upon taking cold, and also in a fair way of coming to a better esteem and estate in the world, than ever I expected But I pray God give me a heart to fear a fall, and to prepare for it.

24th (Ash Wednesday) To the Queene s chapel, where I staid and saw their masse, till a man come and bid me go out or kneel down so I did go out And thence to Somerset House, and there into the chapel, where Monsieur d’Espagne²² used to preach But now it is made very fine, and was ten times more crouded than the Queene’s chapel at St James’s which I wonder at Thence down to the garden of Somerset House, and up and down the new building, which in every respect will be mighty magnificent and costly.

27th Sir Martin Noell told us the dispute between him, as farmer of the Additional Duty, and the East India Company, whether callico be linnen or no which he says it is, having been ever esteemed so they say it is made of cotton woole, and grows upon trees, not like flax or hemp But it was carried against the Company, though they stand out against the verdict.

28th (Lord’s day) Up and walked to Paul’s, and by chance it was an extraordinary day for the Readers of the Inns of Court and all the Students to come to church, it being an old ceremony not used these twenty-five years, upon the first Sunday in Lent Abundance there was of Students, more than there was room to seat but upon forms, and the Church mighty full One Hawkins preached, an Oxford man A good sermon upon these words ‘But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable,’ Both before and after sermon I was most impatiently troubled at the Quire, the worst that ever I heard But what was extraordinary, the Bishop of London,²³ who sat there in a pew, made a’purpose for him by the pulpitt, do give the last blessing to the congregation, which was, he being a comely old man, a very decent thing, methought The Lieutenant of the Tower Sir J Robinson, would needs have me by coach home with him, where the officers of his regiment dined with him After dinner to chapel in the Tower with the Lieutenant, with the keyes carried before us, and the Warders and Gentleman-porter going before us And I sat with the Lieutenant in his pew, in great state None, it seems, of the prisoners in the Tower that are there now, thought they may, will come to prayers there.

29th To Sir Philip Warwick, who showed me many excellent collections of the state of the Revenue in former Kings’ and the late times, and the present He showed me how the very assessments between 1643 and 1659, which were taxes, (besides Excise Customes, Sequestrations, Decimations, King and Queene’s and Church Lands, or any thing else but just the Assessments,) come to above fifteen millions He showed me a discourse of his concerning the Revenues of this and foreign States How that of Spayne was great, but divided with his kingdoms, and so come to little How that of France did, and do much exceed ours before for quantity, and that it is at the will of the Prince to tax what he will upon his people, which is not here That the Hollanders have the best manner of tax, which is only upon the expence of provisions, by an excise, and do conclude that no other tax is proper for England but a pound-rate, or excise upon the expence of provisions He showed me every particular sort of payment away of money, since the King’s coming in, to this day, and told me, from one to one, how little he hath received of profit from most of them and I believe him truly That the £1,200,000 which the Parliament with so much ado did first vote to give the King, and since hath been re-examined by several committees of the present Parliament is yet above £300,000 short of making up really to the King the £1,200,000 as by particulars he showed me And in my Lord Treasurer’s excellent letter to the King upon this subject, he tells the King how it was the spending more than the revenue that did give the first occasion of his father’s ruine and did since to the rebels, who, he says, just like Henry the Eighth, had great and sudden increase of wealth, but yet by overspending both died poor and further tells the King how much of this £1,200,000 depends upon the life of the Prince, and so must be renewed by Parliament again to his successor, which is seldom done without parting with some of the prerogatives of the Crowne, or if denied and he persists to take it of the people, it gives occasion to a civill war, which did in the late business of tonnage and poundage prove fatal to the Crowne He showed me how many ways the Lord Treasurer did take before he moved the King to farme the Customes in the manner he do, and the reasons that moved him to do it He showed me a very excellent argument to prove, that our importing lesse than we export, do not impoverish the kingdom, according to the received opinion which, though it be a paradox,