22.—Empson and Dudley's Offences.

It is easy to see what a powerful instrument of annoyance and oppression this inquisition might become in the hands of a monarch disposed to stretch the prerogative to its utmost limits. It was one of the main accusations against Empson and Dudley, the instruments of Henry VII., that by colour of false inquisition they compelled many persons to sue out livery from the crown who were not tenants thereunto ^y. This consideration enables us to perceive and appreciate the exact nature of the transaction by which the holders of land substituted, for this inquisition, which fell entirely on them, another in the shape of the modem excise, which, with all its vexatious and oppressive incidents, fell chiefly upon people who had no land, nor anything else but the labour of their hands or of their heads.