Mr.
PEPYS to the Lord
Mayor and
Court of
Aldermen upon the Present State of
CHRIST-HOSPITAL.
To the Right Honourable Sir
Humphry Edwin, Lord
Mayor.
MY last to your Lordship is now more than three Months old. In which, led by your Lordships own Invitation, I chose to lodge in your Hand the Execution of a Matter, to which I fully believe your Lordship did then as little design, as I did expect, or indeed the Matter it self could be thought to bear, the unnecessary delay of three Dayes. Such was the Account it brought you of the then wretched State of Christ-Hospital; and that under an hourly Declension towards worse.
The esteem I have, My Lord, of the Sincerity of your Intentions, and the Assurances you were pleased at the same time, and by repeated Messages since, to give me thereof, will not permit me to charge this Loss of Time (though greater in it self than the whole Remainder of your Lordships year of Mayoralty, will (I fear) suffice to make amends for) upon ought else, than some unforeseen Difficulties in your attempting that Singly, which would call for the Strength, as it does indeed on the Duties, of More; I mean of the whole Body Corporate of the City, intrusted therewith by the Crown.
Which Body not being (that I know) to be otherwise come-at by me, than through that of the Court of Aldermen; I have determined upon discharging my Duty thereto in this Matter, by a Line or two at its next Meeting: When your Lordship with them, assisted by my forementioned Paper of the 5th. of April, and the Report accompanying it of the 23d. of March, will, I doubt not, be fully enabled both to judge and do what shall then appear reasonable. I am with all Respect,
IT being from this Court only that I derive my relation as a Governour to Christ-Hospital; 'tis to it alone I hold my self first accountable for the Issue of my Endeavours under that Charge.
Not that either You or my self (could it have been avoided) had ever had the trouble of it in this Place: As having made it my many Years Labour, to have prevented or cur'd elsewhere (at the Hospital, I mean) those Evils, which from my disappointments there, I am now driven to expose to You here.
What they are, I take leave to refer You for Information to two Papers of mine, of the 23d of March and 5th of April last; which (besides many others lying with the Hospital) have for some Months been by me lodg'd, in the Hands of the Right Honourable and my Honoured Friend the Lord Mayor; shewing the present State of this Unhappy House in its Revenue, Stock, and Debts; with another prepar'd at the same time, and ready (when seasonable) to follow them, relating to the no less wretched Condition of it, in its Moral and Religious Oeconomy: Making together, such an Instance of ROYAL and PRIVATE CHARITIES, consecrated to Uses the most Pious and Publick, so spent, so misapply'd, perverted, and unaccountably sunk, within so little time, to so great a Value, and with so reproachful an Account to be given of any End of its Institution answer'd, towards either God or Man; as I firmly believe, the Story of no one House of Charity, in any Christian Age or Place, can parallel.
And because I foresee, that without immediate application from this Court, nothing herein can receive Amendment; But that on the contrary, the Support, Service, and Honour of this Religious House must fall, and both its Miscarriage and Debts become the City's to answer-for. And more than so; that for what concerns the Mathematick Foundation there, erected by my Royal Master King Charles II. for the Advancement of Navigation; my Personal Interest in the Prosperity of it, will oblige me to become an Assistant in the Enquiries, which in Right to His present Majesty must be expected, into the Effects of what has been spent thereon; and the Ballance (to above 20000 l.) yet resting to be accounted-for to Him. I thought it my Duty, while under my present Relation to this Your Service, to endeavour hereby, and by Your timely improving it, both to excite and enable You, to bring-about such a Reformation herein of Your own, as may prevent the Consequences of the want of it.
If not; it remains only, that I beg Your disburthening me of my Charge [Page] herein; that I may be at liberty to pursue what may offer it self of greater Efficacy towards the Recovery of this Foundation, and the Advancement of the great End of it in our Navigation; under the nearer Influence and Protection of His Majesty, in that of his own late Erection on the same Royal Design elsewhere. I am, with great Respect,
upon the State of Christ-Hospital. Paper I. Apr. 29. 1699
Mr. PEPYS to the Lord Mayor Upon the Present State of CHRIST-HOSPITAL.
ANother Three Months are now run-out, and the whole twelve of your Lordship's Great Office at the Eve of their Expiring; while our poor Orphans remain in the same reliefless State I left them in with your Lordship, in my Letter of the 5th. of April last. Wherein nothing more was propos'd of Trouble to your Lordship towards the remedying it (and that too of your Lordship's own seeking) than the accompanying with your Authority my Report thereof to the Gentlemen of Christ-Hospital (to whom it was specially directed) and to the Body-Corporate of the City, which, as I have heretofore noted, stands originally answerable for the same, to the Crown.
In neither of which, though abundantly apply'd-to in both, has your Lordship thought fit to express any regard to your Ʋndertaking to me. But so much the contrary; as to have arraign'd my late Memorial to you concerning it (even after your Own and the Court of Aldermen's solemn Thanks to me for it) as a Libel, and the only Occasion of the No-Voice given your Lordship, at the late Parliament-Election for the City. And this deliver'd me from your Lordship, and my Lady Mayoress too, as your Joint-Message, by the same Worthy Citizen, and Member both of your Common Council and Hospital, whom your self was first pleased to employ to me, on those Pious Errands I was misled by, to the submitting the Execution of this Matter singly to your Lordship.
My Lord, I shall not offer at the asking-after, or even aiming at the Ground of this your so extraordinary Dealing, in a Cause of so Religious an Import; as leaving that to God, the City, and your Self, to be reckon'd-for. It shall suffice me, My Lord, to observe, That it has arisen from neither of those Causes, whereto the Court of Aldermen were led to joyn with your Lordship in the assigning it, and in the yet unperform'd Undertaking for its Recovery; your Sickness, I mean, My Lord, and Sir Tho. Stamp's Absence.
A COPY of the foremention'd Letter of April the 5th.
AFter acknowledging with all thankfulness to your Lordship (but with no small uneasiness to my self, from my not being yet able to do it as I ought) for the double Honour of your Lordship's late Visits: I take this time for putting into your Hand (by your Servant Mr. Parry) my expected Report, upon the Subject you have been pleas'd to give me so much Evidence of your compassionate Concernment for; I mean, that of Christ-Hospital: clos'd at the Day I lately presum'd to bespeak of your Lordship (had it stood with your well-liking) for its Delivery in Court there. And this I take the liberty of giving your Lordship the single trouble of;
First, As by your Great Office you are, and stand originally declar'd to be, Chief Ruler and Governour (in Superiority to the President himself) both of that and every other Hospital. In which Quality I submit it afresh to your Lordship to consider; How far you may yet think fit to concur with me, in the having it communicated to that Court: For the sake of the many Gentlemen of the first Degree for Honour and Probity in that Body, wholly uninform'd in every Article of its Contents, and who (were they appris'd thereof) would as little bear being thought Assistants to the present Managements there, as my self can, who have now from 14 Years past, been on that Score alone, avowedly withdrawn therefrom.
Nor do I repeat this, My Lord, from the least View I can yet have of any Success from it, after the Reception met-with there by my last. But in pure Discharge of what I hold it my Duty to do, towards that House and Them, and to their late Resolution in Court touching this Matter: Whatever their Returns may be for it, towards either Themselves or Me.
Next, with regard to your yet greater and nearer Interest in this Affair, as Head of that Body, the Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of London, incorporated by K. Edward VI, as Governours General of all his Hospitals. To whom We of the particular Houses rest accountable for what We do; as (with due deference) I take Them to be, by Solemn Indenture, to the King; and particularly,
That the Revenues of the said Hospitals, over and above the ordinary Fees, Pensions, and Lawful Charges, going out of the same, without Fraud or Covin, shall be wholly bestow'd, employ'd, and go, to the Relief and Sustentation of the Poor.
And under this Character I am again to submit to Your Lordship, the Consideration and Choice of Your Time and Method, for bringing it before Your self in Conjunction with that Body, for its further Disposal, as in Your and Their Wisdoms shall be found reasonable.
Allowing me only to add; That the late Unhappy Case of the Orphans of your Rich, seems yet too fresh (could it be prevented) to be so soon follow'd by One of so much a more moving sound as This, of the Orphans of your Poor. The Point, of all others, wherein the Credit of this City has (from the immortal Performances of our Forefathers) been hitherto preserv'd the most unshaken: And therefore lest fit for our present Violation; as bearing in it the Cause of dead Benefactors and living Infants, a-like incapable of being their own Advocates. And so much, My Lord, the more worthy of, as well as needing, your Lordship's Patronage, and the Benefit of your Authority ( great indeed, but daily short'ning) as in a Service, at once, acceptable to God, aidful to his Poor, profitable to the Publick, and of consequence to the general Honour of the City, and eminently so in particular to your Lordship.
Towards which, if ought further from me may be thought useful; your Lordship is fully Master both of Me and It. Whether as to the Whole, or that special Part of it, which respects the Mathematick Foundation, instituted by my Royal Master K. Charles II. for the Advancement of Navigation. Which I must not spare the declaring to your Lordship my being too particularly interested in, ever silently to see the Ruin of. And therefore must beg your Lordship's and their making such Ʋse of it, in your Procedure and Adjustments with the Treasurer and his Security in their approaching Discharge, as on the King's Behalf and your Own shall appear expedient.
Nor yet (as before) would I be thought so far to restrain my Care herein to this Foundation, as to forget my general Duty to the Whole: By omitting to observe to you, That there lies no less Room open, for the Exercise of your Lordship's and the City's Authority, Trust, and Paternal Regard to the Weal of that Whole, than of this particular Branch of it: By seeing; that the near 200,000 l. of our Poor's Estate concern'd in that Gentleman's Account, (and never yet allow'd, look'd-into, or so much as regularly laid before a Court there) receive its Passage through yours, in such manner as it ought, and We would it should, were the Effects thereof all our own Fathers Gifts, and the Orphans interested in them our own Children. As in a Civil, as well as Religious Construction, they indeed are little less: Being most of them, the real wretched Orphans of our Fellow-Citizens.
To Whom, as such, I have ever most affectionately labour'd, and from this your Lordship's and the City's earnest, though late, Interposition on their Behalf, will not yet despair, of seeing my self once again in a Condition of being Vseful. Remaining,
Mr. PEPYS, upon the State of Christ-Hospital. Paper II. Apr 29. 1699.
Nor am I ignorant, my Lord, how far your Self and Court have exprest your Resentments of the want of it from him: and on that Consideration, think my self under the greater Obligation of giving you this View thereof, in the Method I did my last. Wherein with what Tenderness I governed my-self, towards both this Court and the Hospital concerned in it, will be best understood from the Enclosed, and what I might further appeal to from some of your own honour'd Members concerning it.
Which Paper, my Lord, I therefore thus humbly lodge in your Lordship's hands and Theirs, with two Others on the same Subject (one of older, the other of later Date) of equal Service to the illustrating of the same; And all submitted to such your Applications of them, as your Predecessor shall be found to have left you Opportunity for.
One thing only I have to prae-bespeak concerning them. Namely, that the Earnestness wherewith I may be thought delivering my self therein, touching the Necessity of a Royal Visitation; may not be interpreted to arise, from any Propension in me to the removing this Affair out of Your hands; or as pretending to any power or purpose of doing more towards it, than the bringing it within the Notice of that Minister, with whom the Crown hath lodged the determining of the Reasonableness, of taking it into its Own. And so much, my Lord, I think my self, in Faithfulness to It, to You, and to the Poor, indispensably bound to do: And that, upon such Convictions, of the Necessity of it, as the Piety of this Court (when truly enlighten'd in 'em, and apprised of what my Former and This shew you to lye yet unreported by me, of much harser a Hearing than all that has been yet spoken of) will be but too well and, I fear, too late satisfied in the Reasons of.