1920 STATE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 517 for what purpose the various payments should be made.^ To complicate matters further, the king frequently instructed his ministers, Arlington in particular, to perform private or only semi-public services for him, for which they received unspecified payments, covered by the general term ' for secret services '.^ In 1667, however, the official allowance to the secretaries for intelligence was fixed at £4,000, ' besides what they have from ye Post Office',* and it is probable that by 1670 Arlington was receiving the full £4,000 a year for intelligence purposes, that this was in addition to and distinct from the £462 IO5. per quarter received as a salary, and that probably Trevor was receiving no specific allowance for intelligence, which may have been at this time under Arlington's sole control.* After Coventry's appointment matters tended to become more regular, and when Williamson took Arlington's place a definite rule of payment and division between the secretaries was evolved. In October 1674 the allowance to the secretaries is still £4,000, now to be paid out of the chimney money. ^ Early in the next year an extra £1,000 had been added.** From this date £5,000 per annum was the regular allowance to the secretaries of state for purposes of intelligence, and of this sum the senior in standing received £3,000, while the junior received £2,000 yearly.' This
- See for example, Cal. of Treas. Books, ii. 397, where there is a warrant for a privy
seal for the secretaries' £4,000 per annum ' for intelligence ' now removed from the post office to the farm on unwrought wood (see above, p. 515). The privy seal was issued in July 1668, but on 15 September it was minuted : 'as to the Secretaries ' Privy Seal for intelligence, Sir Wm. Coventry says that in the establishment there is £4,000 per annum inserted for intelligence, but that this is not so directed in the Privy Seal, so that the Privy Council must be moved to alter it before it can be done ' {Cal. of Treaa. Books, ii. 399, 439).
- One must distinguish throughout between ' secret* service ' which may merely
indicate services of a private nature and ' intelligence ' in the narrower and technical sense. ' State Papers, Dom., Entry Book 17, p. 275.
- For the first point see Cal. of Treas. Books, iii. i. 223, 656, for two privy
seals to Arlington for secret services, each for £4,000, under dates 21 May 1669 and 22 August 1670. To illustrate the second point, one may quote a minute of 7 February 1671-2 : ' On Saturday to (bear in) mind Lord Arlington's (warrant for) £2,000 for secret service under the Law Bill and the (warrant for his salary of) £462 10s. upon the wood farm' {ibid. iii. ii. 1029). The chief reference in the Treasury Books of issues to Sir John Trevor, other than to his regular salary of £1,850, and to one special treasury order for £200, is to a grant of £8,000 on the customs, warranted to him by a privy seal of 14 October 1668, payment on which was deferred to November 1670 {ibid. iii. i. 196). « Add. MS. 28077, f. 139. « See for instance Danby's paper of 29 September 1675 concerning the revenue, where among the issues to the household the secretaries are noted as receiving £5,000 for intelligence (Ralph, Hist, of England, i. 288-9). ' From February 1675 Coventry received £3,000 and Williamson £2,000 {Cal, of Treas. Books^ v. i. 392 ; iv. 683 et alia). Sunderland received £2,000 at first {ibid. V. ii. 1249, but £3,000 after Jenkins's appointment {ibid. vi. 718). Similarly, Jenkins received £2,000 at first* but £3>000 after Conway replaced Sunderland, which
