Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/524

 616 EMOLUMENTS OF SECRETARIES OF October became regular, this allowance was divided between them, and warrants for payment of £700 yearly were issued in due course to each secretary, so that this became before long a recognized allowance granted immediately upon appointment.^ The pay- ments were during pleasure, and were made quarterly out of the exchequer upon certificates or writing under the secretary's hand.*^ The allowance appears to have always been divided equally, irre- spective of division of duties, between the principal secretaries. The equity of this equal division was questioned in 1632 upon Viscoimt Dorchester's death. Sir Francis Windebank, his successor, at once obtained a privy seal * for half the intelligences ', as had been customary since SaUsbury's death. But the lord treasurer Portland held that Coke ' might move for the whole as having foreign employment ', and the king actually conceded the point .^ There is, however, no indication that the matter was carried further. The excellent intelligence system, which was the care and pride of the Cecils and Walsingham, had been allowed to lapse to a considerable extent under the first two Stuarts, when danger from abroad was less imminent. John Thurloe, as secretary to the Council of State during the Commonwealth, raised it again to such perfection, that his very enemies admired, and critics quoted him as an example when Morrice's secret service failed during the Dutch war.* The latter's defence was that one could accomplish little with only £700 a year, and it may have been largely as a result of this that the allowance for intelligence was revised and considerably increased. During the first decade of the Restoration period, various irregular payments seem to have been made to supplement the official £700 apiece. Possibly at first the grant of £3,700 on the post office was intended to be partly expended on secret service. During Arlington's secretary- ship the sum of £4,000 is continually mentioned, but there is considerable vagueness apparently as to exactly how, when, and not exceeding £700 a year for intelligence and other secret services '. Dorchester in 1628 is to receive ' such sum as he shall signify to be needful not exceeding 175 pounds per quarter for the King's private and inward services ', while the £700 is allowed to Vane on his appointment ' as accustomed to the Secretaries of State to continue during pleasure ' {Cal. of State Papers, Dom., 1619-23, p. 484 ; 1628-9, p. 409; and 1639-40, p. 419). » Ibid. i. 463. xiii. 527. Thurloe's allowance for intelligence varied between £1,200 and £2,000 yearly. The secretarial salaries during the Commonwealth were nominally much higher than under the monarchy, probably in an attempt to abolish the perquisite system. For these salaries see Maason, Life of Milton, vi. 82-6, 425-6, 451. Thurloe, for example, began with a salary of £600 per annum, which was later increased to £800.
 * Many examples of these warrants might be given. Conway is allowed ' sums
 * Hist. MSS. Comtn., Cotoper MSS., i. 397.
 * See the articles by Mr. C. H. Firth on Thurloe in the Diet, of Nat. Biogr.,&iid ante,