hour I had the honor to see your lordship last, to that of publishing of your lordship's articles of peace with Spain: for, besides them, nothing that I know of, of public management, hath found so much as common excuse, much less the universal acceptance (which this hath done) in all this time.

That after a war chargeably and unsuccessfully managed, as well as unsatisfactorily concluded, the parliament (who parted last upon jealous terms) is come together again this week, with as great an inclination on their side (as is believed) to inquire into faults, as the king is also said to be resolved on his to give way to their examining and correcting them. But their work, as it is thought, will be the less, by the late removal of my lord chancellor; an act wherein I cannot inform your lordship more, touching the grounds of it, than that its doing is generally imputed to reasons delivered the king by Sir W. C. (who I know do not spare to assert the requisiteness of it), with the concurrence at first of his royal highness, though afterward it proved not so pleasing to him, but that he is said to have endeavored the preventing it when it was gone too far.'-Ib. pp. 117-119.

Pepys's official situation brought him into frequent contact with the Duke of York, then lord high admiral, between whom and himself a growing intimacy and attachment appears to have arisen. Whatever were the grounds of the connexion between the secretary and his official superior, the fact itself is unquestionable, and goes far to account for the charge of popish inclinations which was alleged against the former. The nation had now begun rightly to estimate the character of the restored government. Men's minds passed from one extreme to another; from exultation to despondency, from implicit trust to inveterate suspicion and doubt. The Protestantism of the king was more than doubtful, while James's adhesion to the church of Rome was matter of notoriety. The religious fears of the nation were thoroughly roused, and the political liberalism which had survived the restoration sought to rally its forces under the No Popery cry. Good and bad men were temporarily united in opposition to the popish councils of the prince; and all who were known to possess his friendship were suspected of being favorable to his creed. Pepys suffered on this account, and the suspicion which attached to him was strengthened by the popish inclinations of his wife. He himself adverts, in his diary, to the wavering faith of Mrs. Pepys in the following terms-Nov. 28th, 1668. My wife lately frighted me about 'her being a Catholique. I dare not, therefore, move her to 'go to church, for fear she should deny me.' Under these circumstances it was no marvel that Pepys's own faith should have been brought into doubt on the occasion of a petition being presented to the House of Commons in 1673, against his return

for Castle Rising. Pepys applied to the brother of his wife for evidence to rebut the charge preferred against him, and received in reply a communication from which we extract the following.

'HONOURED SIR,

I answer to yours of last night (which I received this morning at eight of the clock), I wonder indeed that you, whose life and conversation hath been ever known to be that of a sincere Protestant, should now be called in question of being a papist. But, sir, malice and envy will still oppress the best of men.

'Wherefore, sir, to the hazard of my life, I will prove (if occasion be), with my sword in my hand (since it hath touched so near of the memory of my dear sister), that your competitor is a false liar in his throat, as to your having either an altar in your house, or that my dear sister, ever since she had the honor to be your wife, or to her death, had the least thoughts of popery. This I know, not only by my often conversation with her, but in my presence, one time I remember, she having some discourse with my father concerning your life and conversation, as well as fortunes; this was his speech with her, that amongst the greatest of the happinesses he enjoyed in his mind was that she had, by matching with you, not only wedded wisdom, but also one who by it, he hoped in Christ, would quite blow out those foolish thoughts she might in her more tender years have had of popery. These, to the best of my memory, were his very words.

6

To which her reply was (kissing his eyes, which she loved dearly), 'Dear father, though in my tender years I was by my low fortune in this world deluded to popery by the fond dictates thereof, I have now (joined with my riper years, which give me more understanding), a man to my husband too wise, and one too religious in the Protestant religion, to suffer my thoughts to bend that way any more.' But, sir, I have given you too much trouble with one thing.'-Ib. pp. 146-148.

The storm which threatened his fortunes passed over for a season, but it was not to be expected that he should escape uninjured amidst the violence and injustice which marked our national proceedings on the so-called Popish Plot. This was a season of insanity, when men's fears were too violently excited to permit the calm exercise of their reason. Absolutists and liberals, Church of England men and nonconformists, political intriguers and upright religionists, partook in common of the almost universal mania. The nation was thoroughly alarmed, and in the height of its frenzy trampled alike on the claims of humanity and the spirit and precepts of the Christian faith. Mr. Pepys was known to be a favorite of the Duke of York, the leader and hope of the popish party, and was in consequence exposed to all the violence of the storm which then raged through the country. He was accused to the Commons of furnishing secret information respecting the English navy to

the French government, and of being himself a Roman Catholic, and a great promoter of the designs of that party. Under these charges he was committed to the Tower on the Speaker's warrant, May 22nd, 1679, where he remained until the following February, when he was discharged, on the attorney-general stating that the principal witness against him refused to abide by his original deposition. Several letters, written by him at this period, are contained in the present volumes, and will be read with considerable interest by all who are desirous of minute information respecting the period in question. Amongst the witnesses against Pepys, was a man named James, formerly his butler, who deposed that his master was a papist, and had kept in his house a priest in disguise. But being suddenly attacked by an alarming illness, he sought to ease his conscience by acknowledging that his evidence was false. The following letter to Mr. Povey, Feb. 25th, 1680, refers to this matter, and is too honorable to Pepys to be omitted.

'An occasion offers, wherein you may exercise that kindness you have sometimes exchanged with me; and it is this.

You may, I doubt not, have heard that one James, who had been some time my servant, had been made use of as my accuser. He is now upon his sick-bed, and, as I am told, near the point of death; and has declared himself inclined to ease his conscience of something wherein I may be nearly concerned, with a particular willingness to open himself to you, whom he says he has known and observed during his serving the Duke of Buckingham and me.

You may please, therefore, in charity to me as well as to the dying man, to give him a visit to-morrow morning, when I shall appoint one to conduct you to his lodging. It may be you may hesitate herein, because of the friendship which I no less know you to have with Mr. Harboard than you know him to have ill will against me, and of the effects of it, under which I still remain of being held obnoxious to others, to whom you bear great reverence.

But that makes me the rather to importune you to the taking this trouble, because your candor is such, that, with a fair and equal indifferency, you will hear and represent what that dying man shall relate to you, who, it is likely, will reveal at this hour nothing but truth. And it is to truth only, and the God thereof, I appeal, and which will, I hope, vindicate my reputation, and free me from the misunderstandings which I find many ingenuous and worthy persons have had of me, from their being seduced by the false testimonies which have been gained and improved to my disadvantage, even to the hazard of my life and estate, and no less to the disturbing of the government, than to the raising injurious reflections upon those public trusts in which I have (much to your knowledge) carried myself diligently, and (I am sure) faithfully.

In this I, the rather, take the liberty of opening myself, thus freely and amply, to you upon this occasion; because I would move

you the more strongly, to take upon you this just and charitable office, so much importing others, as well as

Your most humble servant,

'S. PEPYS.' -Ib. pp. 206, 207.

James died a few days after this letter was written, and Pepys refers to his confession in a letter to his own father, from which we take the following.

It is long since I have expressed my duty to you, and truly one day has followed another with some new occasion of care, so that, though I have been in a great measure restored to the liberty of my person, my mind has continued in thraldom, till now that it has pleased God, in a miraculous manner, to begin the work of my vindication by laying his hand on James my butler, by a sickness (whereof he is some days since dead), which led him to consider and repent of the wrongs he had done me in accusing me in parliament, which he has solemnly and publicly confessed on the holy sacrament, justifying me and my family to all the world in that part of my accusation which relates to religion; and I question not but God almighty will be no less just in what concerns the rest of my charge, which he knows to be no less false than this. In the mean time, his holy name be praised for what he has done in this particular.'-Ib. 210, 211.

The political principles of Pepys harmonized well with those of his patron, and we find him consequently expressing his satisfaction with the duke's administration of Scotch affairs, and in defiance of facts at once innumerable and notorious, specifying gentleness as one of its attributes. The extract is short, and we subjoin it.

'Nevertheless, the authority the duke maintains with so much absoluteness, yet gentleness here, is a thing very considerable, rendering it morally impossible for any disquiet to arise in his majesty's affairs in this kingdom. Truly, as their government seems founded on principles much more steady than those of ours, so their method of managing it in council (his royal highness having been pleased to give me opportunity of being present with him two council-days), appears no less to exceed ours in the order, gravity, and unanimity of their debates.' -Ib. pp. 295, 296.

Amongst the disastrous results of the restoration, none was more strikingly obvious than the disorganization and consequent inefficiency of the English navy. The genius of the commonwealth had wrested from the Dutch the supremacy of the ocean, and had laid the foundation of that naval superiority which has been so triumphantly maintained in modern times. The profound intellect and unspotted integrity of Vane had

infused into this department of the public service a spirit of enterprise, courage, and self-confidence which rendered our seamen invincible, and changed the whole aspect of maritime affairs. The government of the Stuarts speedily undid what the high-minded republican had accomplished, and our fleets were in consequence insulted by foes whom they had formerly chased from the sea. The following admissions are too explicit to need comment.

From the shameful want of discipline, the rest of the ships not ready to come out of Plymouth, with their flags, after my lord's signals, one hour after another, and himself plying three or four hours under sail, going out. Morning, at sea, only the Woolwich in sight. So (with a fair wind for Plymouth), we were fain to lie by for them, losing our way all the while. Hamilton, in the Dragon, and Wheeler, in the Tiger (though shot at from my lord, not being under sail to come out) to the last.

Yet, my lord, though infinitely vexed at this, and blaming it to me, plainly declared the misfortune of a man in his condition, carrying a flag, in a government where he cannot exercise the necessary discipline, for fear of making more enemies than he hath already; the admiralty, themselves, being more likely to take part with the friends of those he should punish, than join him in it. Therefore, he was under a necessity to let them alone; it being now (as we have often said to one another), a work for any man to set things right in the navy, but the Duke of York.

'He added (as mighty adventurous), that if the duke would take up the Admiralty, and had no mind to appear in the exercise of severity on captains, he would go to sea, and take all the odium on himself, rather than the duke should not take it up, and thereby save the navy, which will otherwise be undone.

'Yet I must add, that I doubt whether even the duke be now strong enough to mend things; that is to say, without exposing himself to more envy and complaints, among friends of the rogues he should punish, than is fit to advise the duke to draw upon himself; especially in his present circumstances. On this consideration, I think, he should not take it on him, till the king hath, of his own accord, first taken away, by good rules, the occasions of these people's disorders, by taking away the money business and others. Then, seeing those rules executed, would become his duty to the king, and no act of his own.' -Ib. pp. 339, 340. Captain Macdonnell, in the Greyhound, in answer to the message to inquire after a ship seen yesterday in the offing, and thought to be a Salleeman, informs my Lord Dartmouth of Captain Lloyd's being gone for England. Notwithstanding his pressing him to come to my lord, he would not, but proceeded in his voyage: hence sufficiently

appear

I. The consequence of the king's commanders taking in money, which Macdonnell brought us word he (Lloyd) had on board from Cales, that, let the business of the king's be what it will, all shall give