Foremost among these were those "extravagant grants of Crown lands" spoken of by Dr. Stubbs and by Gneist.[329] Now, in this charter, and in those which follow, we are enabled to trace the actual working of this fatal policy in practice. The Empress begins, in this charter, by granting Geoffrey, for this is its effect, £100 a year in land ("C libratas terræ"). Stephen, we shall find, a few months later, regains him to his side by increasing the bid to £300 a year ("CCC libratas terræ"). But how is the amount made up? It is charged on the Crown lands in his own county of Essex. But observe, for this is an important point, that it is not charged as a lump sum on the entire _corpus comitatus_ (or, to speak more exactly, on the annual _firma_ of that _corpus_), but on certain specified estates. Here we have a welcome allusion to the practice of the early Exchequer. The charter authorizes Geoffrey, as sheriff, to deduct from the annual ferm of the county, for which he was responsible at the Exchequer (being that recorded on the _Rotulus exactorius_), that portion of it represented by the annual rents (_redditus_) of Maldon and Newport, which, as estates of Crown demesne, had till then been included in the _corpus_.[330] From the earliest Pipe-Rolls now remaining we know that the estates so alienated were usually entered by the sheriff under the head of "_Terræ Datæ_," with the amount due from each, for which amounts, of course, he claimed allowance in his account. I think we have here at least a suggestion that even at the height of the anarchy and of the struggle, the Exchequer, with all the details of its practice, was recognized as in full existence. I have never been able to reconcile myself to the accepted view, as set forth by Dr. Stubbs, of the "stoppage of the administrative machinery"[331] under Stephen. He holds that on the arrest of the bishops (June, 1139) "the whole administration of the country ceased to work," and that Stephen was "never able to restore the administrative machinery."[332] Crippled and disorganized though it doubtless was, the Exchequer, I contend, must have preserved its existence, because its existence was an absolute necessity. Without an exchequer, the income of the Crown would, obviously, have instantly disappeared. Moreover, the case of William of Ypres, and others to which reference will be made below, will go far to establish the important fact that the Exchequer system remained in force, and that accounts of some kind must have been kept.