[395] Murden, 632. That some degree of intimidation was occasionally made use of, may be inferred from the following letter of Sir Henry Cholmley to the mayor and aldermen of Chester, in 1597. He informs them of letters received by him from the council, "whereby I am commanded in all haste to require you that you and every of you send in your several sums of money unto Torpley (Tarporly) on Friday next the 23rd December, or else that you and every of you give me meeting there, the said day and place, to enter severally into bond to her highness for your appearance forthwith before their lordships, to show cause wherefore you and every of you should refuse to pay her majesty loan according to her highness several privy-seals by you received, letting you wit that I am now directed by other letters from their lordships to pay over the said money to the use of her majesty, and to send and certify the said bonds so taken: which praying you heartily to consider of as the last direction of the service, I heartily bid you farewell." Harl. MSS. 2173, 10. [396] Strype, ii. 102. In Haynes, p. 518, is the form of a circular letter or privy-seal, as it was called from passing that office, sent in 1569, a year of great difficulty, to those of whose aid the queen stood in need. It contains a promise of repayment at the expiration of twelve months. A similar application was made through the lord-lieutenants in their several counties, to the wealthy and well disposed, in 1588, immediately after the destruction of the Armada. The loans are asked only for the space of a year, as "heretofore has been yielded unto her majesty in times of less need and danger, and yet always fully repaid." Strype, iii. 535. Large sums of money are said to have been demanded of the citizens of London in 1599. Carte, 675. It is perhaps to this year that we may refer a curious fact mentioned in Mr. Justice Hutton's judgment in the case of ship-money. "In the time of Queen Elizabeth (he says), who was a gracious and a glorious queen, yet in the end of her reign, whether through covetousness, or by reason of the wars that came upon her, I know not by what counsel she desired benevolence, the statue of 2nd Richard III. was pressed, yet it went so far, that by commission and direction money was gathered in every inn of court; and I myself for my part paid twenty shillings. But when the queen was informed by her judges that this kind of proceeding was against law, she gave directions to pay all such sums as were collected back; and so I (as all the rest of our house, and as I think of other houses too) had my twenty shillings repaid me again; and privy counsellors were sent down to all parts, to tell them that it was for the defence of the realm, and it should be repaid them again." _State Trials_, iii. 1199. [397] Haynes, 518. Hume has exaggerated this, like other facts, in his very able, but partial, sketch of the constitution in Elizabeth's reign.