r, at 4_s. per diem_ (being L73 _per
annum_); for the salary of Robert Stebbin, fire-maker to the
clerks, at 2_s. per diem_ (being L36 10_s. per annum_):
amounting in the whole to L346 15 0

"The first payment of the said several and respective sums
before-mentioned to commence from the 1st of April instant.

"To Richard Nutt, master of his Highness's barge:--For his own
office after L80 _per annum;_ for Thomas Washborne, his
assistant, for his salary, after L20 _per annum;_ for the
salaries of 25 watermen to attend his Highness's barge, at L4
_per annum_ to each (amounting together to L100 _per
annum_): amounting in the whole to L200 _per ann._

"The same to commence from 25th March, 1655."

Clearly the Council were in a mood of economy. Not only were certain
salaries to be reduced, but a good many outlays were to be stopped
altogether, including Needham's subsidy or pension for his
journalistic services. But more appears from the document. In spite
of the general tendency to retrenchment, the salaries of Scobell and
Jessop, the two clerks of the Council, are to be raised from L365 a
year to L500 a year. This alone would suggest that not retrenchment
only, but an improvement also in the system of the Council's
business, was intended. The document as a whole confirms that idea.
It maps out the service of the Council more definitely than hitherto
into departments. Thurloe, of course, is general head, styled now
"Secretary of State"; but it will be observed that the department of
Foreign Affairs, including the management of Intelligence from
abroad, is spoken of as now wholly and especially his, and that
Meadows, with the designation of "Secretary for the Latin Tongue,"
ranks distinctly under him in that department. Scobell and Jessop, as
"Clerks to the Council," though under Thurloe too, are now important
enough to be jointly at the head of a separate staff; the Bailiff or
Constable department is separate from theirs, and under the charge of
Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms Dendy; and minor divisions of service, nameable
as Ushership and Barge-attendance, are under the charge of Messrs.
Scutt and Nutt respectively. The payments of salaries are
henceforward not to be vaguely through Mr. Gualter Frost, as
Treasurer for the Council's Contingencies, but by warrants to the
Treasury to pay regularly to the several heads the definite
sums-total in their departments, their own salaries included.

Milton's case