occasion Viscount Newport, Sir Joseph Williamson, and Samuel Pepys
officiated as stewards.

About this time it is evident that the secretary carried himself with some
haughtiness as a ruler of the navy, and that this was resented by some.
An amusing instance will be found in the Parliamentary Debates. On May
11th, 1678, the King's verbal message to quicken the supply was brought in
by Mr. Secretary Williamson, when Pepys spoke to this effect:

"When I promised that the ships should be ready by the 30th of May,
it was upon the supposition of the money for 90 ships proposed by
the King and voted by you, their sizes and rates, and I doubt not by
that time to have 90 ships, and if they fall short it will be only
from the failing of the Streights ships coming home and those but
two . . . . .

"Sir Robert Howard then rose and said, 'Pepys here speaks rather
like an Admiral than a Secretary, "I" and "we." I wish he knows
half as much of the Navy as he pretends.'"

Pepys was chosen by the electors of Harwich as their member in the short
Parliament that sat from March to July, 1679, his colleague being Sir
Anthony Deane, but both members were sent to the Tower in May on a
baseless charge, and they were superseded in the next Parliament that met
on the 17th October, 1679.

The high-handed treatment which Pepys underwent at this time exhibits a
marked instance of the disgraceful persecution connected with the
so-called Popish plot. He was totally unconnected with the Roman Catholic
party, but his association with the Duke of York was sufficient to mark