In that case the King would have to depend principally on the city of London. But this was the very place in which the dominant system had provoked the greatest discontent: nowhere were there more staunch supporters of parliamentary government. A proof of this assertion may be found in the tumult which broke out in the capital after the last dissolution of Parliament, and was directed against the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was threatened with death by an excited multitude. These disturbances had been quieted and their promoters punished; but placards were constantly put up indicative of the same feelings. For a long time the Archbishop did not venture to return to Lambeth; he considered himself secure only in the King’s palaces. The middle classes were excited rather than disposed to compliance by a threat, which Strafford held out, of attaching the silver in the Tower, or of raising the value of the currency. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen refused the King a loan which he requested, not because they lacked money, but because it seemed dangerous to allow the necessity of the consent of Parliament to be called in question in this manner. The government turned to the Common Council, before which Cottington laid the most urgent representations: but his proposals were rejected even by this body. Strafford indeed spoke of treason; for the money, he said, was in hand, only people refused to lend it to the King under the circumstances: but the threats which he founded on these statements he was unable to carry out; even in the Privy Council he met with firm and well-grounded opposition to his proposals. Tonnage and poundage, as usual, brought in a certain amount: but ship-money was paid into the exchequer in smaller quantities even than before. The sheriffs in vain gave the necessary directions to the bailiffs of the hundreds: they no longer took the matter up with any zeal, but returned [A.D. 1640.] empty-handed. In this embarrassment Charles I betook himself to the East India Company, to which he proposed that the spices which it had imported should be handed over to the King, and sold on his account: but the Company would not trust the King either with their wares or their capital[189]. Foreign capitalists or governments were then solicited in the King’s name. But the former, the Genoese for instance, demanded securities which he could not obtain for them, as they depended on the consent of the city of London: and the latter were engrossed in their own affairs. Application was secretly made to the French, and the prospect of an advantageous treaty was held out to them as a return for an adequate loan[190]: they were told that, if only a French ambassador were present in England, much might be effected in their interest. It is true that at this moment the Scots were neither supported nor even instigated by the French. But the latter were still less inclined to help King Charles to gain an advantage over Scotland.