Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen of Unknown London, written by Walter George Bell.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Janet.
Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen a lost invention. This is a mere trifle
Speaker 1: of flotsam picked up on the broad ocean of our history.
Speaker 1: The incident, dismissed lightly as of no importance, very likely
Speaker 1: was forgotten in the lives of those whom it concerned,
Speaker 1: who are long since dead. The world knew nothing of it,
Speaker 1: and it was likely to have remained unknown. But for
Speaker 1: the fact that the papers chanced to be preserved among
Speaker 1: the muniments at Montague House, the great London mansion of
Speaker 1: the Dukes of Buckloo, there was a secret, well kept
Speaker 1: and now lost forever. The brief story will introduce men
Speaker 1: whom the world counted great, not in their greatness, but
Speaker 1: in moments when they were mean and petty. King Charles
Speaker 1: the Second, back from exile a few years, enjoying his
Speaker 1: popularity with his subjects and the exercise of regal power
Speaker 1: so long denied to him, but craftily suspicious, uncertain whom
Speaker 1: to trust, Henry Bennett, Lord Arlington, his Secretary of State,
Speaker 1: Sir Samuel Morland, the last filling a lesser space in
Speaker 1: the eyes of his contemporaries, but the second, if not
Speaker 1: actually the first, inventive mind of his day. The Great
Speaker 1: Fire of London broke out at two o'clock on the
Speaker 1: morning of Sunday, the second September sixteen sixty six, blazing
Speaker 1: up in the darkness amidst dry timber built houses at
Speaker 1: Pudding Lane by London Bridge. A high wind drove the
Speaker 1: flames forward and sweeping along the river side. They had
Speaker 1: reached Dowgate by nightfall. In Cloak Lane, which still you
Speaker 1: may find off Dowgate Hill, was the general post office
Speaker 1: for the mails. Sir Philip Frode was at the time
Speaker 1: manager for the ly See Catherine, Countess of Chesterfield, who
Speaker 1: formed the posts under a monopoly which gave the prophets
Speaker 1: to the King's brother, the Duke of York, and his heirs.
Speaker 1: Frod and his lady anxiously watched the fire bearing towards them,
Speaker 1: and at midnight, when the peril had become grave, they
Speaker 1: fled for safety. The acting postmaster, James Hicks, was no
Speaker 1: stranger to horrors at hazard of life. He had remained
Speaker 1: in London throughout the previous year's great plague, keeping the
Speaker 1: letter office open and attending to its business, when neighbors
Speaker 1: were dying all around, and the red Cross on that
Speaker 1: tragic appeal, Lord, have mercy on us, were chalked on
Speaker 1: many citizens doors. He stayed himself this night of the
Speaker 1: fire till one o'clock. Such was then the alarm of
Speaker 1: his wife and children, that they would stay no longer,
Speaker 1: fearful lest the flames should entirely cut off their escape.
Speaker 1: With difficulty and no little danger in the burning streets,
Speaker 1: Hicks managed to reach an inn bearing the sign of
Speaker 1: the Golden Lion in red Cross Street, outside Cripplegate, where
Speaker 1: he temporarily re established the post house. He saved such
Speaker 1: packets as he could hastily remove, and forwarded to Williamson,
Speaker 1: Lord Arlington's secretary, the letters of state received by the
Speaker 1: Chester and Irish males, with a despairing note that he
Speaker 1: knows not how to dispose of the business. He left
Speaker 1: behind that, the thought of which must have caused him
Speaker 1: many a twinge of conscience and many wakeful half hours
Speaker 1: in those terrible nights, lighted noonday and noisy, with the
Speaker 1: crackling and fall of houses, during which London continued to burn.
Speaker 1: Sir Philip Frowd too, knew what it was left behind
Speaker 1: to the flames if fortuitously they should reach it first,
Speaker 1: or to the hand of any marauder who might break
Speaker 1: into the untenanted post house before the fire wholly consumed.
Speaker 1: It was a complete secret apparatus for tampering with, copying
Speaker 1: and forging letters in the interests of the state. This
Speaker 1: was the device of Samuel Morland, a man whose extraordinary
Speaker 1: ingenuity would have brought him immense fortune had he lived
Speaker 1: in an age when the adoption of the mechanical arts
Speaker 1: to commercial uses was better rewarded. A calculating machine, the
Speaker 1: drum capstan for unwinding heavy ship's anchors, the gland and
Speaker 1: stuffing box of the plunger pump, the speaking trumpet, and
Speaker 1: practical water raising contriver all were his, the product of
Speaker 1: his resourceful brain. Like the late member of Parliament of
Speaker 1: our own acquaintance, who invented the safety lucifer match and
Speaker 1: omitted to patent it, he missed his opportunity, but that
Speaker 1: was his misfortune to be in advance of his time.
Speaker 1: He was made late in life magister mechinoricom by the King.
Speaker 1: The philosopher's reputation and trustworthiness were not untarnished, for he
Speaker 1: had sought to serve two masters. Peeps has drawn him
Speaker 1: as a lonely figure in a great company assembled on
Speaker 1: the fleet to await Charles's embarkation for England. Mister Morland,
Speaker 1: now Sir Samuel, was here on board. But I do
Speaker 1: not find that my Lord and note one Edward Montague,
Speaker 1: Earl of Sandwich, in Peepe's diary as his chief. He
Speaker 1: is always styled my lord end footnote, or anybody did
Speaker 1: give him any respect, he being looked upon by him
Speaker 1: and all men as a knave. He had, with Isaac
Speaker 1: Dorlas the Younger, during Cromwell's government, been one of the
Speaker 1: Board of Examiners of the Post Office, by whom any
Speaker 1: suspicious letters directed abroad were opened and read. Also, he
Speaker 1: had kept up secret communications with Charles in France. Cromwell
Speaker 1: served by many others whose infidelity was yet blacker than
Speaker 1: the inventors, of course, knew nothing of this. Morland had
Speaker 1: been Secretary Thurlow's own secretary. A dramatic incident in his
Speaker 1: career of duplicity, as told by Wellwood in his memoirs,
Speaker 1: reads much like an excerpt from the Arabian nights and
Speaker 1: little like the truth. This was his eavesdropping at the plot,
Speaker 1: so called by royalists to induce Charles the Second and
Speaker 1: his brother to effect a landing on the Sussex coast
Speaker 1: under pretense of meeting many adherents, and to put them
Speaker 1: both to death the moment they disembarked. Cromwell, Thurlough and
Speaker 1: Sir Richard Willis met his scheme at Thurlough's office, and
Speaker 1: the conversation was overheard by Morland, who pretended to be
Speaker 1: asleep at his desk. On discovering Moreland's presence there, Cromwell
Speaker 1: drew his poigner and would have killed him on the spot,
Speaker 1: but for Thurlow's solemn assurance that his secretary had sat
Speaker 1: up two nights in succession and was certainly fast asleep.
Speaker 1: Moreland is said to have betrayed Willis, the originator of
Speaker 1: the plot. His reward was one of the first knighthoods
Speaker 1: bestowed by Charles at his restoration. Peeps I have said
Speaker 1: held him to be a knave. Later they had a
Speaker 1: chance meeting at the Privy Seal Office, whence Morland had
Speaker 1: come with two baronet's grants given to him by the
Speaker 1: King to make money out of all, which, says the
Speaker 1: worldly minded diarist, to make me begin to think he
Speaker 1: is not so much of a fool as I took
Speaker 1: him to be. But I am losing the story in
Speaker 1: recalling the actors. The Stewart letter writer knew nothing of
Speaker 1: the envelopes. The written letter was penned upon one side
Speaker 1: of a large sheet of paper. Then the sheet was folded,
Speaker 1: addressed on the back, and sealed with wax or wafer,
Speaker 1: a good method for the convenience of which all who
Speaker 1: have had the handling of large numbers of old documents
Speaker 1: are profoundly grateful. It had, of course, the disadvantage that,
Speaker 1: with a little expert manipulation of seal and wafer, the
Speaker 1: contents were soon at the disposal of prying eyes. The Spaniards,
Speaker 1: masters of intrigue, had a way of so sealing up
Speaker 1: letters that it was said to be utterly impossible to
Speaker 1: open them without desa discovery being made. Lord Arlington, having
Speaker 1: heard of Morland's proficiency in tricks of the kind, brought
Speaker 1: the method to the King's notice. Morland, by way of experiment,
Speaker 1: and to show his powers, induced Arlington to go alone
Speaker 1: into a private room. There write ten or twelve lines,
Speaker 1: fold and seal the paper in the Spanish manner, and
Speaker 1: leave the document with the inventor. A day or two
Speaker 1: later he waited upon Arlington and gave him first a
Speaker 1: copy of what he had so penned and sealed, then
Speaker 1: put into his hand his own sealed letter. Arlington examined
Speaker 1: both and opened them with all care imaginable. Afterwards, confessing
Speaker 1: that he could not tell which was his own handwriting,
Speaker 1: he immediately left me. Morland records, being not a little surprised,
Speaker 1: and acquainted the King with what had happened, and showed
Speaker 1: him all the papers. Charles's curiosity was aroused, and his
Speaker 1: love of devious methods led him to desire to know more.
Speaker 1: The flagrant dishonesty of the thing must be condoned, if
Speaker 1: all be fair in love, war, and statecraft. A demonstration
Speaker 1: was first arranged at the Secretary's office at an hour
Speaker 1: when all the clerks and messengers had left for the day.
Speaker 1: Models of the apparatus were shown and explained, and the
Speaker 1: whole process was gone through under the King's eyes, with
Speaker 1: which his Majesty, so Morland writes, was so well pleased
Speaker 1: that he sent for the postmaster General, and ordered him
Speaker 1: to prepare two rooms at the General Post Office to
Speaker 1: put these things in real practice, which three months after
Speaker 1: was done. The King came down again to witness a
Speaker 1: second demonstration. When all went well, the circumstances were highly dramatic.
Speaker 1: A private gentlemen's coach drove into Whitehall late at night
Speaker 1: between ten and eleven o'clock. The King entered it. With
Speaker 1: him was Lord Arlington, the state's secretary, and one other.
Speaker 1: Together they rode unnoticed into the city to the General
Speaker 1: post Office. There, in the shuttered and concealed rooms, they
Speaker 1: witnessed the forgers at work, and stayed nearly three hours,
Speaker 1: almost till dawn was in the skies. Seeing with admiration
Speaker 1: and very great satisfaction. So the unblushing Morland declares the
Speaker 1: various operations, which were one opening with great care and
Speaker 1: expedition all manners of seals, both wafer and wax, and
Speaker 1: again sealing the letters up so that the most curious
Speaker 1: eye could not discover that they had been tampered with.
Speaker 1: Two counterfeiting all sorts of seals, giving as sharp impressions
Speaker 1: as with the original seals, both in wafer and wax.
Speaker 1: Three counterfeiting all manner of writing, so as to make
Speaker 1: it impossible for any person to know or distinguish his
Speaker 1: own handwriting. Four rapid and exact copying of any writing,
Speaker 1: even when a whole sheet of paper was closely written
Speaker 1: upon both sides, for which little more time than one
Speaker 1: minute was required, and so proportionately for any number of sheets.
Speaker 1: A fine knight's work for a King Morland, I fear
Speaker 1: a sad scoundrel, no doubt was dead to those feelings
Speaker 1: common to all normally constituted beings which make them regard
Speaker 1: a forger as a loathsome and despicable creature. But it
Speaker 1: would be interesting, could we read Charles's unquiet thoughts as
Speaker 1: he drove away. The King was well satisfied. All these
Speaker 1: black arts were thereafter by royal command, this at the
Speaker 1: General post Office, with great advantage to the Crown, until
Speaker 1: by the postmaster's negligence when he fled before the advancing
Speaker 1: fire during the night of the second September sixteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: The machines and utensils employed were left behind and destroyed
Speaker 1: by the flames. Years passed by Morland, grown old and
Speaker 1: always needy, large monies he had received, but they slipped
Speaker 1: through his fingers, desired for his own profit, that the
Speaker 1: tampering and forgery should be restored, And he set out
Speaker 1: in a petition to Lord Shaftesbury, then Secretary of State,
Speaker 1: the great advantages that would accrue to the King thereby,
Speaker 1: that he would, by frequent inspection of letters when the
Speaker 1: practice was unsuspected, come to know the temper of all
Speaker 1: his principal and active subjects throughout his dominions, that where
Speaker 1: treason was suspected, it would be easy to make a
Speaker 1: disaffected subject and his accomplices correspond by copies only, and
Speaker 1: to keep the originals till their designs were ripe for
Speaker 1: discovery and conviction. And this person, says Morland, the tempter
Speaker 1: may sometimes happen to be a favorite, or a Privy councilor,
Speaker 1: or a great military officer, and nearly concern the Prince's
Speaker 1: life and government. Furthermore, the devices of ambassadors and foreign
Speaker 1: ministers would be thwarted. Those people were always careful to
Speaker 1: send their dispatches of consequence as late as possible to
Speaker 1: the General Post Office, so that no time was available
Speaker 1: for spying into their contents. But by the wonderful process,
Speaker 1: exact copies, even of ten or twelve written sheets, could
Speaker 1: be made in as many minutes. Machiavelli himself gave no
Speaker 1: more Satanic council to his prince. But the old order
Speaker 1: had changed, swept away in a night, the night during
Speaker 1: which Charles had lain such an unconsciousable time in dying,
Speaker 1: one recalls the tremendous indictment that John Evelyn wrote in
Speaker 1: his diary. I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming,
Speaker 1: and all dissoluteness, and as it were, total forgetfulness of God.
Speaker 1: It being Sunday evening, which this day to night I
Speaker 1: was witness of the King sitting and toying with his
Speaker 1: concubines Portsmouth, Cleveland and Mazarin, et cetera. A French boy
Speaker 1: singing love songs in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty
Speaker 1: of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons read basset
Speaker 1: round a large table, a bank of at least two
Speaker 1: thousand pounds in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen
Speaker 1: who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days
Speaker 1: after was all in the dust. A cautious and stolid Dutchman,
Speaker 1: William of Orange sat on the British throne. He refused
Speaker 1: his consent. There is a note at the end of
Speaker 1: Morland's petition in Shaftesbury's hand. The King made a very
Speaker 1: honorable answer that Sir Sam should be considered, but he
Speaker 1: thought that the secret ought to die with him, as
Speaker 1: too dangerous to be encouraged. And so far as I know,
Speaker 1: and so far as is known at Saint Martin's Le Grande,
Speaker 1: the secret died with him, and no doubt it is
Speaker 1: well end of chapter fifteen,