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The reading over, the Clerk bowed low to the throne. The under-clerk
bowed lower still; then, half turning his head towards the Commons, he
said,--
"The Queen accepts your bounty--et ainsi le veut."
The Clerk read the second bill.
It was a law condemning to imprisonment and fine whosoever withdrew
himself from the service of the trainbands. The trainbands were a
militia, recruited from the middle and lower classes, serving gratis,
which in Elizabeth's reign furnished, on the approach of the Armada, one
hundred and eighty-five thousand foot-soldiers and forty thousand horse.
The two clerks made a fresh bow to the throne, after which the
under-clerk, again half turning his face to the Commons, said,--
"La Reine le veut."
The third bill was for increasing the tithes and prebends of the
Bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry, which was one of the richest in
England; for making an increased yearly allowance to the cathedral, for
augmenting the number of its canons, and for increasing its deaneries
and benefices, "to the benefit of our holy religion," as the preamble
set forth. The fourth bill added to the budget fresh taxes--one on
marbled paper; one on hackney coaches, fixed at the number of eight
hundred in London, and taxed at a sum equal to fifty-two francs yearly
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