Note 38 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Ranke iv. 323. W. A. Shaw, “The Beginnings of the National Debt,” Owens College, Manchester, Historical Essays. Mr. Shaw’s remarkable essay throws a flood of light on the financial difficulties of the early part of the reign. He considers the year 1667, when the Commons attacked the administration and voted a commission to examine public accounts, to be the point beyond which patriotic action could be expected on the part neither of the Commons nor of the king.