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THE TIMES OF CHARLES THE SECOND.
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true interest of the nation, which he is for more than any body.
The same day, the business at counsel was to reprieve Langhome, wherein the King took great pains; which troubled all those that were concerned for him. The Lord Privy Seal[1] doth even
- ↑ Arthur Annesley, Earl of Anglesey, of whom Barnet has left this character: "He was very learned, chiefly in the law. He had the faculty of speaking indefatigably upon every subject; but he spoke ungracefully, and did not know that he was not good at raillery, for he was always attempting it. He understood our government well, and had examined far into the original of our constitution. He was capable of great application, and was a man of grave deportment, but stuck at nothing, and was ashamed of nothing. He was neither loved nor trusted by any man on any side, and he seemed to have no regard to common decencies, but sold every thing that was in his power, and sold himself so often, that at last the price fell so low that he grew useless." Of his power of close application to business there are abundant proofs in Pepys's Diary: when, in 1668, he was one of the commissioners of the navy and working hard himself, he expected his secretary to do so too. Pepys says, "I did receive a hint or two from my Lord Anglesey, as if he thought much of my taking the ayre as I have done; but I care not. Whatever the matter is, I think he hath some ill will to me, or at least an opinion that I am more the servant of the Board than I am." No wonder, then, that when the news of Lord Anglesey's suspension from this office arrived, that which was a matter of concern to others was by no means so to Pepys. "This suspension," he says, "put strange apprehensions into all our Board; only I think I am the least troubled at it, for I care not at all for it; but my
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