for his services with the Earldom of Sandwich, and was made Keeper of the Great Wardrobe and Clerk of the Privy Seal. The sunshine of his prosperity embraced his young cousin, who, in June, 1660, was promoted to the Clerkship of the Acts of the Navy. The business capacity which he developed in this position secured him the confidence and favour of his superiors, and among them of the Lord High Admiral, the Duke of York. Though by no means averse to pleasure-with a strong liking for plays and music, and a still stronger liking for pretty women-he discharged his official duties with praiseworthy conscientiousness, and an industry that was then regarded as exceptional. The interests of the Navy he had deeply at heart, and strove earnestly to protect them against the peculation and jobbery by which he was surrounded. He endeavoured to check the wastefulness that was rampant in the dockyards; fought bravely against the dishonesty of the contractors; unceasingly advocated the promotion of the older officers; and did not fail to protest against the influence so injuriously exercised by the courtiers and royal favourites. It must always be remembered to his honour that he remained at his post when London was stricken with the Plague, and, as every branch of the service was then deserted, undertook the responsibility of the whole naval administration. "The sickness in general thickens round us," he wrote to Sir William Coventry, "and particularly upon our neighbourhood. You, sir, took your turn of the sword; I must not, therefore, grudge to take mine of the pestilence."

Soon afterwards he was appointed Treasurer to the Tangiers Commissioners and Surveyor-General of the

Victualling Department, resigning the latter office on the conclusion of peace with Holland.

After the shameful event of the appearance of a victorious Dutch fleet in the Medway, the House of Commons ordered an inquiry into the causes of the breakdown of the naval defences of the country. On March 5th, 1668, the officers of the Navy Board were summoned to the bar of the House, and attended in the full expectation of censure and dismissal, though, in the face of overwhelming difficulties, they had done their best. The debts of the office exceeded £900,000; its credit was forfeited; the sailors and dockyardsmen had mutinied for want of wages; no money could be procured either from the Treasury or the Bankers; and the equipment of the fleet had been suspended when its services were most required. Everything had conspired to embitter the Commons against the unfortunate officials; but Pepys, appointed their spokesman, in a vigorous and conclusive speech of three hours' duration, made so complete a defence that the House dropped the proposed investigation.

Pepys made no similar oratorical effort, though he sat in the House for many years, first as member for Castle Rising, and afterwards as member for Harwich. In 1669 the prosperous career, on which he dilates with so much complacency in his Diary, was interrupted by an opthalmic affection, which rendered necessary a long holiday on the Continent; and this was followed, on his return home, by the unexpected death of his wife, on the 10th of November, at the early age of 29.

In the opening weeks of 1673, an attempt, originating with the Earl of Shaftesbury, was made to discredit him

as a Papist; but it failed. And, in the summer, when the Duke of York was compelled by the passing of the Test Act to resign all his employments, he was appointed Secretary to the Navy. He found ample scope for his administrative ability in this important office, until, in 1679, he was falsely accused of being implicated in the Popish plot, and thrown into the Tower. The favour always shown to him by the Duke of York seems to have been the motive of this attack, from which he did not get entirely free until February, 1680.

In September, 1683, Pepys, by order of the King, accompanied Lord Dartmouth on the expedition against Tangiers; and in the following year, when Charles assumed the office of Lord High Admiral, he appointed him to the Secretaryship of the Admiralty, with a salary of £500 per annum. He continued to hold this employment until the close of the reign of James II.; and the reorganization of the Navy, which is sometimes carried to the credit of the Sovereign, was unquestionably due to the Secretary's laborious and sagacious initiative.

At the Restoration, Pepys was dismissed from all his offices, and the electors of Harwich, suspecting him of favouring the cause of James II., refused to re-elect him as their representative. After a brief confinement in the Gatehouse, he was allowed to retire into private life, where he amused himself with the literary pursuits for which he had always an inclination. Part of his time he devoted to the arrangement of the extensive collections he had made for a general history of the Navalia of England. During 1684 and 1685 he presided over the Royal Society, and for some years was in the habit of entertaining, on Saturday evenings, in York Buildings,

several of its most distinguished members, who "across the walnuts and the wine," held high discourse on literary and scientific subjects. He took an active interest in the management of Christ's Hospital; he was also a considerable benefactor to St. Paul's School, and men of letters found in him a generous and enlightened patron. The naturalist Ray characterizes him as "ingenuarum artium et eruditorum fautor et patronus eximius."

His failing health compelled him, in 1700, to give up his residence in York Buildings, and he retired to the house of his old friend and servant, Mr. William Hewer, at Clapham Common,* where, after a lingering illness, he expired on the 26th of May, 1703, aged seventy. Dean Hickes, who attended him on his death-bed, writes: "The greatness of his behaviour, in his long and sharp trial before his death, was in every respect answerable to his great life; and I believe no man ever went out of this world with greater contempt of it, or a more lively faith in everything that was revealed of the world to come. I administered the Holy Sacrament twice in his illness to him, and had administered it a third time but for a sudden fit of illness that happened at the appointed time of administering of it. Twice I gave him the absolution of the Church, which he desired, and received with all reverence and comfort; and 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

* Evelyn writes on the 23rd Sept., 1700: "Went to visit Mr. Pepys at Clapham, where he has a very noble and wonderfully well-furnished house, especially with Indian and Chinese curiosities." He afterwards refers toit as "Your Paradisian Clapham." The house had belonged to Dr. John Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, author of the "Eikon Basilike," and after his death to his brother, Sir Denis, who collected a fine library and art-gallery, and died in 1688. It was then purchased by Mr. William Hewer, who died here in 1715. The house was pulled down in 1760.

fortitude and patience, in so long and sharp a trial, or greater resignation to the will, which he most devoutly acknowledged to be the wisdom of God; and I doubt not he is now but a very blessed spirit, according to his motto, Mens cujusque is est quisque."

One of Pepys' most attached and oldest friends was his brother Diarist, John Evelyn. Differing widely in character, they were linked together by their literary and scientific tastes.

An anonymous contemporary, in the Supplement to Collier's Dictionary, draws a portrait of Pepys, which must be regarded as painted in too flattering colours: "It may be affirmed of this gentleman," he says, "that he was, without exception, the greatest and most useful Minister that ever filled the same situations in England; the Acts and Registers of the Admiralty proving this fact beyond contradiction. The principal rules and establishments in present use in these offices are well-known to have been of his introducing, and most of the officers serving therein, since the Restoration, of his bringing up. He was a most studious promoter and strenuous assertor of order and discipline through all their dependencies. Sobriety, diligence, capacity, loyalty, and subjection to command were essentials required in all whom he advanced. Where any of these were found wanting, no interest or authority were capable of moving him in favour of the highest pretending; the Royal command only excepted, of which he was also very watchful, to prevent any undue procurements. Discharging his duty to his Prince and Country with a religious application and perfect integrity, he feared no one, courted no one, and neglected his own fortune. Besides this, he was a person