s, averred that no other living
man could have made so excellent a speech; the placemen of the Admiralty
vied with each other in expressions of delight and admiration; and one
flatterer, whose name is not recorded, caused Mr. Pepys infinite
pleasure by saying that the speaker who had routed the accusers of a
government office, might easily earn a thousand a year at the Chancery
bar.

That sum, however, is insignificant when it is compared with the incomes
made by the most fortunate advocates of that period. Eminent speakers of
the Common Law Bar made between L2000 and L3500 per annum on circuit and
at Westminster, without the aid of king's business; and still larger
receipts were recorded in the fee-books of his Majesty's attorneys and
solicitors. At the Chancery bar of the second Charles, there was at
least one lawyer, who in one year made considerably more than four times
the income that was suggested to Pepys's vanity and self-complacence. At
Stanford Court, Worcestershire, is preserved a fee-book kept by Sir
Francis Winnington, Solicitor-General to the 'merry monarch,' from
December 1674 to January 13, 1679, from the entries of which record the
reader may form a tolerably correct estimate of the professional
revenues of successful lawyers at that time. In Easter Term, 1671, Sir
Francis pocketed L459; in Trinity Term L449 10s.; in Michaelmas Term
L521; and in Hilary Term 1672, L361 10s.; the income for the year being
L1791, without his earnings on the Oxford Circuit and during vacation.
In 1673, Sir Francis received L3371; in 1674, he earned L3560;[8] and in
1675--_i.e._, the first year of his tenure of the Solicitor's
office--his professional income wars L4066, of which sum L429 were
office fees. Concerning the Attorney-General's receipts about this time,
we have sufficient information from Roger North, who records that his
brother, whilst Attorney General, made nearly seven thousand pounds in
one year, from private and official business. It is noteworthy that
North, as Attorney General, made the same income which Coke realized in
the same office at the commencement of the century. But under the
Stuarts this large income of L7000--in those days a princely
revenue--was earned by work so perilous and fruitful of obloquy, that
even Sir Francis, who loved money and cared little for public esteem,
was glad to resign the post of Attorney and retire to the Pleas with
L4000 a year. That the fees of the Chancery lawyers unde