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73 76 POLITICAL HISTORY up Belvoir." In June an ordinance passed by both Houses appointed a com- mittee, consisting of the former members, with the addition of Sir James Harington, Colonel Waite, Abel Barker, and others, with Lord Grey as president, for the furnishing of arms and ammunition, making of fortifications and paying of officers and soldiers, and other public necessary charges for the defence and preservation of the county of Rutland from plunder and ruin, and empowered them ' from time to time, from 9 September 1 644 (^sic) to raise in the said county such sums of money as shall be by them, or any three or more of them, thought necessary for the use aforesaid.' " Waite's appointment to the committee indicates that he had been vindicated from the charges brought against him, and in August he was discharged from further attendance at the House, and his suspension was removed.' In pursuance of this Ordinance the county was assessed at ^2^0 per week for six months,^* and in the following August at £c,6 iSj. for providing ' one hundred foot for blocking Newark,' " while further contributions were demanded for the Scottish army in spite of ' pretended inability to pay.' The total assessments upon it for the English army during the three years 1644—6 appear to have amounted to ^1,840, ^^1,104, and ^^736 respectively, in addition to two sums of ^T^d^ each in 1644 and 1645 for ' bringing up the Scots,' " and an ' Account of Fines raised by the Long Parliament during three years ' on the various English counties gives the total for Rutland as ^^29,000 ! ^^ The constitution of the Rutland Committee as described above does not seem to have been altogether satisfactory to Parliament, and in October 1645 the Committee of Examinations was directed ' to examine the business of the improvement of some of the committee and others of Rutland, with a warrant of the Committee of Accompts,' and also ' the business concerning the Com- mittee's plowing of Pastures.'^' But the Parliamentarians in Rutland had not their own way entirely in the summer of 1645. The king, after his defeat at Naseby on 14 June, retreated to the west, and then moved north to Doncaster, where he was in danger of being caught between Poyntz' forces in the north and the Scots, who were moving up from Hereford. ' In his desperation he resolved to make a dash at the Associated Counties' ;^ he was at Belvoir on 22 August, and next day swept through north Rutland to Stamford.*^ A trace of fight- ing in another part of the county is found in the following entry in the North LufFenham Parish Register : — ' In y^ fight at Broken back betweene a troupe ... ye Kings forces (surprizd by y^ Parliam^) & y^ Parliam 25 Aug. 2 killed of y^ Kings forces w<^^ were buried at our Towne'."" " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, p. 309. " This ordinance was originally proposed in Oct. 1644, and was not passed till 21 June 1645. The quarrel between Waite and the committee made it more than usually difficult for Parliament to settle the affairs of the county. See Loriis' Joum. vii, 17, 443 ; Commons^ Journ. iii, 655 ; iv, l8l ; with many inter- mediate references. " Commons' Journ. iv, 236. " Cal. Treas. Bks. 1660-7, p. 275 ; cf. Commons' Journ. iii, 655, ; iv, 565. " Ca!. S.P. Dom. 1645-7, p. 42. '= Porlland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i, 239. " Ca/. Treas. Bks. 1660-7, P- 275- " Stevens, /////. Acct. Taxes, 291-2. Stevens' account of the Parliamentary exaction as a whole is absurdly exaggerated, but probably this item is not far from the truth. " Commons' Journ. iii, 312. *° Gardiner, Hist. Civil War (4-vol. ed.), ii, 290. " Iler Carolinum (Somers Tracts), v, 272. "' Communicated by Rev. E. A. Irons. I 193 25