He sent a message requesting the House of Commons to consider whether better regulations would effectually prevent the abuses which had excited so much discontent.

He added that he would willingly consent to the entire abolition of the tax if it should appear that the tax and the abuses were inseparable.

[39] This communication was received with loud applause.

There were indeed some financiers of the old school who muttered that tenderness for the poor was a fine thing; but that no part of the revenue of the state came in so exactly to the day as the hearth money; that the goldsmiths of the City could not always be induced to lend on the security of the next quarter's customs or excise, but that on an assignment of hearth money there was no difficulty in obtaining advances.

In the House of Commons, those who thought thus did not venture to raise their voices in opposition to the general feeling.