Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1660 N.S. Samuel Pepys

up, and appeared likely to become disagreeable. Pepys bought him off with an annuity of too, which he did not have to pay for any length of time, as Barlow died in February, 1664–65. It is not in human nature to be greatly grieved at the death of one to whom you have to pay an annuity, and Pepys expresses his feelings in a very naive manner:—

      "For which God knows my heart I could be as sorry as is possible for

       one to be for a stranger by whose death he gets £100 per annum, he

       being a worthy honest man; but when I come to consider the

       providence of God by this means unexpectedly to give me £100 a year

       more in my estate, I have cause to bless God, and do it from the

       bottom of my heart."

      This office was one of considerable importance, for not only was the holder the secretary or registrar of the Navy Board, but he was also one of the principal officers of the navy, and, as member of the board, of equal rank with the other commissioners. This office Pepys held during the whole period of the Diary, and we find him constantly fighting for his position, as some of the other members wished to reduce his rank merely to that of secretary. In his contention Pepys appears to have been in the right, and a valuable MS. volume in the Pepysian library contains an extract from the Old Instructions of about 1649, in which this very point is argued out. The volume appears to have been made up by William Penn the Quaker, from a collection of manuscripts on the affairs of the navy found in his father's, "Sir William Penn's closet." It was presented to Charles II., with a dedication ending thus:—

      "I hope enough to justifie soe much freedome with a Prince that is

       so easie to excuse things well intended as this is

       "BY

       "Great Prince,

       "Thy faithfull subject,

       "WM. PENN"

       "London, the 22 of the Mo. called June, 1680."

      It does not appear how the volume came into Pepys's possession. It may have been given him by the king, or he may have taken it as a perquisite of his office. The book has an index, which was evidently added by Pepys; in this are these entries, which show his appreciation of the contents of the MS.:—

      "Clerk of the Acts,

       his duty,

       his necessity and usefulness."

      The following description of the duty of the Clerk of the Acts shows the importance of the office, and the statement that if the clerk is not fitted to act as a commissioner he is a blockhead and unfit for his employment is particularly racy, and not quite the form of expression one would expect to find in an official document:

      "CLERKE OF THE ACTS.

       "The clarke of the Navye's duty depends principally upon rateing (by

       the Board's approbation) of all bills and recording of them, and all

       orders, contracts & warrants, making up and casting of accompts,

       framing and writing answers to letters, orders, and commands from

       the Councell, Lord High Admirall, or Commissioners of the Admiralty,

       and he ought to be a very able accomptant, well versed in Navall

       affairs and all inferior officers dutyes.

       "It hath been objected by some that the Clarke of the Acts ought to

       be subordinate to the rest of the Commissioners, and not to be

       joyned in equall power with them, although he was so constituted

       from the first institution, which hath been an opinion only of some

       to keep him at a distance, least he might be thought too forward if

       he had joynt power in discovering or argueing against that which

       peradventure private interest would have concealed; it is certaine

       no man sees more of the Navye's Transactions than himselfe, and

       possibly may speak as much to the project if required, or else he is

       a blockhead, and not fitt for that imployment. But why he should

       not make as able a Commissioner as a Shipp wright lett wise men

       judge."

      In Pepys's patent the salary is stated to be £33 6s. 8d., but this was only the ancient "fee out of the Exchequer," which had been attached to the office for more than a century. Pepys's salary had been previously fixed at £350 a-year.

      Neither of the two qualifications upon which particular stress is laid in the above Instructions was possessed by Pepys. He knew nothing about the navy, and so little of accounts that apparently he learned the multiplication table for the first time in July, 1661. We see from the particulars given in the Diary how hard he worked to obtain the knowledge required in his office, and in consequence of his assiduity he soon became a model official. When Pepys became Clerk of the Acts he took up his residence at the Navy Office, a large building situated between Crutched Friars and Seething Lane, with an entrance in each of those places. On July 4th, 1660, he went with Commissioner Pett to view the houses, and was very pleased with them, but he feared that the more influential officers would jockey him out of his rights. His fears were not well grounded, and on July 18th he records the fact that he dined in his own apartments, which were situated in the Seething Lane front.

      On July 24th, 1660, Pepys was sworn in as Lord Sandwich's deputy for a Clerkship of the Privy Seal. This office, which he did not think much of at first, brought him "in for a time £3 a day." In June, 1660, he was made Master of Arts by proxy, and soon afterwards he was sworn in as a justice of the Peace for Middlesex, Essex, Kent, and Hampshire, the counties in which the chief dockyards were situated.

      Pepys's life is written large in the Diary, and it is not necessary here to do more than catalogue the chief incidents of it in chronological order. In February, 1661–62, he was chosen a Younger Brother of the Trinity House, and in April, 1662, when on an official visit to Portsmouth Dockyard, he was made a burgess of the town. In August of the same year he was appointed one of the commissioners for the affairs of Tangier. Soon afterwards Thomas Povy, the treasurer, got his accounts into a muddle, and showed himself incompetent for the place, so that Pepys replaced him as treasurer to the commission.

      In March, 1663–64, the Corporation of the Royal Fishery was appointed, with the Duke of York as governor, and thirty-two assistants, mostly "very great persons." Through Lord Sandwich's influence Pepys was made one of these.

      The time was now arriving when Pepys's general ability and devotion to business brought him prominently into notice. During the Dutch war the unreadiness of the ships, more particularly in respect to victualling, was the cause of great trouble. The Clerk of the Acts did his utmost to set things right, and he was appointed Surveyor-General of the Victualling Office. The kind way in which Mr. Coventry proposed him as "the fittest man in England" for the office, and the Duke of York's expressed approval, greatly pleased him.

      During the fearful period when the Plague was raging, Pepys stuck to his business, and the chief management of naval affairs devolved upon him, for the meetings at the Navy Office were but thinly attended. In a letter to Coventry he wrote:—

      "The sickness in general thickens round us, and particularly upon

       our neighbourhood. You, sir, took your turn of the sword; I must

       not, therefore, grudge to take mine of the pestilence."

      At this time his wife was living at Woolwich, and he himself with his clerks at Greenwich; one maid only remained in the house in London.

      Pepys rendered special service at the time of the Fire of London. He communicated the king's wishes to the Lord Mayor, and he saved the Navy Office by having up workmen from Woolwich and Deptford Dockyards to pull down the houses around, and so prevent the spread of the flames.

      When peace was at length concluded with the Dutch,