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8 Glimpses of Our Ancestors. |
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Protector gave quid pro quo, and that the interests and the glory of England were protected by him and the country well governed. Still, the people rejoiced when Charles the Second was restored in 1660; and the Rector of Horstead Keynes, who, as we have seen, fought or prayed—perhaps both—for the Royal cause in his youth, was foremost amongst the rejoicers. As, during the Commonwealth, he had occasionally aired his Latin by giving expression to his loyal feelings in that safe language, so now he poured forth his rejoicings at the restoration of Monarchy in the same classic and orthodox form. But the Rev. Giles Moore soon found that, whether under King or Protector, he had to " pay the piper," and, under the former, to a more lively tune than the latter. Assessments both for King's taxes and for poor-rates became both heavier and more frequent. In April, 1665, the Rector records as follows:—
" A taxe was made for the reliefe of the poor of the parish, at 9d. in the £, I being then raysed from ^16 to ^"30 per an. I payed for the parsonage and glebe £1. 2s. 6d. This single time I payd 12s. 6d. extraordinary, through Fields malignity, with Cripps concurrence; the next poore booke, however, I got it downe againe. In Deer. I payed another taxe for the poore at 3d. in the^"."
" There are," adds Mr. Blencowe, " two assessments for King's taxes recorded in this year (1665); the share paid by the Rector amounted to £2. 12s. 6d." Three years later— in 1668—the King's taxes paid by the Rector amounted to £7. 6s., or just treble, exclusive of hearth-money and poll-tax ; and he began, shrewdly remarks Mr. Blencowe, to show symptoms of what, in after ages, Lord Castlereagh called an " ignorant impatience of taxation." He was, in fact, paying for his loyalty, and getting very little return for his money; for the foreign wars of Charles (against the Dutch) were disastrous; and the internal government was anything but satisfactory. The poll-tax and hearth-tax referred to in the above entry pressed most unfairly upon the working and middle classes, who paid in respect to the first as much as the wealthy, whilst the latter laid open the habitations of all to |
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