A NATIONAL SCARE.

'Going out of church immediately after sermon, some people of St. James' parish passed by and told me the enemy had entered the town.'

HARTE.

A FEW years after Charles II. had been restored to the throne of his ancestors, a war, disgraceful in its origin, and doubly disgraceful by the marked incapacity with which it was conducted, was forced upon the United Provinces.

The prosperity of the Dutch, their commercial rivalry with the English, and their superiority in every department of trade, were viewed with extreme jealousy by our merchants. It was hoped that the commercial predominance we could not obtain by superior industry and ability might be attained by superior strength. Charles, who thought he saw a prospect of filling his rapidly emptying treasury, and who hoped, by defeating De Witt, the Grand Pensionary, to reinstate the young Prince of Orange on the throne, and thus bring the States to a dependence upon England, had no objection to the war. His brother, the Duke of York, who hated the Dutch because they opposed a new African company of which he was the head, and who wished for an opportunity of gaining distinction, cordially sided with the war party,

and did all in his power to rouse the languid Charles to action. Parliament, acted upon by the avidity of the mercantile classes, voted for hostilities, and were generous in furnishing supplies. Satisfaction was demanded from the Dutch for imaginary grievances; redress was refused, and war declared.

On the victories of the English navy-for, in the earlier engagements, fortune was auspicious to the fleet of Charles -France, who had no desire to see England's dominion over the seas supreme, united, in spite of all entreaties from Whitehall, with the States-General. A third enemy now appeared upon the scene. Denmark, with a double-dealing which plainly indicated her contempt for Charles and his Government, quickly followed the example of the policy of Versailles, and proved a most irritating thorn in our side. Thus alone, England had to bear the brunt of the storm her guilty greed had raised. It is true that at first in this unequal contest she managed to inflict severe injuries upon the enemy, but Charles was soon made painfully aware that the ends for which the war had been undertaken were likely to prove entirely abortive. The Dutch, though defeated in the different engagements that ensued, were not disheartened; they were actively making preparations to recommence hostilities; their credit stood high, and money was never lacking to support their operations. Whilst England, on the other hand, was soured and impoverished, her towns and villages had been laid low by the terrible plague, her capital had but recently been the sport of the flames, and now to her dismay

she saw the whole coast-line of Europe, from the North Cape to the Pyrenees, arrayed against her in arms. Charles was not the man to extricate himself from a false position by a resolute, if even an unjust, policy. He hated anything that interfered with the voluptuous ease by which he was surrounded, and this Dutch war made calls upon his purse and time which both annoyed and embarrassed him. He threw out hints which were carried to the Hague that he was not indisposed to compromise matters; from lording it as the bully he now pleaded as the suppliant. The proud country, but a few years before the terror of Europe, began to repent her of her rashness and to sue for peace. Negotiations with regard to the termination of hostilities were entered into at Breda, and the proposals of Charles were discussed by the assembled French, Danish, Dutch, and English plenipotentiaries.

Meanwhile De Witt had no intention of calmly abandoning the advantages fortune had been gracious enough to place in his hands. He thought he saw an opportunity of striking a blow which, whilst restoring to the Dutch the honour lost during the war, would at the same time obtain full compensation for those injuries which the wanton ambition and injustice of the English had inflicted. He declined to agree to a suspension of arms during the conduct of the negotiations at Breda, but, on the contrary, with a promptness all the more active since it was stimulated by the prospects of revenge, he hastened all naval preparations, and was soon in a position to carry out the scheme he

meditated. Thanks to republicans like Algernon Sydney, who had taken up their abode at the Hague, and who were among the bitterest foes of the policy of the English Council, the Grand Pensionary knew that his enemy—with her captains incompetent, her sailors unpaid and half starved, and her navy greatly reduced in strength-was incapable of effecting any formidable resistance, and that he had only to strike rapidly and decisively to establish himself as complete master of the situation. He resolved upon teaching England a lesson such as she should not easily forget, and to give her a fright such as she had not experienced since the days when the 'Armada' was sighted off the Lizard. Accordingly orders were issued to De Ruyter, the dreaded Dutch admiral, for his fleet, then riding at anchor in the Zuyder Zee, to bear up towards the east coast of England, and to blockade the Thames. At midday, June 1, 1667, his ships quitted their moorings, and once again in our history a hostile squadron was to stand out to sea to menace our shores.

These preparations created no little consternation in the minds of the Council at Whitehall. Charles, anxious to save all the money he could for his own pleasures, and feeling assured that the negotiations at Breda would be satisfactorily settled, had taken the first opportunity, when peace was proposed, of cutting down his naval expenses. He had written to the Duke of York, as Lord Admiral, not to keep in pay such third-rate ships as had been ordered to be maintained, to discharge all men-of-war which required

considerable repairs, and to lay them up in Portsmouth,

and to retain only a squadron of small ships to distract the enemy and disturb their trade.' At the same time Sir William Coventry, a Commissioner of Admiralty, was instructed to request the Navy Commissioners to reduce the crews of the fire-ships then stationed at Portsmouth, Dover, Harwich, and Chatham, and to leave them only a sufficient number to do service, or at the most so many as may suffice to weigh their anchors.'1 The same absurd policy of disbandment and reduction before peace was definitely assured, was also adopted in our military establishments. The garrisons which guarded our ports were ill supplied with ammunition, the forts along the coast were unprotected, and volunteers for active service discouraged. 'The Dutch are

known to be abroad,' moans chatty Sam Pepys, 'with eighty sail of ships of war and twenty fire-ships, and the French come into the Channel with twenty sail of men-ofwar and five fire-ships, while we have not a ship at sea to do them any hurt with, but are calling in all we can, while our ambassadors are treating at Breda, and the Dutch look upon them as come to beg peace, and use them accordingly.'

When, however-thanks to the escape of French prisoners from Rochelle, and to the return of fishing smacks-it began to be definitely ascertained that the country was threatened by a Dutch invasion, less insane measures were put into operation. Every one was struck with anger and terror; trade was at a standstill, and outward-bound

1 State Papers, Domestic, edited by Mrs. Green, May 24 and 29, 1667.