“Thus ends this year of publick wonder and mischief
to this nation, and, therefore, generally wished by all people to have an
end....[P]ublick matters in a most sad condition; seamen discouraged for want
of pay, and are become not to be governed: nor, as matters are now, can any
fleete go out next year. Our enemies, French and Dutch, great, and grow more by
our poverty. The Parliament backward in raising, because jealous of the
spending of the money; the City less and less likely to be built again, every
body settling elsewhere, and nobody encouraged to trade. A sad, vicious,
negligent Court, and all sober men there fearful of the ruin of the whole
kingdom this next year; from which, good God deliver us!”—English government
official and master diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), diary entry of Dec. 31, 1666, in Pepys’ Diaries
It’s nice to know that 350 years ago, men worried
about matters of state similar to now—foreign enemies, a dysfunctional
legislative body, lack of public investment, a dormant economy, a
malfunctioning judiciary, even ‘the ruin” of the country—and somehow still
survived.
See you on the other side of the calendar in 2017…
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