Tuesday 16 October 1666
Up, and to the office, where sat to do little business but hear clamours for money. At noon home to dinner, and to the office again, after hearing my brother play a little upon the Lyra viall, which he do so as to show that he hath a love to musique and a spirit for it, which I am well pleased with. All the afternoon at the office, and at night with Sir W. Batten, Sir W. Pen, [and Sir] J. Minnes, at [Sir] W. Pen’s lodgings, advising about business and orders fit presently to make about discharging of ships come into the river, and which to pay first, and many things in order thereto. But it vexed me that, it being now past seven o’clock, and the businesses of great weight, and I had done them by eight o’clock, and sending them to be signed, they were all gone to bed, and Sir W. Pen, though awake, would not, being in bed, have them brought to him to sign; this made me quite angry.
Late at work at the office, and then home to supper and to bed.
Not come to any resolution at the Parliament to-day about the manner of raising this 1,800,000l..
12 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Not come to any resolution at the Parliament to-day about the manner of raising this 1,800,000l.."
House of Commons today
Ways and Means.
Ordered, That the House do resolve into a Committee of the whole House, to proceed in the further Debate of the Means of effectual raising Eighteen hundred thousand Pounds Supply for his Majesty.
[...]
Mr. Millward took the Chair of the Committee.
Mr. Millward reports, That the Committee of the whole House had made some further Progress in Debate of the Means of raising Eighteen hundred thousand Pounds for his Majesty's Supply: And desired the House would, To-morrow Morning, Ten of the Clock, resolve into a Committee, to proceed in the further Debate thereof.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
L&M cite Milward as reporting that the Commons was debating whether to use a land-tax or a general excise.
Terry Foreman • Link
Milward
The Diary of John Milward, Esq., Member of Parliament for Derbyshire, September, 1666 to May, 1668. Edited, with some notes and an introduction on his life, by Caroline Robbins. http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/docs/bp/…
Mary • Link
"..... they were all gone to bed"
Saving money on candles, Sir Wm.? Or perhaps Penn has had One Of Those Days and doesn't want to think about work at all till tomorrow.
Todd Bernhardt • Link
re: "Eighteen hundred thousand Pounds"
Why not expressed as one million eight hundred thousand, I wonder?
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Why not expressed as one million eight hundred thousand, I wonder?
This struck me too. Neither Wikipedia nor the OED offer much illumination. The word "million" has been in English use since the 14th century with the same precise meaning as today. However, it has also has a metaphorical use meaning a very large amount. Perhaps Parliament had a tradition of using "thousand" and "hundred" when referring to Treasury transactions because they were accepted as precise accounting terms and "million" had not yet been so accepted.
language hat • Link
(I could have sworn I left this comment yesterday, but...)
For the same reason we say "eighteen hundred" rather than "one thousand eight hundred": it's shorter.
Terry Foreman • Link
Anglesey to Ormond
Written from: London
Date: 16 October 1666
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 217, fol(s). 342
Document type: Holograph
The City of London received, at Gresham College, the letter of the Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland, "concerning the [proffered] beeves for the distressed of London; which munificent bounty, as they called it, ... so ample, and so early, they confessed they wanted for expressions to acknowledge". ... The writer asks the Duke to be his proxy, as to his (the Earl's) share in the subscription.
As to the Cattle Bill, ... "the King hath declared plainly he will never do so unjust a thing as to pass it..."
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"But it vexed me that, it being now past seven o’clock, and the businesses of great weight, and I had done them by eight o’clock, and sending them to be signed, they were all gone to bed, and Sir W. Pen, though awake, would not, being in bed, have them brought to him to sign; this made me quite angry."
Would me too ... if the mail was to go out-of-town, the delay in signing means it missed the coach. If it was for Coventry et al over at Whitehall, it could have been on their desks first thing in the morning. If it was to go to the fleet at the Nore, Sheerness, or Chatham, it missed the tide. Pepys made the Clerks work late to do this, using expensive candles ... and My Lords just went to bed.
Anyone else suspect they thought it a funny stunt to pull on the upstart?
San Diego Sarah • Link
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey’s services in the administration of Ireland were especially valuable. He filled the office of vice-treasurer from 1660 until 1667, served on the committee for carrying out the declaration for the settlement of Ireland and on the committee for Irish affairs, SPOILER and in 1667 he exchanged his post of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland for that of Treasurer of the Navy. So Pepys will be getting to know him soon.
San Diego Sarah • Link
I had no idea what beeves were ... thought Ireland had sent something medieval to the City of London:
Merriam Webster definition of beeves:
plural of BEEF.
Very appropriate, considering the Cattle Bill outlawing their import into England is under discussion.
john • Link
San Diego Sarah, methinks "a funny stunt" in the sense of showing one's inferior the proper place.
San Diego Sarah • Link
You read me right, John. Sometimes my ironic British side gets the better of me.
It's hard to fathom the disdain the upper classes in Britain felt for their servants and less fortunate people. I put it in the past tense because people are more enlightened today and most try to behave better ... but you could argue class in Britain has been just as poisonous to the national identity as slavery. You can see from the way Pepys treated his mayds and boys that he was on the slippery slope to the mindset that condoned slavery and outright cruelty. Pepys concern with the recent impressment was that the men didn't get the King's shilling, so it was technically illegal, not that it was an insanely cruel way to run the Navy in a war.
One of our Queen's first acts stuck a knife in the heart of the class system 65 years ago when she refused to meet debutantes. Yes, there is still a "coming out" season in England, but it no longer has royal patronage.
Charles II learned a lot from his adventures after Worcester and being poor and homeless in Europe for 11 years. He also had to rebuild a nation which had lost 100,000 people (that's the equivalent of about 10 million people in the USA today). He had to promote from the ranks -- another manifestation of the problems this caused was the "Gentlemen Captains and Tars" rivalry and lack of cooperation the Generals-at-Sea had to handle this year.
I suspect class is also one of the problems Elizabeth has with the other Commissioners' wives. She may claim her father is French nobility, but she never has her parents visit or introduces them to the neighbors so they probably think she's lying. Pepys' tailor dad and crazy mom are welcome guests, so you can imagine how undesirable her parents must be! I can hear the whispers from behind the lace curtains now.