ADDRESS AGAINST THE DUTCH.

97

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sacrifice it might cost him; and his enemies knew CHAP. that, till he had brought them on their knees, he A.D. 1664. would never forgive their offences. Yet no diversity of temper or opinion could diminish the affection of the two brothers. James was the most dutiful of subjects; and, however he might disapprove the judgment, he always concurred in seconding the will of the sovereign. He was easy of access, and affable in discourse; but his constant attention to preserve the dignity of his rank gave to his manner a stateliness and distance repulsive of that freedom and familiarity which the laughter-loving king indulged in the associates of his pleasures. In private life the duke was loved by few, but feared or respected by all; in public, his industry was the theme of commendation; and the fame which he had acquired in the French army was taken as an earnest of his future military prowess.1

1662.

Sept. 4.

On the last meeting of parliament, the complaints of April ar. the merchants were heard before a committee of the lower house. They contended that the treaty concluded by the Dutch with Cromwell, and since renewed by them with the king, was not yet executed; that the injuries sustained by the English traders had not been redressed, nor the island of Pulerone restored; that English ships were still seized and condemned under frivolous pretences; that the natives of Africa and the Indies were frequently induced by promises and bribes to demolish the English factories; that the Dutch, by proclaiming fictitious wars, and establishing pretended blockades, assumed the right of excluding their rivals from the most fre

1 Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, ii. 78. Mem. de Grammont, L 141. Burnet, i. 287. Pepys, ii. 143, 188,

CHAP. quented ports, and the most valuable sources of A.D. 1662. profit; and that the losses of the English merchants

II.

amounted, on a moderate calculation, to seven hundred thousand pounds from these injuries, and to the enormous sum of four millions from the retention of Pulerone.1 The committee decided in favour of the complainants; Clifford, the chairman, supported their cause with considerable warmth; and Downing added the weight of his authority, derived from the office which he held as English resident at the Hague, both for the protector and the king. He was a bold, rapacious, and unprincipled man, who under Cromwell had extorted by menaces considerable sums in the form of presents from the Dutch merchants, and who now, by the violence of his speeches in parliament, and afterwards by the haughtiness of his carriage to the States, provoked a suspicion that he looked forward to a similar termination of the existing quarrel. The Commons voted an address, in which they petitioned the king to take an effectual course for the speedy redress of these injuries, with a promise to stand by him, with their lives and fortunes, against all opposition; the Lords concurred; and Charles replied that April 29. he would demand justice by his ambassador, and, in case of denial, would rely on the offer which they had made to him. Still, to dispassionate observers it appeared that, with a little conciliation on either part, the quarrel might be amicably adjusted. But Charles no longer listened to the suggestions of prudence when he found that, by acceding to the popular wish, he might gratify his personal resentments against the

1664. April 21.

Lords' Journ. xi. 599, 620, 626.

2 He was accustomed to leave the Hague occasionally to attend his duty in parliament.-Clarendon, 224.

II.

Louvestein faction, which had long ruled the destinies CHAP. of the republic. That faction had heaped indignities A.D. 1664 on him during his exile, had stripped the house of Orange, of which his nephew was the head, of its ancient dignities, and, what was perhaps a more unpardonable offence, had suffered caricatures to be published in ridicule of his apathy, his amours, and his indigence.1 On the other hand, De Witt, who was acknowledged as the Louvestein leader, felt no disposition to make any concession to the menaces of a rival nation. He was resolved to maintain the commercial superiority of his countrymen; he considered the Dutch navy as a match for that of England, and, by a defensive alliance, he had already secured the assistance of France. By some it was thought that the obstinacy of the States had been supported by the intrigues of Louis. But the contrary was the fact; for it suited not the interests of that prince to provoke or foment a quarrel, which must involve him in a war with England, at a time when he meditated hostilities against Spain.

2

In the meanwhile, the African Company had despatched Sir Robert Holmes, with a few small ships of war, to recover the castle of Cape Corse, of which they had been dispossessed by their rivals. In searching a Dutch vessel, he discovered certain documents respecting Valkenberg, the Dutch governor, and the hostile tenor of these papers induced him to exceed his own commission, and to assume offensive operations. He

1 Pepys, ii. 125.

8

2 L. Journ. 600, 603. Com. Journ. App. 21, 29. Temple, i. 305, 307. Louis, ii. 5. Le Clerc, ii. 62. Basnage, 711.

The king of Fantine had been supplied with money and ammunition to induce him to attack the English fort at Cormantine. The Dutch denied the charge, but Charles replied, "that he has as full

II.

Feb.

1

CHAP. compelled the forts on Goree to surrender, reduced the A.D. 1664. castle of Cape Corse, destroyed several factories on the coast, and then stretched across the Atlantic to the settlement of New Amsterdam, originally an English colony, and lately recovered by Sir Richard Nicholas, who, in honour of the duke, his patron, had given to it the name of New York. On the first intelligence of these proceedings, the Dutch ambassador presented an energetic remonstrance to the king, who replied, that the expedition had been sent out by the private authority of the company, that Holmes should be put on his trial at his return, and that strict justice should be measured out to all the parties concerned. With this assurance the States-general were satisfied; but De Witt refused to sit down tamely under the affront. By his intrigues with the states of Holland, he proJuly 31. cured an order, loosely and ambiguously worded, to pass through the States-general, and this, with a secret explanation, was forwarded to De Ruyter, the commander of the Dutch squadron in the Mediterranean. He had been sent there to cruise against the Turkish corsairs, in company with Lawson, the English admiral; but now, pretending that he had orders to destroy a squadron of pirates at the Canaries, he separated from his allies, retaliated on the English, along the coast of Guinea, the injuries which they had inflicted on hig Sept. 25. countrymen, and, crossing to the West India islands,

"evidence of it, as he can have that there is such a fort."-Lords' Journ. xi. 627.

Charles granted this tract of land to his brother, 12th March, 1664. Sir Richard Nicholas was groom of the bed-chamber to the duke of York.-Life of James, i. 400. Dalrymple, ii. App. 27, a letter to which the editor has given by mistake the date of 1669.

2 Holmes, on his return, was committed to the Tower, but cleared himself to the satisfaction of the king.-Heath, Contin. 532. Pepys, ii. 238.

NEW METHOD OF TAXATION.

101

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Oct. 14.

captured above twenty sail of English merchantmen. CHAP. Lawson, through want of instructions, did not follow A.D. 1664. De Ruyter, but he was careful to inform the duke of York of the Dutchman's probable destination; and, by order of that prince, two English fleets swept the narrow seas of the Dutch traders, which, to the number of one hundred and thirty sail, were carefully guarded in the English ports, as a fund of indemnification to the sufferers from the expedition under De Ruyter.'

Charles, however, before he would rush blindly into the contest, determined to secure a provision of money adequate to the undertaking. The charge of the war was calculated at two millions and a half, a sum unprecedented in the annals of English finance; but the passions of the people were roused, and the council had the art to remove from themselves the odium of the demand. By their secret persuasion, Sir Richard Paston, a country gentleman of independent fortune, brought forward the proposition in the House of Com- Nov. 25. mons; and when, to carry on the deception, a known dependant of the ministers rose to suggest a smaller sum, he was eagerly interrupted by two members, supposed to have no connection with the court. The artifice escaped notice, and the original motion was carried, after an animated debate, by a majority of seventy voices. The lords assented, and the king issued a declaration of war.

2

1 Life of James, i. 403. Clarendon, 225, 227. Le Clerc, ii. 65, 67. Basnage, 714. His majesty's Narrative in Lords' Journ. xi. 625. The complaint of Charles in this narrative is confirmed by d'Estrades, who attributes the war to the expedition of Ruyter in obedience to the order of De Witt, "sans attendre selon la disposi"tion du 14 article de 1662, que le terme d'un (an) fut passé, pendant "lequel le Roi de la Grande Bretagne devoit faire reparer l'enterprise "du chevalier Holmes."-D'Estrades, iv. 315. "Intra anni spatium." -Dumont, vi. part ii. p. 424.

2 Com. Journ. Nov. 25-Feb. 3. Lords' Journ. xi. 654. Cla

1665.

Feb. 22