my Lord Coke's Pleas of the Crowne, very fine noble reading. After church
time comes my wife and Sir W. Pen his lady and daughter; and Mrs. Markham
and Captain Harrison (who come to dine with them), by invitation end dined
with me, they as good as inviting themselves. I confess I hate their
company and tricks, and so had no great pleasure in [it], but a good
dinner lost. After dinner they all to church, and I by water alone to
Woolwich, and there called on Mr. Bodham: and he and I to see the batterys
newly raised; which, indeed, are good works to command the River below the
ships that are sunk, but not above them. Here I met with Captain Cocke
and Matt. Wren, Fenn, and Charles Porter, and Temple and his wife. Here
I fell in with these, and to Bodham's with them, and there we sat and
laughed and drank in his arbour, Wren making much and kissing all the day
of Temple's wife. It is a sad sight to see so many good ships there sunk
in the River, while we would be thought to be masters of the sea. Cocke
says the bankers cannot, till peace returns, ever hope to have credit
again; so that they can pay no more money, but people must be contented to
take publick security such as they can give them; and if so, and they do
live to receive the money thereupon, the bankers will be happy men. Fenn
read me an order of council passed the 17th instant, directing all the
Treasurers of any part of the King's revenue to make no payments but such
as shall be approved by the present Lords Commissioners; which will, I
think, spoil the credit of all his Majesty's service, when people cannot
depend upon payment any where. But the King's declaration in behalf of
the bankers, to make good their assignments for money, is very good, and
will, I hope, secure me. Cocke says, that he hears it is come to it now,
that the King will try what he can soon do for a peace; and if he cannot,
that then he will cast all upon the Parliament to do as they see fit: and
in doing so, perhaps, he may save us all. The King of France, it is
believed, is engaged for this year;
[Louis XIV. was at this time in Flanders, with his queen, his
mistresses, and all his Court. Turenne commanded under him. Whilst
Charles was hunting moths at Lady Castlemaine's, and the English
fleet was burning, Louis was carrying on the campaign with vigour.
Armentieres was taken on the 28th May; Charleroi on the 2nd June,
St. Winox on the 6th, Fumes on the 12th, Ath on the 16th, Toumay on
the 24th; the Escarpe on the 6th July, Courtray on the 18th,
Audenarde on the 31st; and Lisle on the 27th August.--B.]
so that we shall be safe as to him. The great misery the City and kingdom
is like to suffer for want of coals in a little time is very visible, and,
is feared, will breed a mutiny; for we are not in any prospect to command
the sea for our colliers to come, but rather, it is feared, the Dutch may
go and burn all our colliers at Newcastle; though others do say that they
lie safe enough there. No news at all of late from Bredagh what our
Treaters do. By and by, all by water in three boats to Greenwich, there
to Cocke's, where we supped well, and then late, Wren, Fenn, and I home by
water, set me in at the Tower, and they to White Hall, and so I home, and
after a little talk with my wife to bed.
24th. Up, and to the office, where much business upon me by the coming of
people of all sorts about the dispatch of one business or other of the
fire-ships, or other ships to be set out now. This morning Greeting come,
and I with him at my flageolet. At noon dined at home with my wife alone,
and then in the afternoon all the day at my office. Troubled a little at
a letter from my father, which tells me of an idle companion, one Coleman,
who went down with him and my wife in the coach, and come up again with my
wife, a pensioner of the King's Guard, and one that my wife, indeed, made
the feast for on Saturday last, though he did not come; but if he knows
nothing of our money I will prevent any other inconvenience. In the
evening comes Mr. Povy about business; and he and I to walk in the garden
an hour or two, and to talk of State matters. He tells me his opinion
that it is out of possibility for us to escape being undone, there being
nothing in our power to do that is necessary for the saving us: a lazy
Prince, no Council, no money, no reputation at home or abroad. He says
that to this day the King do follow the women as much as ever he did; that
the Duke of York hath not got Mrs. Middleton, as I was told the other day:
but says that he wants not her, for he hath others, and hath always had,
and that he [Povy] hath known them brought through the Matted Gallery at
White Hall into his [the Duke's] closet; nay, he hath come out of his
wife's bed, and gone to others laid in bed for him: that Mr. Bruncker is
not the only pimp, but that the whole family is of the same strain, and
will do anything to please him: that, besides the death of the two Princes
lately, the family is in horrible disorder by being in debt by spending
above L60,000 per. annum, when he hath not L40,000: that the Duchesse is
not only the proudest woman in the world, but the most expensefull; and
that the Duke of York's marriage with her hath undone the kingdom, by
making the Chancellor so great above reach, who otherwise would have been
but an ordinary man, to have been dealt with by other people; and he would
have been careful of managing things well, for fear of being called to
account; whereas, now he is secure, and hath let things run to rack, as
they now appear. That at a certain time Mr. Povy did carry him an account
of the state of the Duke of York's estate, showing in faithfullness how he
spent more than his estate would bear, by above L20,000 per annum, and
asked my Lord's opinion of it; to which he answered that no man that loved
the King or kingdom durst own the writing of that paper; at which Povy was
startled, and reckoned himself undone for this good service, and found it
necessary then to show it to the Duke of York's Commissioners; who read,
examined, and approved of it, so as to cause it to be put into form, and
signed it, and gave it the Duke. Now the end of the Chancellor was, for
fear that his daughter's ill housewifery should be condemned. He [Povy]
tells me that the other day, upon this ill newes of the Dutch being upon
us, White Hall was shut up, and the Council called and sat close; and, by
the way, he do assure me, from the mouth of some Privy-councillors, that
at this day the Privy-council in general do know no more what the state of
the kingdom as to peace and war is, than he or I; nor knows who manages
it, nor upon whom it depends; and there my Lord Chancellor did make a
speech to them, saying that they knew well that he was no friend to the
war from the beginning, and therefore had concerned himself little in, nor
could say much to it; and a great deal of that kind, to discharge himself
of the fault of the war. Upon which my Lord Anglesey rose up and told his
Majesty that he thought their coming now together was not to enquire who
was, or was not, the cause of the war, but to enquire what was, or could
be, done in the business of making a peace, and in whose hands that was,
and where it was stopped or forwarded; and went on very highly to have all
made open to them: and, by the way, I remember that Captain Cocke did the
other day tell me that this Lord Anglesey hath said, within few days, that
he would willingly give L10,000 of his estate that he was well secured of
the rest, such apprehensions he hath of the sequel of things, as giving
all over for lost. He tells me, speaking of the horrid effeminacy of the
King, that the King hath taken ten times more care and pains in making
friends between my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Stewart, when they have
fallen out, than ever he did to save his kingdom; nay, that upon any
falling out between my Lady Castlemayne's nurse and her woman, my Lady
hath often said she would make the King to make them friends, and they
would be friends and be quiet; which the King hath been fain to do: that
the King is, at this day, every night in Hyde Park with the Duchesse of
Monmouth, or with my Lady Castlemaine: that he [Povy] is concerned of late
by my Lord Arlington in the looking after some buildings that he is about
in Norfolke, where my Lord is laying out a great deal of money; and that
he, Mr. Povy, considering the unsafeness of laying out money at such a
time as this, and, besides, the enviousness of the particular county, as
well as all the kingdom, to find him building and employing workmen, while
all the ordinary people of the country are carried down to the seasides
for securing the land, he thought it becoming him to go to my Lord
Arlington (Sir Thomas Clifford by), and give it as his advice to hold his
hands a little; but my Lord would not, but would have him go on, and so
Sir Thomas Clifford advised also, which one would think, if he were a
statesman worth a fart should be a sign of his foreseeing that all shall
do well. But I do forbear concluding any such thing from them. He tells
me that there is not so great confidence between any two men of power in
the nation at this day, that he knows of, as between my Lord Arlington and
Sir Thomas Clifford; and that it arises by accident only, there being no
relation nor acquaintance between them, but only Sir Thomas Clifford's
coming to him, and applying himself to him for favours, when he come first
up to town to be a Parliament-man. He tells me that he do not think there
is anything in the world for us possibly to be saved by but the King of
France's generousnesse to stand by us against the Dutch, and getting us a
tolerable peace, it may be, upon our giving him Tangier and the islands he
hath taken, and other things he shall please to ask. He confirms me in
the several grounds I have conceived of fearing that we shall shortly fall
into mutinys and outrages among ourselves, and that therefore he, as a
Treasurer, and therefore much more myself, I say, as being not only a
Treasurer but an officer of the Navy, on whom, for all the world knows,
the faults of all our evils are to be laid, do fear to be seized on by
some rude hands as having money to answer for, which will make me the more
desirous to get off of this Treasurership as soon as I can, as I had
before in my mind resolved. Having done all this discourse, and concluded
the kingdom in a desperate condition, we parted; and I to my wife, with
whom was Mercer and Betty Michell, poor woman, come with her husband to
see us after the death of her little girle. We sat in the garden together
a while, it being night, and then Mercer and I a song or two, and then in
(the Michell's home), my wife, Mercer, and I to supper, and then parted
and to bed.
25th. Up, and with Sir W. Pen in his new chariot (which indeed is plain,
but pretty and more fashionable in shape than any coach he hath, and yet
do not cost him, harness and all, above L32) to White Hall; where staid a
very little: and thence to St. James's to [Sir] W. Coventry, whom I have
not seen since before the coming of the Dutch into the river, nor did
indeed know how well to go see him, for shame either to him or me, or both
of us, to find ourselves in so much misery. I find that he and his
fellow-Treasurers are in the utmost want of money, and do find fault with
Sir G. Carteret, that, having kept the mystery of borrowing money to
himself so long, to the ruin of the nation, as [Sir] W. Coventry said in
words to [Sir] W. Pen and me, he should now lay it aside and come to them
for money for every penny he hath, declaring that he can raise no more:
which, I confess, do appear to me the most like ill-will of any thing that
I have observed of [Sir] W. Coventry, when he himself did tell us, on
another occasion at the same time, that the bankers who used to furnish
them money are not able to lend a farthing, and he knows well enough that
that was all the mystery [Sir] G. Carteret did use, that is, only his
credit with them. He told us the masters and owners of the two ships that
I had complained of, for not readily setting forth their ships, which we
had taken up to make men-of-war, had been yesterday with the King and
Council, and had made their case so well understood, that the King did owe
them for what they had earned the last year, that they could not set them
out again without some money or stores out of the King's Yards; the latter
of which [Sir] W. Coventry said must be done, for that they were not able
to raise money for them, though it was but L200 a ship: which do skew us
our condition to be so bad, that I am in a total despair of ever having
the nation do well. After talking awhile, and all out of heart with
stories of want of seamen, and seamen's running away, and their demanding
a month's advance, and our being forced to give seamen 3s. a-day to go
hence to work at Chatham, and other things that show nothing but
destruction upon us; for it is certain that, as it now is, the seamen of
England, in my conscience, would, if they could, go over and serve the
King of France or Holland rather than us. Up to the Duke of York to his
chamber, where he seems to be pretty easy, and now and then merry; but yet
one may perceive in all their minds there is something of trouble and
care, and with good reason. Thence to White Hall, and with Sir W. Pen, by
chariot; and there in the Court met with my Lord Anglesey: and he to talk
with [Sir] W. Pen, and told him of the masters of ships being with the
Council yesterday, and that we were not in condition, though the men were
willing, to furnish them with L200 of money, already due to them as earned
by them the last year, to enable them to set out their ships again this
year for the King: which he is amazed at; and when I told him, "My Lord,
this is a sad instance of the condition we are in," he answered, that it
was so indeed, and sighed: and so parted: and he up to the
Council-chamber, where I perceive they sit every morning, and I to
Westminster Hall, where it is Term time. I met with none I knew, nor did
desire it, but only past through the-Hall and so back again, and by coach
home to dinner, being weary indeed of seeing the world, and thinking it
high time for me to provide against the foul weather that is certainly
coming upon us. So to the office, and there [Sir] W. Pen and I did some
business, and then home to dinner, where my wife pleases me mightily with
what she can do upon the flageolet, and then I to the office again, and
busy all the afternoon, and it is worth noting that the King and Council,
in their order of the 23rd instant, for unloading three merchant-ships
taken up for the King's service for men-of-war, do call the late coming of
the Dutch "an invasion." I was told, yesterday, that Mr. Oldenburg, our
Secretary at Gresham College, is put into the Tower, for writing newes to
a virtuoso in France, with whom he constantly corresponds in philosophical
matters; which makes it very unsafe at this time to write, or almost do
any thing. Several captains come to the office yesterday and to-day,
complaining that their men come and go when they will, and will not be
commanded, though they are paid every night, or may be. Nay, this
afternoon comes Harry Russell from Gravesend, telling us that the money
carried down yesterday for the Chest at Chatham had like to have been
seized upon yesterday, in the barge there, by seamen, who did beat our
watermen: and what men should these be but the boat's crew of Sir
Fretcheville Hollis, who used to brag so much of the goodness and order of
his men, and his command over them. Busy all the afternoon at the office.
Towards night I with Mr. Kinaston to White Hall about a Tangier order, but
lost our labour, only met Sir H. Cholmly there, and he tells me great
newes; that this day in Council the King hath declared that he will call
his Parliament in thirty days: which is the best newes I have heard a
great while, and will, if any thing, save the kingdom. How the King come
to be advised to this, I know not; but he tells me that it was against the
Duke of York's mind flatly, who did rather advise the King to raise money
as he pleased; and against the Chancellor's, who told the King that Queen
Elizabeth did do all her business in eighty-eight without calling a
Parliament, and so might he do, for anything he saw. But, blessed be God!
it is done; and pray God it may hold, though some of us must surely go to
the pot, for all must be flung up to them, or nothing will be done. So
back home, and my wife down by water, I sent her, with Mrs. Hewer and her
son, W. Hewer, to see the sunk ships, while I staid at the office, and in
the evening was visited by Mr. Roberts the merchant by us about the
getting him a ship cleared from serving the King as a man of war, which I
will endeavour to do. So home to supper and to bed.
26th. Up, and in dressing myself in my dressing chamber comes up Nell,
and I did play with her . . . . So being ready I to White Hall by
water, and there to the Lords Treasurers' chamber, and there wait, and
here it is every body's discourse that the Parliament is ordered to meet
the 25th of July, being, as they say, St. James's day; which every
creature is glad of. But it is pretty to consider how, walking to the Old
Swan from my house, I met Sir Thomas Harvy, whom, asking the newes of the
Parliament's meeting, he told me it was true, and they would certainly
make a great rout among us. I answered, I did not care for my part,
though I was ruined, so that the Commonwealth might escape ruin by it. He
answered, that is a good one, in faith; for you know yourself to be
secure, in being necessary to the office; but for my part, says he, I must
look to be removed; but then, says he, I doubt not but I shall have amends
made me; for all the world knows upon what terms I come in; which is a
saying that a wise man would not unnecessarily have said, I think, to any
body, meaning his buying his place of my Lord Barkely [of Stratton]. So
we parted, and I to White Hall, as I said before, and there met with Sir
Stephen Fox and Mr. Scawen, who both confirm the news of the Parliament's
meeting. Here I staid for an order for my Tangier money, L30,000, upon
the 11 months' tax, and so away to my Lord Arlington's office, and there
spoke to him about Mr. Lanyon's business, and received a good answer, and
thence to Westminster Hall and there walked a little, and there met with
Colonell Reames, who tells me of a letter come last night, or the day
before, from my Lord St. Albans, out of France, wherein he says, that the
King of France did lately fall out with him, giving him ill names, saying
that he had belied him to our King, by saying that he had promised to
assist our King, and to forward the peace; saying that indeed he had
offered to forward the peace at such a time, but it was not accepted of,
and so he thinks himself not obliged, and would do what was fit for him;
and so made him to go out of his sight in great displeasure: and he hath
given this account to the King, which, Colonell Reymes tells me, puts them
into new melancholy at Court, and he believes hath forwarded the
resolution of calling the Parliament. Wherewith for all this I am very
well contented, and so parted and to the Exchequer, but Mr. Burgess was
not in his office; so alone to the Swan, and thither come Mr. Kinaston to
me, and he and I into a room and there drank and discoursed, and I am
mightily pleased with him for a most diligent and methodical man in all
his business. By and by to Burgess, and did as much as we could with him
about our Tangier order, though we met with unexpected delays in it, but
such as are not to be avoided by reason of the form of the Act and the
disorders which the King's necessities do put upon it, and therefore away
by coach, and at White Hall spied Mr. Povy, who tells me, as a great
secret, which none knows but himself, that Sir G. Carteret hath parted
with his place of Treasurer of the Navy, by consent, to my Lord Anglesey,
and is to be Treasurer of Ireland in his stead; but upon what terms it is
I know not, but Mr. Povy tells it is so, and that it is in his power to
bring me to as great a friendship and confidence in my Lord Anglesey as
ever I was with [Sir] W. Coventry, which I am glad of, and so parted, and
I to my tailor's about turning my old silk suit and cloak into a suit and
vest, and thence with Mr. Kinaston (whom I had set down in the Strand and
took up again at the Temple gate) home, and there to dinner, mightily
pleased with my wife's playing on the flageolet, and so after dinner to
the office. Such is the want already of coals, and the despair of having
any supply, by reason of the enemy's being abroad, and no fleete of ours
to secure, that they are come, as Mr. Kinaston tells me, at this day to L5
10s. per chaldron. All the afternoon busy at the office. In the evening
with my wife and Mercer took coach and to Islington to the Old House, and
there eat and drank and sang with great pleasure, and then round by
Hackney home with great pleasure, and when come home to bed, my stomach
not being well pleased with the cream we had to-night.
27th. Wakened this morning, about three o'clock, by Mr. Griffin with a
letter from Sir W. Coventry to W. Pen, which W. Pen sent me to see, that
the Dutch are come up to the Nore again, and he knows not whether further
or no, and would have, therefore, several things done: ships sunk, and I
know not what--which Sir W. Pen (who it seems is very ill this night, or
would be thought so) hath directed Griffin to carry to the Trinity House;
so he went away with the letter, and I tried and with much ado did get a
little sleep more, and so up about six o'clock, full of thought what to do
with the little money I have left and my plate, wishing with all my heart
that that was all secured. So to the office, where much business all the
morning, and the more by my brethren being all out of the way; Sir W. Pen
this night taken so ill cannot stir; [Sir] W. Batten ill at Walthamstow;
Sir J. Minnes the like at Chatham, and my Lord Bruncker there also upon
business. Horrible trouble with the backwardness of the merchants to let
us have their ships, and seamen's running away, and not to be got or kept
without money. It is worth turning to our letters this day to Sir W.
Coventry about these matters. At noon to dinner, having a haunch of
venison boiled; and all my clerks at dinner with me; and mightily taken
with Mr. Gibson's discourse of the faults of this war in its management
compared [with] that in the last war, which I will get him to put into
writing. Thence, after dinner, to the office again, and there I saw the
proclamations come out this day for the Parliament to meet the 25th of
next month; for which God be praised! and another to invite seamen to
bring in their complaints, of their being ill-used in the getting their
tickets and money, there being a Committee of the Council appointed to
receive their complaints. This noon W. Hewer and T. Hater both tell me
that it is all over the town, and Mr. Pierce tells me also, this afternoon
coming to me, that for certain Sir G. Carteret hath parted with his
Treasurer's place, and that my Lord Anglesey is in it upon agreement and
change of places, though the latter part I do not think. This Povy told
me yesterday, and I think it is a wise act of [Sir] G. Carteret. Pierce
tells me that he hears for certain fresh at Court, that France and we
shall agree; and more, that yesterday was damned at the Council, the
Canary Company; and also that my Lord Mordaunt hath laid down his
Commission, both good things to please the Parliament, which I hope will
do good. Pierce tells me that all the town do cry out of our office, for
a pack of fools and knaves; but says that everybody speaks either well, or
at least the best of me, which is my great comfort, and think I do deserve
it, and shall shew I have; but yet do think, and he also, that the
Parliament will send us all going; and I shall be well contented with it,
God knows! But he tells me how Matt. Wren should say that he was told
that I should say that W. Coventry was guilty of the miscarriage at
Chatham, though I myself, as he confesses, did tell him otherwise, and
that it was wholly Pett's fault. This do trouble me, not only as untrue,
but as a design in some [one] or other to do me hurt; for, as the thing is
false, so it never entered into my mouth or thought, nor ever shall. He
says that he hath rectified Wren in his belief of this, and so all is
well. He gone, I to business till the evening, and then by chance home,
and find the fellow that come up with my wife, Coleman, last from
Brampton, a silly rogue, but one that would seem a gentleman; but I did
not stay with him. So to the office, where late, busy, and then to walk a
little in the garden, and so home to supper and to bed. News this tide,
that about 80 sail of the Dutch, great and small were seen coming up the
river this morning; and this tide some of them to the upper end of the
Hope.