but all the Gifts and Places your Majefty can bestow; fo to be, if not in Name, yet in Effect Kings of your People. I mean Cardinal Wolfey, whofe Fame has been pretended to be vindicated by a Domeftick of his, in the Days of the late Queen. And tho' I fhall not deny his admirable Qualifications and Parts; or his Juftice in many Particulars; yet I fhall fhew, that the Ills he did, were much more prejudicial to the King and People, than the Good he did beneficial to them.

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Whatever he did, as Chancellor, alr lowing his Decrees all Equitable and Juft, will not be fufficient to deftroy my Affertion, fince that only reach'd fome Particulars, who had Caufes depending before him; but the many Exorbitances of his Adminiftration, fpread to the whole People, as will appear from those few Inftances which I thall give, by which he will put the King on fuch illegal Attempts to replenish that Exchequer, which bis Ambition and Pride more than any Profufion or Expences of the King, had exhausted...

The

The Reason of this Affertion will be plain, if your Majefty will reflect on the more than Royal Retinue, which tho' a Subject of the lowest and most plebean Rife, he maintain'd. For not to waste your Majefty's important Hours, with a long Catalogue of the Particulars, he had in his Family, One Earl, Nine Barons, Knights, Gentlemen, and inferior Officers about One Thoufand. For the Maintenance of whom he was at once poffels'd of the Almonership, the Bishopricks of Tournay, Lincoln and Tork, and Durham, St. Albans in Commendam, the Bishoprick of Winchester, in exchange for that of Durham, the Revenues of thofe of Bath, Worcester and Hereford, was Lord Chancellor of England, and had the Difpofal of all Places of Trust and Profit, and fingly and alone dispatch'd all Publick Negotiations.

"

But the maintenance of fo numerous a Dependance, was not perhaps the Moyety of his Expences, he had long entertain'd an Ambition to be Pope. And he was too wife to attempt any thing

in the Conclave or Court of Rome, by means of which he cou'd have no hopes of Succefs. MONET has always been the only Argument, which has prevail'd in the Papal Elections, or in the particular Interests, that the Princes in Obedience of that See, form for themselves or Favorites; the Cardinal therefore must be at an expence proportionable to the vehemence of his defires: Which having no Bounds; his Largeffes, to obtain that End, cou'd be bounded by nothing but the Abilities of the King and Kingdom, the Treasure of which was wholly at his Com mand.

This was the Reason, that prevail'd with him to engage the King his Mafter, to lend Sums of Money to the Emperor, whofe Poverty was fo well known, that he cou'd have no Profpect of ever having them Repay'd. 'Tis true, the Ensperor and the Court of Rome, were not fair Chapmen, but received his Money, and at the fame time instead of promoting, obftructed all his Aims at the TrippleCrown. These incident Charges, joyn'd with the conftant Expences of fo numerous a Retinue, occasion'd perpetual and

large

large Disbursements, and these put him on extraordinary Ways and Means of providing a Fund for their Continu

ance.

To this end he grants Commissions, under the Great Seal of England, which oblig'd every Man on Oath, to deliver the true Value and Estimate of his Eftate, and to pay Four Shillings in the Pound for every Fifty Pounds and upwards. This was fo heavy and fevere a Tax, that its being Authoriz'd by Parliament wou'd not have freed it from the Imputation of an Oppreffion of the Subject: But to be done by the private Authority of a SUBJECT, is what wants a Name. And that it was so, notwithstanding the Great Seal was affix'd to the Commiffions, is plain, from his Majefty's difowning the Matter, as fuch a Violation of the Fundamental Rights of the People, and a total diffolution of Magna Charta, that no wise King of England cou'd be guilty of. A just confideration of this, made the King declare, That tho his Neceffities were great, yet be shou'd never think them great enough to make him attempt the

raising

raifing Money by any but the Legal way, of the People's Confent in Parliament.

Tho' the King had made this Declaration, and the Cardinal found his firft illegal Project defeated; yet fince Money was to be had, or his Defigns fall to the Ground, he once more trys one as little agreeable to Law, as the former, tho' not fo odious and unproper. He there fore puts the King on defiring a Benevalence of the People, without an Act of Parliament. And the Commiffioners, who were the Cardinal's Creatures, and employ'd by him, exacted this Money, not as a free Gift, but as if due by LAW, But in this he was exactly disappointed, tho' at the Expence of his Mafter's Reputation; for the People, Pleaded a Statute of Richard III. and obftinately re fused to pay it.

There is fomething yet very parti cularly Remarkable in this Affair, which difcovers the Ingratitude of the FAVORITE. For to take off the Imputation of doing this of his own Head, he fummon'd the Lord Mayor, and Alder

men