But it is pretty to see what money will do.

Pepys’s remark is a dry, observant comment on the persuasive power of money—how readily it can smooth obstacles, win cooperation, or produce results that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. The phrasing “pretty to see” carries a note of amused irony: he is not celebrating moral virtue so much as noting, with a diarist’s candor, the almost theatrical effectiveness of payment, gifts, or financial leverage in social and institutional life. Read in the spirit of the Diary as a whole, it reflects Pepys’s recurring attention to patronage, bribery, and the practical economics of getting things done in Restoration England, where favors and fees often operated alongside formal rules.