Volume I Part 25 (2/2)

”The good old dames whenever they the chimney man espied, Unto their nooks they haste away, their pots and pipkins hide.

There is not one old dame in ten, and search the nation through, But, if you talk of chimney men, will spare a curse or two.”

Again:

”Like plundering soldiers they'd enter the door, And make a distress on the goods of the poor.

While frighted poor children distractedly cried; This nothing abated their insolent pride.”

In the British Museum there are doggrel verses composed on the same subject and in the same spirit:

”Or, if through poverty it be not paid For cruelty to tear away the single bed, On which the poor man rests his weary head, At once deprives him of his rest and bread.”

I take this opportunity the first which occurs, of acknowledging most grateful the kind and liberal manner in which the Master and Vicemaster of Magdalei College, Cambridge, gave me access to the valuable collections of Pepys.]

[Footnote 41: My chief authorities for this financial statement will be found in the Commons' Journal, March 1, and March 20, 1688-9.]

[Footnote 42: See, for example, the picture of the mound at Marlborough, in Stukeley's Dinerarium Curiosum.]

[Footnote 43: Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684.]

[Footnote 44: 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 3; 15 Car. II. c. 4. Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684.]

[Footnote 45: Dryden, in his Cymon and Iphigenia, expressed, with his usual keenness and energy, the sentiments which had been fas.h.i.+onable among the sycophants of James the Second:--

”The country rings around with loud alarms, And raw in fields the rude militia swarms; Mouths without hands, maintained at vast expense, Stout once a month they march, a bl.u.s.tering band, And ever, but in time of need at hand.

This was the morn when, issuing on the guard, Drawn up in rank and file, they stood prepared Of seeming arms to make a short essay.

Then hasten to be drunk, the business of the day.”]

[Footnote 46: Most of the materials which I have used for this account of the regular army will be found in the Historical Records of Regiments, published by command of King William the Fourth, and under the direction of the Adjutant General. See also Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684; Abridgment of the English Military Discipline, printed by especial command, 1688; Exercise of Foot, by their Majesties' command, 1690.]

[Footnote 47: I refer to a despatch of Bonrepaux to Seignelay, dated Feb. 8/18. 1686. It was transcribed for Mr. Fox from the French archives, during the peace of Amiens, and, with the other materials brought together by that great man, was entrusted to me by the kindness of the late Lady Holland, and of the present Lord Holland. I ought to add that, even in the midst of the troubles which have lately agitated Paris, I found no difficulty in obtaining, from the liberality of the functionaries there, extracts supplying some chasms in Mr. Fox's collection. (1848.)]

[Footnote 48: My information respecting the condition of the navy, at this time, is chiefly derived from Pepys. His report, presented to Charles the Second in May, 1684, has never, I believe, been printed. The ma.n.u.script is at Magdalene College Cambridge. At Magdalene College is also a valuable ma.n.u.script containing a detailed account of the maritime establishments of the country in December 1684. Pepys's ”Memoirs relating to the State of the Royal Navy for Ten Years determined December, 1688,” and his diary and correspondence during his mission to Tangier, are in print. I have made large use of them. See also Sheffield's Memoirs, Teonge's Diary, Aubrey's Life of Monk, the Life of Sir Cloudesley Shovel, 1708, Commons' Journals, March 1 and March 20.

1688-9.]

[Footnote 49: Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684; Commons' Journals, March 1, and March 20, 1688-9. In 1833, it was determined, after full enquiry, that a hundred and seventy thousand barrels of gunpowder should constantly be kept in store.]

[Footnote 50: It appears from the records of the Admiralty, that Flag officers were allowed half pay in 1668, Captains of first and second rates not till 1674.]

[Footnote 51: Warrant in the War Office Records; dated March 26, 1678.]

[Footnote 52: Evelyn's Diary. Jan. 27, 1682. I have seen a privy seal, dated May 17. 1683, which confirms Evelyn's testimony.]

[Footnote 53: James the Second sent Envoys to Spain, Sweden, and Denmark; yet in his reign the diplomatic expenditure was little more than 30,000. a year. See the Commons' Journals, March 20, 1688-9.

Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684.]

[Footnote 54: Carte's Life of Ormond.]

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