9.—Enquiry and Partial Restitution both prevented by the Aristocracy in 1688.

In the reign of Queen Anne, some endeavours were made to examine into the value of lands, and of all grants made by the crown since the 13th February, 1688, with a view of resuming the same, and applying them to the relief of the public necessities. A bill for that purpose was passed by the Commons, but rejected by the Lords ^u. A resolution, also of the Commons, to lay a tax upon all grants from the crown since the 6th of February, 1684, of one-fifth part of the value of the grant at the time it was made, had been previously evaded; "the leading men," observes Sir John Sinclair, "in both houses being too deeply interested in grants of that nature to suffer such a bill to pass into a law" ^v.