and that he hath been with the Duke of Albemarle and
shewed him them, to prevent his falling into another
like fault: that the Duke of Albemarle seems
to be able to answer them; but he thinks that the
Duke of Albemarle and the Prince are contented to let
their Narratives sleep, they being not only contradictory
in some things (as he observed about the business
of the Duke of Albemarle’s being to follow the
Prince upon dividing the fleete, in case the enemy
come out), but neither of them to be maintained in
others. That the business the other night of
my Lord Anglesey at the Council was happily got over
for my Lord, by his dexterous silencing it, and the
rest, not urging it further; forasmuch as, had the
Duke of Buckingham come in time enough, and had got
it by the end, he, would have toused him in it; Sir
W. Coventry telling me that my Lord Anglesey did,
with such impudence, maintain the quarrel against the
Commons and some of the Lords, in the business of my
Lord Clarendon, that he believes there are enough
would be glad but of this occasion to be revenged
of him. He tells me that he hears some of the
Thomsons are like to be of the Commission for the
Accounts, and Wildman, which he much wonders at, as
having been a false fellow to every body, and in prison
most of the time since the King’s coming in.
But he do tell me that the House is in such a condition
that nobody can tell what to make of them, and, he
thinks, they were never in before; that every body
leads, and nobody follows; and that he do now think
that, since a great many are defeated in their expectation
of being of the Commission, now they would put it
into such hands as it shall get no credit from:
for, if they do look to the bottom and see the King’s
case, they think they are then bound to give the King
money; whereas, they would be excused from that, and
therefore endeavour to make this business of the Accounts
to signify little. I spoke with him about my
Lord Sandwich’s business, in which he is very
friendly, and do say that the unhappy business of the
prizes is it that hath brought all this trouble upon
him, and the only thing that made any thing else mentioned,
and it is true. So having discoursed with him,
I spent some time with Sir Stephen Fox about the business
of our adjusting the new method of the Excise between
the Guards household and Tangier, the Lords Commissioners
of the Treasury being now resolved to bring all their
management into a course of payment by orders, and
not by tallies, and I am glad of it, and so by water
home late, and very dark, and when come home there
I got my wife to read, and then come Captain Cocke
to me; and there he tells me, to my great satisfaction,
that Sir Robert Brookes did dine with him today; and
that he told him, speaking of me, that he would make
me the darling of the House of Commons, so much he
is satisfied concerning me. And this Cocke did
tell me that I might give him thanks for it; and I
do think it may do me good, for he do happen to be
held a considerable person, of a young man, both for
sobriety and ability. Then to discourse of business
of his own about some hemp of his that is come home
to receive it into the King’s stores, and then
parted, and by and by my wife and I to supper, she
not being well, her flux being great upon her, and
so to bed.