ogue to get it out of me, but I am very free to tell my mind to him, in
that case being not unwilling he should tell him again if he will or any
body else. Thence home, and walked in the garden by brave moonshine with
my wife above two hours, till past 8 o'clock, then to supper, and after
prayers to bed.

29th. Up and by coach with Sir W. Pen to Charing Cross, and there I
'light, and to Sir Phillip Warwick to visit him and discourse with him
about navy business, which I did at large and he most largely with me,
not only about the navy but about the general Revenue of England, above
two hours, I think, many staying all the while without, but he seemed
to take pains to let me either understand the affairs of the Revenue or
else to be a witness of his pains and care in stating it. He showed me
indeed many excellent collections of the State of the Revenue in former
Kings and the late times, and the present. He showed me how the very
Assessments between 1643 and 1659, which were taxes (besides Excise,
Customes, Sequestrations, Decimations, King and Queene's and Church
Lands, or any thing else but just the Assessments), come to above
fifteen millions. He showed me a discourse of his concerning the
Revenues of this and foreign States. How that of Spayne was great, but
divided with his kingdoms, and so came to little. How that of France
did, and do much exceed ours before for quantity; and that it is at the
will of the Prince to tax what he will upon his people; which is not
here. That the Hollanders have the best manner of tax, which is only
upon the expence of provisions, by an excise; and do conclude that no
other tax is proper for England but a pound-rate, or excise upon the
expence of provisions. He showed me every particular sort of payment
away of money, since the King's coming in, to this day; and told me,
from one to one, how little he hath received of profit from most of
them; and I believe him truly. That the L1,200,000 which the Parliament
with so much ado did first vote to give the King, and since hath been
reexamined by several committees of the present Parliament, is yet above
L300,000 short of making up really to the King the L1,200,000, as by
particulars he showed me.

[A committee was appointed in September, 1660, to consider the
subject of the King's revenue, and they "reported to the Commons that
the average revenue of Charles I., from 1637 to 1641 inclusive, had
been L895,819, and the a