Much
talk there is of the Chancellor's speech and the King's at the
Parliament's meeting, which are very well liked; and that we
shall certainly, by their speeches, fall out with France at this
time, together with the Dutch, which will find us work.
26th. Sir Christopher Mings and I together by water to the
Tower; and I find him a very witty well-spoken fellow, and mighty
free to tell his parentage, being a shoemaker's son. I to the
'Change, where I hear how the French have taken two and sunk one
of our merchant-men in the Straights, and carried the ships to
Toulon: so that there is no expectation but we must fall out
with them. The 'Change pretty full, and the town begins to be
lively again, though the streets very empty, and most shops shut.
27th. The Duke of Albemarle proposed to me from Mr. Coventry,
that I should be Surveyor-Generall of the Victualling business,
which I accepted. But, indeed, the terms in which Mr. Coventry
proposes it for me are the most obliging that ever I could expect
from any man, and more; he saying that I am the fittest man in
England, and that he is sure, if I will undertake, I will perform
it: and that it will be also a very desirable thing that I might
have this encouragement, my encouragement in the Navy alone being
in no wise proportionable to my pains or deserts.
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