you Major-Generals did your parts well. You might have gone on. Who bid you go to the House with a bill and there receive a foil t ' — Bu...« less