judgements, he having writ and declared for an indulgence and that he did believe never prince was happier in a House of Commons, than he was in them At the Privy Seale I did see the docquet by which Sir W Pen is made the Comptroller’s assistant, as Sir J Minnes told me last night.

March 3rd This afternoon Roger Pepys tells me, that for certain the King is for all this very highly incensed at the Parliament’s late opposing the Indulgence, which I am sorry for, and fear it will breed great discontent.

5th To the Lobby, and spoke with my cousin Roger, who is going to Cambridge to-morrow In the Hall I do hear that the Catholiques are in great hopes for all this, and do set hard upon the King to get Indulgence Matters, I hear, are all naught in Ireland, and the people, that is the Papists, do cry out against the Commissioners sent by the King, so that they say the English interest will be lost there.

6th This day it seems the House of Commons have been very high against the Papists, being incensed by the stir which they make for their having an Indulgence, which, without doubt, is a great folly in them to be so hot upon at this time, when they see how averse already the House have showed themselves from it This evening Mr Povy tells me that my Lord Sandwich is this day so ill that he is much afraid of him, which puts me to great pain, not more for my own sake than for his poor family’s.

7th Creed told me how for some words of my Lady Gerard’s,¹⁹ against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queene the King did the other day apprehend her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queene by the King, which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite.

8th (Lord’s day) To White Hall to-day, I heard Dr King, Bishop of Chichester, make a good and eloquent sermon upon these words, ‘They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy’ Whence (the chapel in Lent being hung with black, and no anthem after sermon, as at other times,) to my Lord Sandwich at Sir W Wheeler’s I found him out of order, thinking himself to be in a fit of ague After dinner up to my Lord, there being Mr Rumball My Lord, among other discourse, did tell me of his great difficultys passed in the business of the Sound, and of his receiving letters from the King there, but his sending them by Whetstone was a great folly, and the story how my Lord being at dinner with Sydney,²⁰ one of his fellow plenipotentiarys and his mortal enemy, did see Whetstone, and put off his hat three times to him, and the fellow would not be known, which my Lord imputed to his coxcombly humour, (of which he was full) and bid Sydney take notice of him too, when at the very time he had letters²¹ in his pocket from the King as it proved afterwards And Sydney afterwards did find it out at Copenhagen, the Dutch Commissioners telling him how my Lord Sandwich had desired one of their ships to carry back Whetstone to Lubeck, he being come from Flanders from the King But I cannot but remember my Lord’s aequanimity in all these affairs with admiration.

9th About noon Sir J Robinson, Lord Mayor, desiring way through the garden from the Tower, called in at the office and there invited me (and Sir W Pen, who happened to be in the way) to dinner, and we did go And there had a great Lent dinner of fish, little flesh There dined with us to-day Mr Slingsby²² of the Mint, who showed us all the new pieces both gold and silver (examples of them all) that were made for the King, by Blondeau’s way, and compared them with those made for Oliver The pictures of the latter made by Symons,²³ and of the King by one Rotyr,²⁴ a German, I think, that dined with us also He extolls those of Rotyr above the others, and, indeed, I think they are the better because the sweeter of the two, but, upon my word, those of the Protector are more like in my mind, than the King’s, but both very well worth seeing The crownes of Cromwell are now sold, it seems, for 25s and 30s a-piece.

16th To the Duke where we met of course, and talked of our Navy matters Then to the Commission of Tangier, and there had my Lord Peterborough’s Commission read over, and Mr Secretary Bennet did make his querys upon it in order to the drawing one for my Lord Rutherford more regularly, that being a very extravagant thing Here long discoursing upon my Lord Rutherford’s despatch, and so broke up Mr Coventry and I discoursed how the Treasurer doth intend to come to pay in course, which is the thing of the world that will do the King the greatest service in the Navy, and which joys my heart to hear of He