commanders were accused of not having made the most of their opportunity in pursuing the enemy, but vindicated their inactivity by attributing all the blame to the high winds that were then blowing dead in their teeth. Else, had the weather been favourable, they would have destroyed the whole of the Dutch squadron.'

This affair was the end of hostilities. On August 24, 1667, the peace with Holland, France, and Denmark was proclaimed. It was received throughout the country with great rejoicings. The national delight is plainly evinced by the bulletins, among the State Papers, from the different ports in the kingdom, when it became definitely known that the treaty of Breda had been signed. At Weymouth, 'the peace as it were raised the dead to life, and made them rich in thought, though their purses are empty, for the town is exceedingly poor.' At Lynn 'the bells have hardly lain still since the news of peace.' At Deal the peace was solemnly proclaimed with arms and trumpets, and a procession of magistrates and soldiers,' amid the cheers of the mob and the thunder from the guns of Walmer and Sandown. News of similar rejoicings were despatched to London from Newcastle, Yarmouth, Margate, Dover, and the chief ports in the Channel. It was hoped, at last, that peace would usher in a reign of prosperity, and the Parliament that was about to be assembled redress the grievances of the past.

We know who was made the scapegoat for the late misdeeds. The Lord Chancellor Clarendon was then the best hated man in the kingdom. To his counsel were attributed

the sale of Dunkirk, the stoppage of the seamen's wages, the disgrace at Chatham, and the unsuccessful conclusion of the war. He was offered up as a sacrifice to appease the people, and commanded to resign the seals. His dismissal, however, failed to satisfy the national hate. On the meeting of Parliament he was impeached, and sentence of banishment passed upon him. Among the State Papers of this period there is the following vituperative epitaph on the fallen statesman; of the numerous bitter attacks of which Clarendon was the subject, it is perhaps the most severe and scurrilous: :

Pride, lust, ambition, and the people's hate,
The kingdom's broker, the ruin of the State,
Dunkirk's sad loss, divider of the fleet,
Tangiers' compounder for a barren sheet.
The shrub of gentry married to the Crown,
His daughter to the heir has tumbled down;
The grand affronter of the noble lies
Grovelling in dirt as a just sacrifice,
To please an offended king. Abused nation,
Who could believe this sudden alteration?
God is revenged too, for the stones he took
From aged Paul's to make a nest for the rook.2
Those cormorants of State, as well as he,
We more than hope in the same plight to see.
Go on, great Prince, thy people do rejoice;
Methink I hear the kingdom's total voice

1 State Papers, Domestic, August 31, 1667. See also the preface to the Calendar of this reign by Mrs. Green.

2 Clarendon's new house near St. James was nicknamed Dunkirk House, from the general opinion of his having a good bribe for the selling of that town,' and was partly built with the stones of St. Paul's Cathedral, lately gutted by the great fire.

Applauding this day's action to be such

As roasting of the Rump, or beating of the Dutch.
Now look upon thy withered cavaliers,

That for reward have nothing had but tears;
Thanks to this Wiltshire hog, son of the spittle,
Had they been looked on, he had had but little.
Break up the coffers of the hoarding thief,
Three millions will be found to make him chief.

I have said enough of linsey-wolsey Hide,

His sacrilege, ambition, lust, and pride.

1 Clarendon was the son of Henry Hyde, of Dinton, Wiltshire.

THE END.

LONDON PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

NEW FINE-ART WORK. Large 4to, bound in buckram, 215.

Abdication, The; or, Time Tries All.

An Historical Drama. By W. D. SCOTT-MONCRIEFF. With Seven Etchings by JOHN PETTIE, R.A., W. Q. ORCHARDSON, R.A., J. MAC WHIRTER. A. R.A., COLIN HUNTER, R. MACBETH, and TOM GRAHAM. Crown 8vo, Coloured Frontispiece and Illustrations, cloth gilt, 75. 6d. Advertising, A History of.

From the Earliest Times. Illustrated by Anecdotes, Curious Speclmens, and Notices of Successful Advertisers. By HENRY SAMPSON. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with 639 Illustrations, 7s. 6d. Architectural Styles, A Handbook of.

From the German of A. ROSENGARTEN by W. COLLETT-SANDARS.
Crown 8vo, with Portrait and Facsimile, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.

Artemus Ward's Works:

The Works of CHARLES FARRER BROWNE, better known as ARTEMUS
WARD. With Portrait, Facsimile of Handwriting, &c.

Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.

Bankers, A Handbook of London;

With some Account of their Predecessors, the Early Goldsmiths; together with Lists of Bankers from 1677 to 1876. By F. G. HILTON PRICE.

Bardsley (Rev. C. W.), Works by:

By

English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations.
CHARLES WAREING BARDSLEY, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 75. 6d.
Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature. By CHARLES W.
BARDSLEY. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.

Crown 8vo, cloth extra, Illustrated, 7s. 6d.

Bartholomew Fair, Memoirs of

By HENRY MORLEY. New Edition, with One Hundred Illustrations.