In February, 1644-5, an Ordinance was passed for the maintenance of the Scotch army at £21,000 per month for four months, to begin on March 1st. This time Lancashire was assessed at £730 and Cheshire at £255; on August 15th the Ordinance was continued for four months dating from the 1st July. The reason for this assessment of the money was that the Sequestrations, on which it had originally been charged, were quite unable to bear their share.[183] By the time that the fighting in Lancashire was over the financial exhaustion of the county was extreme. "That country (England) is in a most pitiful condition, no corner of it free from the evils of a cruel war. The case is like the old miseries of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Every shire, every city, many families divided in this quarrel, much blood and universal spoil made by both armies where they prevail," wrote Baillie.[184] And in the same strain a letter of Egerton's to the Speaker may be quoted:-- "Sequestrations which are looked upon to bring great things are well known to us to be of no considerable respect, for the sequestered estate which was heretofore worth £600 per annum is now scarce sufficient to discharge those lays and taxations which are imposed upon it according as those estates are managed. So that from them we expect very little. The whole country is extremely exhausted, and they have been plundered of horse and cattle by both sides; and land is so cheap by the great quantity of sequestered land untilled and unstocked that the well affected from whom we receive our greatest relief can make very little of their estates."[185] The Lancashire Committee protested bitterly against the new assessments in 1645. They declared that they could not possibly bear any more levies, and complained that after their stand for the Parliament's cause and all the help which they had sent into other counties, it was unreasonable to impose a fresh tax upon them. If they even attempted to raise it all the troops would disband; and instead of paying, they urgently demanded a large contribution from Parliament which they hope would not be long delayed. "This (however strange reports have been or may be made of our condition by such as know little of it) is nothing but real truth."[186] Parliament did have some consideration for Lancashire, for on September 11th, 1644, the House of Commons ordered that on the following day which was a Fast, half the collections in the churches of London and Westminster should be devoted to the relief of that county.[187]