Parliament and the City, on the other hand, had reason to be dejected. On the 17th July Charles issued a proclamation for seizing all merchandise on its way to London. The trade of the city became paralysed.(599) Nor was this all. For some months past the citizens had been suffering from a scarcity of coal. Ever since the appointment of the Earl of Newcastle as governor of the town of Newcastle in June, 1642,(600) that town had been held for Charles, and a refusal to allow its coal to be supplied to the supporters of parliament had brought the city of London and the eastern counties into great straits.(601) It thus became a matter of prime importance that Newcastle should be captured. How this was to be accomplished was set out in a series of propositions drawn up (25 May, 1643) by the Common Council of the city to be laid before parliament.(602) A monopoly of the trade in coal, salt and glass with the north of England was to be held out as an incentive for persons to adventure their money in the reduction of the town. A committee, of which one-half of its members was to be nominated by the Commons and the rest by the City, was to have charge of all the money subscribed and to direct the undertaking. The propositions were well received (26 May),(603) and on the 10th June the Common Council nominated three aldermen and seven common councilmen to join with a like number to be appointed by parliament in raising a force by sea and land for the reduction of the town.(604) (M269) To make matters worse news arrived on the 18th July that royalist cavalry were in the vicinity of London, and that great disaffection to the cause of parliament had manifested itself in the neighbouring counties of Kent and Surrey. The Common Council, recognising the danger, forthwith resolved to raise what money it could at the rate of eight per cent., and to place it at the disposal of the Committee of the Militia of the city.(605) (M270) (M271)