Difficulty in raising funds.--The king's resources.--Modes of raising money.--Parliaments abandoned.--The government attaches the property of a member of Parliament.--Confusion in the House of Commons.--Resolutions.--The Commons refuse to admit the king's officers.--Members imprisoned.--Dissolution of Parliament.--The king in the House of Lords.--The king's speech on dissolving Parliament.--The king resolves to do without Parliaments.--Forced loans.--Monopolies of the necessaries of life.--Tonnage and poundage.--Ship money.--Origin of these taxes.--John Hampden.--He refuses to pay ship money.--Hampden's trial.--He is compelled to pay.--A fleet raised.--Its exploits among the herring-busses.--Court of the Star Chamber.--Its constitution.--Trial by jury.--No jury in the Star Chamber.--Crimes tried by the Star Chamber.--Origin of the term.--Immense power of the Court of Star Chamber.--Oppressive fines.--King's forests.--Offenses against the king and his lords.--A gentleman fined for resenting an insult.--Murmurs silenced.--The kingdom of Scotland.--The king visits Scotland.--He is crowned there.--The king returns to London.--Increasing discontent. The great difficulty in governing without a Parliament was the raising of funds. By the old customs and laws of the realm, a tax upon the people could only be levied by the action of the House of Commons; and the great object of the king and council during Buckingham's life, in summoning Parliaments from time to time, was to get their aid in this respect. But as Charles found that one Parliament after another withheld the grants, and spent their time in complaining of his government, he would dissolve them, successively, after exhausting all possible means of bringing them to a compliance with his will. He would then be thrown upon his own resources. The king had _some_ resources of his own. These were certain estates, and lands, and other property, in various parts of the country, which belonged to the crown, the income of which the king could appropriate. But the amount which could be derived from this source was very small. Then there were certain other modes of raising money, which had been resorted to by former monarchs, in emergencies, at distant intervals, but still in instances so numerous that the king considered precedents enough had been established to make the power to resort to these modes a part of the prerogative of the crown. The people, however, considered these acts of former monarchs as irregularities or usurpations. They denied the king's right to resort to these methods, and they threw so many difficulties in the way of the execution of his plans, that finally he would call another Parliament, and make new efforts to lead them to conform to his will. The more the experiment was tried, however, the worse it succeeded; and at last the king determined to give up the idea of Parliaments altogether, and to compel the people to submit to his plans of raising money without them.