der to hire mercenary troops and pay their contingent expenſes) it became thereupon a matter of national complaint; and king John was obliged to promiſe in his magna carta[1], that no ſcutage ſhould be impoſed without the conſent of the common council of the realm. This clauſe was indeed omitted in the charters of Henry III, where[2] we only find it ſtipulated, that ſcutages ſhould be taken as they were uſed to be in the time of king Henry the ſecond. Yet afterwards, by a variety of ſtatutes under Edward I and his grandſon[3], it was provided, that the king ſhall not take any aids or talks, any talliage or tax, but by common aſſent of the great men and commons in parliament.
Of the ſame nature with ſcutages upon knights-fees were the aſſeſſments of hydage upon all other lands, and of talliage upon cities and burghs[4]. But they all gradually fell into diſuſe, upon the introduction of ſubſidies, about the time of king Richard II and king Henry IV. Theſe were a tax, not immediately impoſed upon property, but upon perſons in reſpect of their reputed eſtates, after the nominal rate of 4s. in the pound for lands, and 2s. 6d. for goods; and for thoſe of aliens in a double proportion. But this aſſeſſment was alſo made according to an antient valuation; wherein the computation was ſo very moderate, and the rental of the kingdom was ſuppoſed to be ſo exceeding low, that one ſubſidy of this ſort did not, according to ſir Edward Coke[5], amount to more than 70000𝑙. whereas a modern land tax at the ſame rate produces two millions. It was antiently the rule never to grant more than one ſubſidy, and two fifteenths at a time; but this rule was broke through for the firſt time on a very preſſing occaſion, the Spaniſh invaſion in 1588; when the parliament gave queen Elizabeth two ſubſidies and four fifteenths. Afterwards, as money funk in value, more ſubſidies were given; and we have an inſtance in the firſt parliament of 1640, of the king's deſiring twelve ſubſidies of the commons, to be levied in
