CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY.

CAMEO CCXLVI.

1664-1667.

WAR AND PESTILENCE.

It would have seemed as though the Dutch Republic must have been the natural ally of England; but, on the contrary, in the early and middle parts of the seventeenth century there was the most bitter dislike between the two countries, chiefly from colonial rivalries, and from the recollection of the Amboyna massacre.

The politics of the Seven Provinces were very complicated, and had much effect on the state of Europe at this time. They were Holland, Zeeland, Guelderland, Utrecht, Overyssel, Groningen, and Friesland. Each of these a separate republic in itself, and each city with its own municipal government. Each province had its own States, composed of deputies, and the management of the Union was in the hands of the States-General, consisting of deputies from each province, with a lesser council of state. The administration was chiefly in the hands of this, as it consisted partly of the permanent officers, such as the Grand Pensionary of Holland, and TreasurerGeneral. The Stadtholder, as representative of the nobility, had always had much influence, though not an essential part of the Constitution. Ever since the time of William the Silent the Stadtholder had been head of the Orange or Nassau family; but the infancy of the third William had prevented his being appointed, and Cromwell had made it an article of the treaty that no Prince of Orange should ever hold the office.

There were always two parties in the State, Holland and Amsterdam being strongly averse to exalt the house of Nassau; Zeeland and the other provinces being generally in its favour. The first was called the Lowestein party, the second the Orange; but Holland was so rich and prosperous as generally to outweigh the other six provinces, and the Grand Pensionary, John de Witt, was an exceedingly able man. His fear was of an Orange tyranny, and to prevent this he was willing to ally himself with France, and to oppose England as connected with the young Prince of Orange, now about fourteen.

The other States were more afraid of French ambition than Orange tyranny; but all were sore at the recent defeat, and anxious to retrieve their honour now that Blake was dead.

The possessions of the States were enormous in all the quarters of the world. They had numerous isles in the Southern Archipelago, as

well as factories in India, had began to settle in Guinea and at the Cape of Good Hope, owned several West Indian isles, and a settlement in Guiana, and had begun a colony in North America, close to that of the Pilgrim Fathers. Their merchant shipping was the finest in the world, and they had no rival on the seas save the English.

Causes of quarrel were by no means lacking. The treaty with Cromwell had not been performed, the island of Poleron in the East Indies had not been yielded, English merchant ships were continually seized and detained on false pretences, and there were constant quarrels and mutual injuries inflicted by the colonists of the two nations on the coast of Guinea, where each was trying to establish factories for trade in palm oil, gold dust, and unfortunately, for slaves. There was now an African Company, with the Duke of York at its head, as well as the East Indian Company, established in 1600, and both made loud complaints of the conduct of the Dutch. Sir George Downing was sent to the Hague to complain, and also to demand that the young Prince of Orange should be restored to the honours of his family. The Envoy was a haughty, overbearing man, who gave further offence; and in the meantime the African Company took the matter into their own hands and sent out Sir Robert Holmes with a small fleet to recover the Castle of Corse, which the Dutch had seized. In one of the Dutch vessels there taken papers were discovered showing that the Dutch Governor, Valkenberg, had incited the negro king of Fantine to attack the English fort at Cormantine, and he therefore considered himself justified not only in taking the island of Goree, off Cape Verde, but in destroying several more Dutch forts, after which he stretched across the Atlantic to the settlement in America, which had at first been English, but had since been colonised by the Dutch, who called it New Netherlands, and the capital New Amsterdam. Fresh arrivals of English emigrants threw the balance to their side, and in 1664 the inhabitants, on the arrival of Sir Robert Nicolas with a fleet, overcame the resistance of Governor Stuyvesant, commonly called Headstrong Peter, and made him surrender. The province was given to the King's brother, after whom the capital was called New York, but for many generations the Dutch habits and language prevailed in the country around. Here Holmes seems to have thought it well to wait and see whether his daring deed was to be avowed or not.

The Dutch Ambassador loudly complained, and Charles gave orders that Holmes should be arrested and sent to the Tower till he could clear himself. The Admiral surrendered, and showed such papers that the King thought him fully justified, released him, and when the connivance at the negro attack on the African fort was denied, Charles replied that he had as full evidence of it as that there was such a fort.'

There was great anger in Holland, but the States-General were always slow of decision upon a war, and none could be legally undertaken without their formal sanction, when of course any public debates must at once become known to Sir George Downing. De Ruyter was in the Mediterranean, where he had been going on with Blake's work of overawing the Moorish corsairs, and the object of the Grand Pensionary was to send him instructions to recover the forts. De Witt therefore concerted his measures with seven devoted friends, and when the States-General met, he began with a number of dry formal bills which had to be read and signed as a matter of course, and were likely to be gone through without attention or discussion. When well embarked in this roll, the seven deputies began upon those likely to be in opposition. Some were called outside to be told of a secret, others walked up and down the hall to converse on the subject known to interest them most, some lured to the windows to see what was going on in the square outside, even the President engaged in conversation, and then, while no one was listening, De Ruyter contrived that the secretary should gabble through the authorisation to make reprisals on the English in the very same dreary voice in which he had been reading the mere forms, so that nobody knew what was going on, nobody objected, and the authorisation was signed and sealed, and sent off by special messenger overland to meet De Ruyter.

The English Admiral Lawson was also in the Mediterranean, closely watching De Ruyter, though polite messages passed between the two Admirals, and the Dutch fleet, to disarm suspicion, sailed up and down for three weeks, through the Straits of Gibraltar, collecting stores for his expedition from the Spanish ports, but only purchasing a little at a time so as to excite no suspicion. Not one of his captains knew what he intended, till on the 5th of October, 1664, he had passed the English fleet lying in Cadiz Bay, and exchanged a friendly farewell with Lawson, who fully believed that he was going home.

Two days later he hoisted the white flag which summoned the captains on board his ship the Spiegel, and told them of his instructions, sailing straight for Goree, where he found nine English merchantmen. All had to surrender, as well as the fort.

On one of these islands the sailors were much surprised at finding a negro able to speak Dutch, having been a slave taken to Flushing. On hearing the Admiral's name, he exclaimed, Michiel De Ruyter, I remember a cabin boy of that name at Flushing!'

When told that it was the same, he was incredulous, but being taken on board the Spiegel, there was a delighted recognition on either side, and much laughter over old pranks which the two lads had shared. The black could still repeat the names of all the streets, buildings, and bridges in Flushing, and the names and nicknames of of all his old comrades there. He had been baptized, still knew the

Lord's Prayer and the Catechism, and said that he had tried to instruct his children in the Christian Faith, but that they would only laugh in his face. His intelligence had made him chief in his island, and he would not hear of going back to the civilised world, though he was much pleased with a present of some old uniforms, and a salute of honour which was fired as he returned to his savage home.

De Ruyter then cruised along the African coast, recapturing the forts that had lately been taken by Holmes; but he had a very sharp conflict at Fort Cormantin, where the English were assisted by a negro army under a terrible savage, who had a bitter hatred to the Dutch, and exercised such barbarities that he was so much afraid of falling into their hands as to commit suicide, when he found the English cause hopeless. The garrison were all made prisoners, and De Ruyter sailed for America, and appeared before Barbadoes, but met such a fire from the forts as drove him away with great damage. On his way back he heard reports that war had been declared, and not thinking the channel a safe route, sailed by way of the North Sea.

It had not been long before Admiral Lawson discovered how he had been duped. He sent intelligence to the Duke of York, who immediately sent out two fleets, one under Prince Rupert, and 150 Dutch merchant vessels were captured, and guarded in the English harbours to be sold by way of indemnification to any sufferers by Ruyter's expedition.

Meantime Charles wrote to his Ambassador at the Hague to inquire into the matter, and Downing, in his conceit, answered that there could be no such expedition, as if there were, he must have heard of it. Charles wrote again, and Sir George was obliged to go to the Grand Pensionary, whom he asked coolly whether the story of De Ruyter's voyage were true. De Witt smiled, and assured him the Province of Holland had given the Admiral no orders that need concern his master, and as to the States-General, it was useless to say anything about their resolutions since his Excellency always knew what took place there!

Again Downing wrote that it was a baseless report, and that De Ruyter was in the Mediterranean! However, certain news had come by this time. He was very much enraged, and desired to be recalled to London, where he found himself blamed and laughed at for his conceit !

War was inevitable, and Charles had to raise money for it, to the amount of two millions and a half; but the nation was hot against the Dutch, and on this occasion the old mode of raising money by subsidies was exchanged for a quarterly assessment on the countiesin fact, bringing in, in 1664, the system of taxation which has continued ever since in force. The clergy had hitherto voted their own subsidies in Convocation, which was held to be the third estate of the realm; but apparently for convenience' sake, Archbishop

Sheldon, who had just succeeded Juxson, came to an agreement that the clergy should be taxed like the laity for the future, little guessing that he thus gave up a very important element of influence. There was now no necessity to keep Convocation sitting until the grant had been made, and thus much of its strength was lost as a power in the kingdom.

The navy was really dear to both Charles and James, and they threw themselves into the preparations with great zeal, so as to fit. out the grandest navy England had ever seen. The Duke of York was a thorough sailor, and sought out Blake's old captains; but when the Duke of Buckingham and other courtly friends offered their services, he replied that they might serve as volunteers, but that he could give no command to the inexperienced. He seems to have been the first person to understand that seamanship did not come by nature, and that all generals were not qualified for admirals; and he divided the fleet into three squadrons, known by their flags; the red under himself, the white under Prince Rupert, the blue under the Earl of Sandwich. His own vessel was the Royal Charles, and with ninety-eight sail of the line and four fine ships he sailed up and down the German Ocean, defying the Hollanders.

The Dutch were in the meantime quarrelling as to the command of their fleet. Before the great battle of the Texel the StatesGeneral had voted that in case of the death of Van Tromp the command should devolve upon Evertsen; but his retreat in that battle had displeased the States, and besides, he was a Zeelander and an Orangeman. The admiralship was at first given to Cornelis de Witt, who had been killed during the war with Sweden and Holland. John de Witt, then appointed as High Admiral, Opdam van Wassenaer, a brave cavalry officer, but no sailor, and always sea-sick. All the other provinces, Zeeland at their head, made Evertsen Vice-Admiral; but as a matter of party, Holland appointed three more LieutenantAdmirals, Cortenaer, De Ruyter, and Meppel, evidently to prevent Evertsen, though senior, being sixty-five years old, from coming to the front. After much squabbling, the fleet put out on the 24th of May, 1665, 103 ships, with 4800 guns and 21,000 men, and on the 11th of June came in sight of the English under the Duke of York, with 109 ships, 4200 guns, and about the same number of men as their opponents.

The Hollanders were so much resolved that Evertsen should have no opportunity of distinguishing himself, that they gave explicit instructions to their Admiral for the battle, and having some secret doubts of his ability, they continued to urge him on to make the attack, so that he felt himself insulted. He was altogether at a loss, yet he held no council of war, and made the signal for attack suddenly on the 13th of June, just as the wind had turned in favour of the English, and when the Vice-Admirals, instead of being at the head of their squadrons, all had their ships near him, and in