The Diary of Samuel Pepys [122]
mind: when in every discourse I observe him to be as very a coxcombe as I could have thought had been in the City. But he is resolved to do great matters in pulling down the shops quite through the City, as he hath done in many places, and will make a thorough passage quite through the City, through Canning-street, which indeed will be very fine. And then his precept, which he, in vain-glory, said he had drawn up himself, and hath printed it, against coachmen and carmen affronting of the gentry in the street; it is drawn so like a fool, and some faults were openly found in it, that I believe he will have so much wit as not to proceed upon it though it be printed. Here we staid talking till eleven at night, Sir R. Ford breaking to my Lord our business of our patent to be Justices of the Peace in the City, which he stuck at mightily; but, however, Sir R. Ford knows him to be a fool, and so in his discourse he made him appear, and cajoled him into a consent to it: but so as I believe when he comes to his right mind to-morrow he will be of another opinion; and though Sir R. Ford moved it very weightily and neatly, yet I had rather it had been spared now. But to see how he rants, and pretends to sway all the City in the Court of Aldermen, and says plainly that they cannot do, nor will he suffer them to do, any thing but what he pleases; nor is there any officer of the City but of his putting in; nor any man that could have kept the City for the King thus well and long but him. And if the country can be preserved, he will undertake that the City shall not dare to stir again. When I am confident there is no man almost in the City cares for him, nor hath he brains to outwit any ordinary tradesman.
20th. Meeting with Mr. Kirton's kinsman in Paul's Church Yard, he and I to a coffee-house; where I hear how there had like to have been a surprizall of Dublin by some discontented protestants, and other things of like nature; and it seems the Commissioners have carried themselves so high for the Papists that the others will not endure it. Hewlett and some others are taken and clapped up; and they say the King hath sent over to dissolve the Parliament there, who went very high against the Commissioners. Pray God send all well!
21st. By appointment our full board met, and Sir Philip Warwick and Sir Robert Long come from my Lord Treasurer to speak with us about the state of the debts of the Navy; and how to settle it, so as to begin upon the new foundation of 200,000l. per annum, which the King is now resolved not to exceed.
22nd (Lord's day). Wrote out our bill for the Parliament about our being made Justices of Peace in the City. So to church, where a dull formall fellow that prayed for the right Hon. John Lord Barkeley, Lord President of Connaught, &c. To my Lord Sandwich, and with him talking a good while; I find the Court would have this Indulgence go on, but the Parliament are against it. Matters in Ireland are full of discontent.
29th. After dinner in comes Mr. Moore, and sat and talked with us a good while; among other things, telling me that neither my Lord nor he are under apprehensions of the late discourse in the House of Commons, concerning resumption of Crowne lands.
APRIL 1st, 1663. I went to the Temple to my Cozen Roger Pepys, to see and talk with him a little; who tells me that, with much ado, the Parliament do agree to throw down Popery: but he says it is with so much spite and passion, and an endeavour of bringing all Non-conformists into the same condition, that he is afraid matters will not yet go so well as he could wish.
2nd. Sir W. Pen told me, that this day the King hath sent to the House his concurrence wholly with them against the Popish priests, Jesuits, &c. which gives great content and I am glad of it.
3rd. To the Tangier Committee, where we find ourselves at a great stand; the establishment being but 7000l. per annum, and the forces to be kept in the town at the least estimate that my Lord Rutherford can be got to bring is 5300l. The charge of this year's work of the
20th. Meeting with Mr. Kirton's kinsman in Paul's Church Yard, he and I to a coffee-house; where I hear how there had like to have been a surprizall of Dublin by some discontented protestants, and other things of like nature; and it seems the Commissioners have carried themselves so high for the Papists that the others will not endure it. Hewlett and some others are taken and clapped up; and they say the King hath sent over to dissolve the Parliament there, who went very high against the Commissioners. Pray God send all well!
21st. By appointment our full board met, and Sir Philip Warwick and Sir Robert Long come from my Lord Treasurer to speak with us about the state of the debts of the Navy; and how to settle it, so as to begin upon the new foundation of 200,000l. per annum, which the King is now resolved not to exceed.
22nd (Lord's day). Wrote out our bill for the Parliament about our being made Justices of Peace in the City. So to church, where a dull formall fellow that prayed for the right Hon. John Lord Barkeley, Lord President of Connaught, &c. To my Lord Sandwich, and with him talking a good while; I find the Court would have this Indulgence go on, but the Parliament are against it. Matters in Ireland are full of discontent.
29th. After dinner in comes Mr. Moore, and sat and talked with us a good while; among other things, telling me that neither my Lord nor he are under apprehensions of the late discourse in the House of Commons, concerning resumption of Crowne lands.
APRIL 1st, 1663. I went to the Temple to my Cozen Roger Pepys, to see and talk with him a little; who tells me that, with much ado, the Parliament do agree to throw down Popery: but he says it is with so much spite and passion, and an endeavour of bringing all Non-conformists into the same condition, that he is afraid matters will not yet go so well as he could wish.
2nd. Sir W. Pen told me, that this day the King hath sent to the House his concurrence wholly with them against the Popish priests, Jesuits, &c. which gives great content and I am glad of it.
3rd. To the Tangier Committee, where we find ourselves at a great stand; the establishment being but 7000l. per annum, and the forces to be kept in the town at the least estimate that my Lord Rutherford can be got to bring is 5300l. The charge of this year's work of the