Saturday 9 November 1667

Up and to my workmen, who are at work close again, and I at the office all the morning, and there do hear by a messenger that Roger Pepys would speak with me, so before the office up I to Westminster, and there find the House very busy, and like to be so all day, about my Lord Chancellor’s impeachment, whether treason or not, where every body is mighty busy. I spoke with my cozen Roger, whose business was only to give me notice that Carcasse hath been before the Committee; and to warn me of it, which is a great courtesy in him to do, and I desire him to continue to do so. This business of this fellow, though it may be a foolish thing, yet it troubles me, and I do plainly see my weakness that I am not a man able to go through trouble, as other men, but that I should be a miserable man if I should meet with adversity, which God keep me from! He desirous to get back into the House, he having his notes in his hand, the lawyers being now speaking to the point of whether treason or not treason, the article of advising the King to break up the Parliament, and to govern by the sword. Thence I down to the Hall, and there met Mr. King, the Parliament-man for Harwich, and there he did shew, and let me take a copy of, all the articles against my Lord Chancellor, and what members they were that undertook to bring witnesses to make them good, of which I was mighty glad, and so away home, and to dinner and to my workmen, and in the afternoon out to get Simpson the joyner to come to work at my office, and so back home and to my letters by the post to-night, and there, by W. Pen, do hear that this article was overvoted in the House not to be a ground of impeachment of treason, at which I was glad, being willing to have no blood spilt, if I could help it. So home to supper, and glad that the dirty bricklayers’ work of my office is done, and home to supper and to bed.

14 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"all the articles against my Lord Chancellor"

Here, without "what members they were that undertook to bring witnesses to make them good", which L&M note Pepys's copy in Hayter's hand bears in the margins, a link to the Articles of impeachment against the Earl of Clarendon
http://is.gd/g5yC3

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Whew! Busy day, at home and at the office.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

House of Commons (Grey's Debates)

Saturday, November 9.

[The House resumed the matter of the Debate upon the first Head of Accusation against the Earl of Clarendon.]

Sir Thomas Strickland.] To the first article moved, That the statute of 25 Edw. III. may be read, statute of 1 Philip and Mary, and the Earl of Strafford's case.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

"the Earl of Strafford's case"

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (13 April 1593 (O.S.) – 12 May 1641) was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the king, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned him to death, Charles signed the death warrant and Wentworth was executed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom…

Strafford was executed in part for violations of the Petition of Right which, i.a., bans the forced billeting of troops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peti…

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...the article of advising the King to break up the Parliament, and to govern by the sword."

Ouch. If proven, good cause for making the Chancellor's head roll.

"...do hear that this article was overvoted in the House not to be a ground of impeachment of treason, at which I was glad, being willing to have no blood spilt, if I could help it." Sam almost seems to be shifting in viewpoint continually between his position in the adminstration, presumably pro-Clarendon, and a certain sympathy for the Parliament's fears of Clarendon, though he'd not like it to come to blood...Understandably.

"This business of this fellow, though it may be a foolish thing, yet it troubles me, and I do plainly see my weakness that I am not a man able to go through trouble, as other men, but that I should be a miserable man if I should meet with adversity, which God keep me from!" His shining honesty but in this case I think quite justified; Carkesse could make a deal of trouble for him and always the good chance Parliament might turn to a lesser target to humble Charles while the Stuart administration might seize the chance to abandon a small fry to save a great one.

Perhaps the best defense for Sam right now is he's not yet well enough known to be a worthwhile target while big game is in Parliament's sights...But in a few years.

cum salis grano  •  Link

When money be scarce, and the kings navy and other lenders fail to get paid, then blame shall be apportioned to the less prepared, and heads will tumble.
Who should have the last say in spending and collecting?
mistress or the representative users or the providers of tax money.
King [Monopoly of power] or Parliament with opposing/disruptive democratic? power.

Money was and still is the least understood human action, as the Latin says Credo, "I believe" or "Credit" he/she/ it believes [ you will get thy money one day] and when doubt and hunger appear then the fight is on.
Where will King get funds to fight his battles, borrow it with an incentive of repayment or take it and the incentive to pay up, be on not doing so, be time spent with the Fleet [or Tower], not the navy.

Credit card, the card that says [ very softly]he believes that I have money and will pay back at 29% interest, 1d at a time .
The French had just defaulted for the umpteenth time, none the less had built some nice tourist attractions, and London need baskets full of not to be available funds to rebuild the London and fuel speculation by those wise enough to take advantage of people desperately needing to Eat while the likes of Downing investing in low priced properties, shame that Pepys failed to understand the need to invest in Property instead of nearly instant rewards in prizes.

The wrangling in Parliament will set the tone of the future, Have control in one Man [CII] Ala Louis Or in the elected [Land owners]by a few running Parliament. Money is the least explained roots of history, it be so hidden we usually just see the one time bloom not even the leaves that allow the flower to attract the pollen suckers.

Ruben  •  Link

"the dirty bricklayers’ work of my office"

mmm... May I presume the office was a brick building when all around houses were built of wood? An imposing, expensive public building?

cum salis grano  •  Link

dirty bricklayer, no cement but could be a mixture of line and mud????
OED
One who lays the bricks in building.
bricklayer's itch: a cutaneous disease produced on the hands of bricklayers through contact with lime.
1485 Catal. Harleian MSS. (1808) I. 285/1 Licence..to reteigne Richard Chezholme brekeleyer
Hence bricklayery [cf. carpentry] = next.
1677 MOXON Mech. Exerc. (1703) Title, The Arts of Smithing, Joinery, Carpentry, Turning, Bricklayery.

Brick
[Found only since the middle of the 15th c.; not in the Promptorium 1440, or Catholicon 1483: prob. a. F. brique, in OF. also briche; quoted by Godefroy 1264 (briche) and 1457 (brique) in sense of ‘a form of loaf’, and also in OF. in sense of ‘broken piece, fragment, bit’, and reinforcing a negative in sense ‘not a bit’. Still in Burgundian and Hainault dial., in sense ‘piece’, brique de pain ‘piece of bread’, in Swiss Romance ‘piece, bit, débris’, mod.Pr. briga ‘débris’. It would appear therefore that the OF. word was derived in some way from the Teutonic verb brek-an to break (cf. F. brèche, ONF. breke, breque breaking, BREACH), and that its original sense was ‘broken piece’, which passed through the general sense ‘piece, bit’, or the specific sense ‘piece of bread as baked, loaf’, to that of ‘piece of baked clay’. In French une brique, the shaped object, would thus be earlier than la brique, the substance; but in English the earliest examples yet found are of the substance.]

I. 1. A substance formed of clay, kneaded, moulded, and hardened by baking with fire, or in warm countries and ancient times by drying in the sun; used instead of stone as a building material.

Raymond  •  Link

After The Great Fire, brick became a more popular building material.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Building materials

As well as brick being safer (oddly enough the Australian National Association of Fire Engineers, meeting this week, has expressed concern about the new lightweight building materials such as marine ply and recycled timber as opposed to brick and is calling for sprinkler systems in all new homes to be part of State building codes), in the later 17th century it was difficult to replace all the lost timber framed buildings as good timber was now much scarcer and further away. And annoying people kept earmarking good timber for ships.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Just a bit more on bricks: When we lived in Kent, we had a friend who was a restorer/rebuilder, keen on traditional materials and methods. For one client, he got hold of a load of bricks from a demolished 17thc London house. On the underside of one of these bricks was the scooped imprint of a very small hand: the 17th c brickworks were using child labour.

Glyn  •  Link

"and I do plainly see my weakness that I am not a man able to go through trouble, as other men, but that I should be a miserable man if I should meet with adversity, which God keep me from!"

You're going to do better than you think, when you're arrested and imprisoned in the Tower many years from now.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Carcasse hath been before the Committee"

L&M note the Committee on Miscarriages http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… was now investigating the matter of pay-tickets; Carkesse was a clerk of the Ticket-Office who had been suspended from duty om suspicion of malpractice. See 16 February this year "Up, and to the office, where all the morning. Among other things great heat we were all in on one side or other in the examining witnesses against Mr. Carcasse about his buying of tickets, and a cunning knave I do believe he is, and will appear, though I have thought otherwise heretofore." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Brick in the office:
Perhaps they were improving/replacing the fireplaces and chimneys?
Even in wooden buildings, common sense called for brick/stone fireplaces and chimneys, but figuring out how to get the cinders and smoke to fly up the flue (instead of out of the grate) evolved over these decades. Even with a fire screen, we had scorch marks on my childhood carpet. That's why there's often a big stone hearth in front of the actual fireplace.

(Didn't Pepys' father-in-law patent something about this?)

After such an enormous catastrophe as the Great Fire, it stands to reason there would be time/resources (if not money) invested in upgrades and the enforcing of safety codes in government offices.

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