DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0021
editor’s introduction.
vii
of the King- and the unwillingness of the people to pay, the
revenue of the king-dom was in a very low condition. The ministers
therefore dreaded a war, when they had not sufficient money even
to supply the private expenditure of the King, and the debts of
the court were becoming continually heavier and more galling.
In 1665, the Dutch war broke out. The people of England
were extremely irritated against the Hollanders, and a very large
supply was voted by the parliament for the carrying on of the war.
On the part of the English, the war was ill managed in every
department. The court was too busy about its own pleasures to
King, and describes the difficulties of getting in the revenue. “ He (Mr. Black-
burne) tells me, that the King, by name, with all his dignities, is prayed for by
them that they call Fanatiques, as heartily and powerfully as in any of the other
churches that are thought better: and that, let the King think what he will, it is
them that must help him in the day of warr. For so generally they are the most
substantial! sort of people, and the soberest; and did desire me to observe it to
my Lord Sandwich, among other things, that of all the old army, now you cannot
see a man begging about the streets ; but what ? You shall have this captain
turned a shoemaker ; the lieutenant, a baker ; this, a brewer; that, a haberdasher ;
this common soldier, a porter; and every man in his apron and frock, &c., as if
they never had done anything else; whereas the other go with their belts and
swords, swearing, and cursing, and stealing; running into people’s houses, by
force oftentimes, to carry away something; and this is the difference between
the temper of one and the other ; and concludes (and I think with some reason)
that the spirits of the old parliament soldiers are so quiet and contented with
God’s providences, that the King is safe from any evil meant him by them, one
thousand times more than from his own discontented cavaliers. And then to the
publick management of business: it is done, as he observes, so loosely and so
carelessly, that the kingdom can never be happy with it, every man looking alter
himself, and his own lust and luxury ; and that half of what money the parlia-
ment gives the King is not so much as gathered. And to the purpose he told
me how the Bellamys (who had some of the northern counties assigned them for
their debt for the petty-warrant victualling) have often complained to him that
they cannot get it collected, for that nobody minds, or if they do, they won’t pay
it in. Whereas (which is a very remarkable thing) he hath been told by some of
the treasurers at warr here of late, to whom the most of the 120,000Z. monthly
was paid, that for most months the payments were gathered so duly, that they
seldom had so much or more than 40s. or the like, short in the whole collection.”
vii
of the King- and the unwillingness of the people to pay, the
revenue of the king-dom was in a very low condition. The ministers
therefore dreaded a war, when they had not sufficient money even
to supply the private expenditure of the King, and the debts of
the court were becoming continually heavier and more galling.
In 1665, the Dutch war broke out. The people of England
were extremely irritated against the Hollanders, and a very large
supply was voted by the parliament for the carrying on of the war.
On the part of the English, the war was ill managed in every
department. The court was too busy about its own pleasures to
King, and describes the difficulties of getting in the revenue. “ He (Mr. Black-
burne) tells me, that the King, by name, with all his dignities, is prayed for by
them that they call Fanatiques, as heartily and powerfully as in any of the other
churches that are thought better: and that, let the King think what he will, it is
them that must help him in the day of warr. For so generally they are the most
substantial! sort of people, and the soberest; and did desire me to observe it to
my Lord Sandwich, among other things, that of all the old army, now you cannot
see a man begging about the streets ; but what ? You shall have this captain
turned a shoemaker ; the lieutenant, a baker ; this, a brewer; that, a haberdasher ;
this common soldier, a porter; and every man in his apron and frock, &c., as if
they never had done anything else; whereas the other go with their belts and
swords, swearing, and cursing, and stealing; running into people’s houses, by
force oftentimes, to carry away something; and this is the difference between
the temper of one and the other ; and concludes (and I think with some reason)
that the spirits of the old parliament soldiers are so quiet and contented with
God’s providences, that the King is safe from any evil meant him by them, one
thousand times more than from his own discontented cavaliers. And then to the
publick management of business: it is done, as he observes, so loosely and so
carelessly, that the kingdom can never be happy with it, every man looking alter
himself, and his own lust and luxury ; and that half of what money the parlia-
ment gives the King is not so much as gathered. And to the purpose he told
me how the Bellamys (who had some of the northern counties assigned them for
their debt for the petty-warrant victualling) have often complained to him that
they cannot get it collected, for that nobody minds, or if they do, they won’t pay
it in. Whereas (which is a very remarkable thing) he hath been told by some of
the treasurers at warr here of late, to whom the most of the 120,000Z. monthly
was paid, that for most months the payments were gathered so duly, that they
seldom had so much or more than 40s. or the like, short in the whole collection.”