From the Dublin University Magazine. ANNALISTS OF THE RESTORATION. NO. I. MR. SECRETARY PEPYS. THE minute examination of any one authentic work does more to familiarize us with the history of the period to which it refers, than the perusal of a hundred abridgments. It is probable that more graphic pictures of the bar of his time, and journal, I not being able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes every time I take a pen in my hand, and therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear; and therefore resolve, from this time forward, to have it kept by my people in long-hand, and must be contented to set down no more than what is fit for them and all the world to know; or if there be anything, I must endeavor to keep a margin in my book open to add here and there a note in short hand with my own hand. of the civic contests at a period of what soon be- We have thus become almost accidentally accame a death-struggle between political parties, quainted with what Pepys-indulging at the same are to be gleaned from Roger North's highly-col- time his habitual caution, and the garrulous propenored narratives, than in any other way. A single sity which was his very nature-thought he had sentence often implies a whole train of feelings effectually hidden. Of Pepy's "Correspondence,' scarcely suspected to have existed; and yet which, for which we are all indebted to Lord Braybrooke, when exposed to view, give the explanation of * We speak of the revelation being strangely given us. Lord Braybrooke has published three editions of the. Memoirs, each in some respects communicating information not to be found in the others, though the last is in every important respect infinitely the best. The "Diary," by which we chiefly know Pepys, was drawn up in the form of a journal-he noting down in a peculiar cipher the incidents of each day, important or unimportant as they might be. This short-hand seems to have answered its purposes of concealment; for, as far as we can learn from Lord Braybrooke's preface to the earlier editions, it does not appear to have been deciphered till some short time before its publication. That Pepys himself trusted to his disguise is plain, from an entry with which the journal closes : And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able "to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my own * "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., Sec. retary to the Admiralty in the Reigns of Charles II. and James II. Edited by Richard Lord Braybrooke." 5 vols. London: Henry Colman. 1828. † 1825-1823-1848. and which exhibits another phase of his character, a great portion had a narrow escape of being altogether lost. Some seventy volumes of original papers that had belonged to Pepys are now deposited in the Bodleian Library, among Dr. Rawlinson's collection. How Dr. Rawlinson became possessed of these, Lord Braybrooke was unable to learn. It would appear, however, that his interposition saved them from destruction, and secured their preservation in a place of secure and convenient deposit. Samuel Pepys was descended from the Pepyses of Cottenham, in Cambridgeshire. Our hero is said to have been of a younger branch. His father was a tailor, which may for a while have dimmed his pretensions in heraldic eyes; for we find him telling us of reading for the first time " Fuller's Worthies," and being much troubled that, though he had some discourse with me about my family and arms, he says nothing at all of us, nor mentions us either in Cambridgeshire or Norfolke. But I believe, indeed, our family was never considerable." The father retired from trade in or about 1660, and resided for the rest of his lifesome twenty years-at Brampton. Samuel was born on the 23d of February, 1632. He appears to have passed from Huntingdon School to St. Paul's, where he continued till 1650, early in which year his name appears as a sizar on the books of Trinity College, Cambridge. In the next year he removed to Magdalene's, where he was elected into a scholarship. The only record of his college career is the following: October 21, 1653. Peapys and Hind were solemnly admonished by myself and Mr. Hill, for being scandalously overserved with drink the night before. This was done in the presence of all the fellows then resident. JOHN WOOD, Regr. In October, 1655, he married Elizabeth St. Michel. His wife was of French descent. Some account is given of her parentage in a letter addressed by her brother to Pepys-they were grandchildren of the high sheriff of Anjou in France, all of whose family were rigid Catholics. The father of Mrs. Pepys was disinherited on his conversion to Protestantism. Being deprived of any fortune from his family, he came over as gentleman-carver to Queen Henrietta Maria. This would not seem a good place for a Protestant, and selling places practised in every department of the state in the most unblushing manner." In Pepys there was a resolute heroism which showed itself in doing his duty in circumstances While he was away, his where others held aloof. When the plague came, inveigled by pretended and London was deserted, Pepys remained at his Catholic establishment, post. "The sickness thickens round us," said he, writing to Sir William Coventry; you took your turn of the sword-I must not, therefore, grudge to take mine of the pestilence." During the fire of London Pepys again exhibited the calmest courage, and did more than any one else in rendering essential service. He sent persons from the dockyards to blow up the houses, and thus arrested the progress of the flames. he was soon dismissed, having struck a friar who He was afterwards appointed secretary to the two generals of the fleet, and went to Scheveling In the spring of 1668, when De Ruyter's successful enterprise against Chatham, in the preceding year, became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, the officers of the navy board naturally incurred the greatest share of the public indignation; they were accordingly summoned to the bar of the House of Commons. Upon this occasion the clerk of the acts undertook their defence, and, in a speech of three hours' duration, succeeded so well in proving that the blame neither rested with himself nor his colleagues, that no further proceedings were instituted against them. In the summer of 1669, Pepys discontinued his journal, in consequence of increasing weakness on board the flag-ship of his patron to bring home of sight; and, though his eyes recovered, he Charles the Second. Sir Edward was rewarded never resumed it. We must, then, in judging of with an earldom. In the following summer, the journal, remember that it gives but the early Pepys was nominated Clerk of the Acts of the Na- years of his official life; and the clerk of the acts vy. In this office Pepys' great talents for business was a different man from the secretary of the adsoon developed themselves. The age was a licen- miralty of after days. His comparative youth, tious one, and Pepys, though he escaped its vices, too, accounts for the temper of levity with which was one who enjoyed pleasure. We say, "though he regarded the sins and scandal of the most he escaped its vices;" but we say it with hesita- vicious court that had ever existed in England. tion, as Pepys had an eye for female beauty, and In the course of 1669, Pepys obtained leave of gave frequent occasions to what may or may not absence from his office for a few months, and have been causeless jealousy on the part of his accompanied by his wife he visited France and wife; and Lord Braybrooke's suppression of parts Holland. His time was, even while abroad, deof the "Diary" may have reference to stories of voted to the service of the department to which he the kind, too good to be translated out of the sec- belonged, and he occupied himself in obtaining retary's own cipher. His attendance on the the- information with respect to the Dutch and French atre was constant. However, his first object was navies. Shortly after his return he lost his wife. Through Pepys' life he had some misgivings of his wife's religion. Having been educated for some years of her early life in a French convent, he thought she might have retained some of the feelings towards Romanism that it had been the object of her instructors to inculcate; but shortly before her death she received the sacrament with her husband from the rector of the parish, and thus this doubt was dispelled. a conscientious fulfilment of his duty; and Lord Braybrooke expresses amazement how he could have found time to despatch so much business as he did, and to make copies of the voluminous papers connected with the navy. "These papers afford," says Lord B., "the best evidence that he labored incessantly for the good of the service, and endeavored to check the contractors by whom the naval stores were then supplied, and to establish such regulations in the dock-yards as might In a few years afterwards the question was ensure order and economy. He also strenuously Pepys' own religion. Pepys had been a roundadvocated the promotion of the old-established head when a boy, and he tells us of serious fear officers of the navy, striving to counteract the that he at one time entertained, after the Restoraundue influence exercised by the court minions, tion, lest a schoolfellow should remember that on which too often prevailed on that unprincipled government over every claim of merit or service; and he resisted to the utmost the open system of the day the king was beheaded he said, "Were I to preach on this occasion, my text should be, The memory of the wicked shall rot. " The his escape after the battle of Worcester. fact that Pepys had been a roundhead, or called from Charles' own lips the romantic narrative of so when at school, was entirely forgotten; but, in general, malice dealt not with facts or half facts, but with absolute falsehoods, admitting of no explanation, nor of any other contradiction than such as arises from being able to prove the witnesses of the invented calumny unworthy of any credit. Pepys was returned as member to the House of Commons, but his seat was disputed, and the house thought itself entitled to examine some statements that personally affected Pepys. It was stated that In the next year the king assumed the office of lord high admiral, and Pepys was constituted secretary for the affairs of the admiralty, which office he filled during the remainder of Charles' reign, and the whole of James II. When news came of the landing of William, James was sitting to Kneller for his picture; with entire composure he desired the painter "to proceed and finish the portrait, that his good friend might not be disappointed :" he had an altar and a crucifix in his house. It was The history of the period from Mr. Pepys' com mittal to the Tower to the abdication of James II., so far as the administration of the navy is concerned, and the part borne by him therein, will be found fully and elegantly detailed in his Memoirs published in 1690, which the reader may consult for bis more ample satisfaction. From the perusal of this interesting little tract, as well as many parts of the work now published, it may be seen how erroneously the merit of restoring the navy to its with difficulty extorted that the information on which the house was disposed to act had been given by Lord Shaftesbury. Sir J. Banks was also said to have seen the altar. Shaftesbury evaded and equivocated, denied the altar, but said he saw something like a crucifix, whether painted or carved he could not say, "his memory was so imperfect that, were he on his oath, he could give no testimony." Banks denied the thing altogether. pristine splendor has been assigned to James II. One solitary word of truth there does not appear by his different biographers. Mr. Stanier Clarke, to have been in the accusation. The opposition to in particular, actually dwells upon the essential and Pepys was allowed to drop, and he was allowed peaceably to retain his seat. Pepys' journal bears incontrovertible testimony to his attachment to the Church of England : In some of the earliest pages of his Diary how interesting are the accounts of his attendance on the worship of that church, when her rites were administered to a scattered flock by a few faithful and courageous men, who met for that purpose in lasting benefit which that monarch conferred on his country, by building up and regenerating the naval power; and asserts, as a proof of the king's great ability, that the regulations still enforced under the orders of the admiralty, are nearly the same as those originally drawn up by him. It becomes due, therefore, to Mr. Pepys to explain, that for these improvements, the value of which no person can doubt, we are indebted to him, and not to his royal master. To establish this fact, it is only necessary secret and in danger, like the fathers of the primi- to refer to the MSS. connected with the subject, in tive church under the tyranny of their heathen per- the Bodleian and Pepysian Libraries, by which the secutors! After the Restoration, the confidential extent of Mr. Pepys' official labors can alone be servant of the Duke of York, and the secretary of appreciated; and we even find in the Diary, as the admiralty to Charles II. and James II., saw, early as 1668, that a long letter of regulation, proundoubtedly, how much his temporal interests duced before the commissioners of the navy by the would be promoted by his conversion to that faith Duke of York, as his own composition, was entirely which both those princes had embraced, and for written by the Clerk of the Acts. - Lord Braybrooke. the propagation of which the last of them, his im- -Life. mediate patron, manifested such a bigoted and fanatical enthusiasm. But there is no reason for Pepys' attachment to James was too great to believing that any such temptation ever entered have it natural that he should continue to be eminto his mind; or, if it did, the reader will see, in ployed after the revolution, and he passed into prithe close of this memoir, the most satisfactory vate life. Still till the time of his death he was proofs that it was steadily and successfully resisted. -Lord Braybrooke. Life of Pepys. In 1673, the Duke of York having resigned all his employments, Pepys was called into the king's immediate service as secretary for the affairs of the navy. In 1679, Pepys was again accused. It was the day of pretended plots and conspiracies. Pepys was accused of treasonable correspondence with France, and was committed to the Tower. One of his servants gave testimony that his master was a Roman Catholic, and that a foreign music master who lived in Pepys' house was a priest in disguise. The servant afterwards retracted all he said, and if other evidence of Pepys' innocence be required it is enough to say that Evelyn states his belief that the accusation was altogether groundless. Another change in the constitution of the admiralty separated Pepys from it, but during this interval he attended Charles at Newmarket, and it was then and there that he took down in short hand consulted about all things that in any way related to the navy. In 1684, he was raised to the high station of President of the Royal Society. In 1703 he died. "I never," said the clergyman who attended him in his death illness" I never attended any sick or dying person that died with so much Christian greatness of mind, or a more lively sense of immortality, or so much fortitude or patience, in so long and sharp a trial, or greater resignation to the will which he acknowledged to be the wisdom of God." The "DIARY" is the record of ten years from t January, 1659-60, to May, 1670. In the earlier. editions of the work Lord Braybrooke had considerably abridged the narrative; and even in the last edition there are omissions. The manners of our age will not permit much that, in days infinitely less licentious than those of the second Charles, was inoffensively and innocently spoken and written, and we doubt, accordingly, the fitness of any omissions whatever. Allowance is made for the difference of | at Exeter House, where he made a very good sermanners which neutralizes whatever is mischiev- mon upon these words "That in the fults of time God sent his Son, made of a woman," &c.; showing that, by "made under the law," is meant the circumcision, which is solemnized this day. Dined at home in the garret, where my wife dressed the remains of a turkey, and in the doing of it she burned her hand. I staid at home the whole afternoon looking over my accounts. The Downing here mentioned is described by Wood as "a sider with all times and changes, Pepys' employment under him was in ous; and a distrust of every part of the work is introduced, when an editor once begins to exercise his own discretion in determining how much or how little of the work he edits is to appear before the public. In the new edition of Pepys, the additions are very considerable-scarce a page where they do not occur; and, as in the original selections, all that bore on the general history of the country was studiously preserved, it now happens, that the matter, skilled in the common cant, and a preacher occafor the first time printed, and which was then sionally." He was employed by Cromwell, and omitted, is that which relates to Pepys himself, or after the Restoration he became secretary to the to some passing incident of no seeming importance. treasury. To us these trifling traits of character-these tran- some way connected with the Exchequer. The sient indications of manners, are of more value than Mr. Gunning whom he mentions, became afterthe more formal passages, if, indeed, anything in wards Bishop of Ely. He had continued to read this most amusing and most unreserved journal can the liturgy at Exeter House, when the parliament be called formal. There is not a single page of was most predominant, for which Wood often the new edition which it is not necessary to read, rebuked him. Downing's changes of politics in as the additions are often of but a few lines, and these strange times, when no man could see his are not in any way distinguished by any difference way, are not to be too harshly judged of. The of type. The new edition is, in truth, an absolutely fact itself was, probably, nothing more than that new work. Lord Braybrooke's notes to it are also he served under the parliament, and afterwards considerably more illustrative of the text than those under Charles. The temper in which it is in the former editions. Five-and-twenty years have not passed without having considerably increased his means of information on the subjects with which his notes are occupied. recorded is, that of some writer of the day relating the fact in a tone that exhibits his own feelings, and not those of the person he describes. We mention this, because too much stress has been laid on Pepys' school-boy Roundheadism, and his being indebted to Downing for the humble office which he held, has been made the subject of absurd The "Diary" commences at a time when it was manifest that the son of Cromwell had not the genius or the disposition to retain the sovereignty of England. Everything tended to a restoration. accusation against him. In spite of his schoolboy We may as well transcribe Pepys' two first entries, republicanism, which was but a transient fever of as they have the advantage both of exhibiting the posture of public affairs, and of showing his own character: 1659-60.-Blessed be God, at the end of the last year I was in very good health, without any sense of my old pain, but upon taking cold. I lived in Axe-yard, having my wife, and servant Jane, and no other in family than us three. The condition of the state was thus, viz., the the mind, Pepys was, long before the Restoration, in spirit and in heart, a loyalist. In religion, he was at all times an episcopalian; and the thought of royalty and the church were at that time fixedly associated in men's minds. There is a striking entry, dated the 30th of January, 1659, (1660, as we would write,) for the first time printed, in Lord Braybrooke's last edition of the "Diary," which shows the true tone of Pepys' feelings :"This morning, before I was up, I fell a singing of my song 'Great, good, and just,' &c., and put myself thereby in mind that this was the fatal day, now ten years since, his majesty died. There seems now to be a general cease of talk, it being taken for granted that Monk do resolve Rump, after being disturbed by my Lord Lambert, was lately returned to sit again. The officers of the army all forced to yield. Lawson lies still in the river, and Monk is with his army in Scotland. Only my Lord Lambert is not yet come into the parliament, nor is it expected that he will without being forced to it. The new common council of the city do speak very high; and had sent to Monk their sword-bearer, to acquaint him with their to stand to the parliament, and nothing else." desires for a free and full parliament, which is at The expectation, then, of the Restoration was present the desires, and the hopes, and the expec- dying away at the time when Pepys' thoughts tations of all. Twenty-two of the old secluded were thus occupied. What Pepys calls his song, members having been at the House-door the last was the beginning of Montrose's verses on the week to demand entrance, but it was denied them; execution of Charles, which he had set to and it is believed, that neither they nor the people music : will be satisfied till the House be filled. My own private condition very handsome, and esteemed rich, but, indeed, very poor; besides my goods of my house, and my office, which at present is somewhat certain. Mr. Downing master of my office. Jan. 1st (Lord's day). -This morning (we living lately in the garret) I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn any other clothes but them. Went to Mr. Gunning's chapel Great, good, and just, could I but rate The fluctuations of opinion everywhere, and the Pepys' solution of Lambert's not being unwilling to go to the Tower is not bad :---"My Lord did seem to wonder much why Lambert was so willing to be put into the Tower, and thinks he has some design in it; but I think that he is so poor that he cannot use his liberty for debts, if he were at liberty; and so it is as good and better for him to be there than anywhere else." watchful anxiety with which Monk's movements he will come in,) unless he carry himself very were regarded by all, during a period in which soberly and well. Everybody now drinks the the fate of the nation seemed to depend on the king's health without any fear; whereas it was part he might take, are nowhere so strikingly before very private that a man dare to do it." described as in this journal. His whole conduct, interpreted by the fact of his ultimately declaring for the Restoration, is, in the popular histories of England, described as if it were consistent, and as if the purpose which he accomplished was a part of his original design, and not like most of the acts of men, in whatever position, a compromise with circumstances which they but partially influence. We learn more of human nature, and more of actual fact, in these successive notices, drawn up without the key which afterevents give. The joy of the city, when Monk declared for a free parliament, and when the rump was dethroned, is well told : 11th February, 1659-60.-We were told that the parliament had sent Scott and Robinson to Monk this afternoon, but he would not hear them. In Dr. Beattie's "Life of Campbell the Poet," we remember something like this. An Irish patriot of 1798 finds himself comfortably boarded and lodged as a state prisoner. He is detained so long that a kind of intimacy grows up between him and his gaoler. The governor of the prison has a daughter, who listens indulgently to his stories of forfeited estates and chateaux in Ireland, inherited from his ancestors in the days of Mile And that the mayor and aldermen had offered their sius. The state prisoner gradually becomes a own houses for himself and his officers; and that great man; and as he is pretty sure to return his soldiers would lack for nothing. And indeed each evening about dinner-time, is allowed to I saw many people give the soldiers drink and ramble where he pleases during the day. At money, and all along the streets cried, "God bless last a real grievance comes the order for his them!" and extraordinary good words. Hence we went to a merchant's house hard by, where I liberation-and O'Donovan is obliged to curtail saw Sir Nich. Crisp, and so we went to the Star his name of some dozen Celtic letters, which he Tavern (Monk being then at Benson's.) In Cheap- had each day amused himself in explaining to the side there was a great many bonfires, and Bow governor's daughter; has to forget all about bells and all the bells in all the churches as we Milesius, and Finn M'Comhal, and the glories went home were a-ringing. Hence we went home- and victories of his ancestors, Christian and wards, it being about ten at night. But the common joy that was everywhere to be seen! The Pagan, and earn his bread, or cease to eat it, as if he were no better than a mere Saxon. number of bonfires, there being fourteen between St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and at Strand Pepys was not entrusted with the secret of Sir Bridge I could at one time tell thirty-one fires. Edward Montagu, who had been in correspondence In King street seven or eight; and all along burn- with the king and the Duke of York for some ing, and roasting, and drinking for rumps. There time; nor were the movements of Monk and being rumps tied upon sticks, and carried up and Montagu in concert, though all were plainly down. The butchers at the May Pole in the tending to the Restoration. When Montagu a Strand rang peal with their knives when they were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate Hill there was one turning of the spit that had a rump tied upon it, and another basting of it. Indeed it was past imagination, both the greatness and the suddenness of it. At one end of the street you would think there was a whole lane of fire, and so hot that we were fain to keep on the further side. Still all was doubtful. Something like monarchy is becoming the popular thought. Pepys' entry of the first of March following tells us the voyage, which he more than suspected, he determined on taking Pepys on board with him in the vessel that was to bring back the king, the object of the voyage was not communicated to Pepys, nor perhaps was it quite distinctly before Montagu's own mind-it depended on so many calculations, and on so many contingencies that were beyond the reach of calculation. Pepys made his will, and left to his wife all he had in the world, except his books. In spite of his joyous anticipations connected with the purpose of "Great is the talk of a single person, and that it had misgivings; and he seems to have busied would be Charles, George, or Richard* again. himself in reading signs in the heavens, and Great, also, is the dispute now in the house in guessing what destiny was about, by watching whose name the new writs shall run for the next the shiftings of the clouds, and the changes of the parliament; and it is said that Mr. Prin, in open wind. "I took," says he, "a short, melancholy house said, 'In King Charles'." The entry leave of my father and mother, without having of March the 6th contains the following:- them to drink, or say anything of business one to "My Lord [Sir E. Montagu] told me that there another. At Westminster, by reason of rain and was great endeavors to bring in the protector an easterly wind, the water was so high that again; but he told me, too, that he did not think it would last long if he were brought in; no, nor the king neither, (though he seems to think that * Charles Rex, George Monk, Richard Cromwell. there were boats rowed in King street, and all our yards were drowned that no one could go to my house, so as no man has seen the like almost, and most houses full of water." |