offence be fined £5 or be imprisoned three months; for the second, £10 or six months; and for the third, £100 or transportation for seven years. Those transported to pay the cost of the same, or be bound to merchants as laborers for five years; escaping or returning to England without leave, made them felons without benefit of clergy.

In 1770, a second Conventicle Act was passed which reduced the penalty to five shillings for the first offence, and ten, for every subsequent offence; but the persons teaching or preaching was subjected to the penalty of £20 for the first, and £10 for every subsequent offence, and persons allowing conventicles to be held in their houses were to be fined £20.

(3) THE FIVE-MILE ACT, 1665. During the plague the ejected ministers took possession of the vacant pulpits in London; this gave offence, for, so it was said, the opportunity had been taken advantage of, to disseminate sedition and treason. An act was therefore passed prohibiting Nonconformist ministers coming, except in travelling, within five miles of any town sending members to parliament, or of any village in which they had ever exercised their ministry, under penalty of £40 for every offence, and six months' imprisonment in addition if the offender refused to take the oath of non-resistance. The act also forbad their keeping a school.

7. Settlement of affairs in Scotland. Charles was advised to contiuue Scotland as an incorporated province, rather than restore it to the dignity of an independent kingdom. The Scottish lords however prayed him to adopt the latter course, to this he consented, and ordered the survivors of the committee of estates to resume the government, with the Earl of Middleton as lord-commissioner, and the Earl of Lauderdale as secretary. A parliament was called, composed mostly of cavaliers, who eagerly voted the full prerogatives of sovereignty to Charles, and by an act annulled all the proceedings of the Scottish parliaments, during the preceding twenty-eight years. This was a fatal blow to the kirk, and when the ministers met to remonstrate, they were dispersed by the civil power. Argyle, who had gone to London to make his court to the king, was seized and sent back to Scotland for trial. Considerable difficulty was found in making out a case against him, till Monk ungenerously forwarded some letters which the marquis had written to him. Judgment was now given, and executed (1661) within forty-eight hours. Two other persons suffered death, Guthrie, one of the most violent ministers, who had formerly excommunicated Middleton, and a captain Govan, who had deserted to Cromwell. The king, at the suggestion of the commissioners, issued a proclamation announcing his intention to restore episcopacy, it being the earnest wish of the nation that he should do so. Sharp, who had been sent to London as the agent of the kirk, for the purpose of preserving its independence, returned to Scotland as the archbishop of St.

Andrews, to the great indignation of his former brethren. Of the four bishops appointed, one was Leighton, son of the Dr. Leighton, so cruelly used by the Star-chamber in the reign of Charles I. To please the Scots, smarting under the loss of their ecclesiastical independence, the English forces were withdrawn.

8. Settlement of affairs in Ireland. Henry Cromwell, on the resignation of his brother, was superseded by the commissioners of the parliament; these were expelled from Dublin by Lord Broghill. `A Convention of Protestant deputies being summoned, they made a tender of their services to the exiled king, on condition that the possessions which they had won be secured to them. The first measure after the Restoration, was the re-establishment of episcopacy; the vacant sees were filled, and the prelates authorised to retain the ecclesiastical property which had been rent away in the preceding period. During the revolutionary wars in Ireland, considerable lands had passed, on various pretences, into the hands of soldiers and English adventurers. To make a settlement of the landed property was both difficult and dangerous, for some of the pretensions had received the sanction of Charles I. On enquiry it was found, that there were for disposal by the king, forfeited lands with a yearly rental approaching £100,000. This was supposed to be sufficient to satisfy the claims of such of the Irish, as were deserving the royal favor. By Charles's declaration for the settlement of Ireland (1660) it was provided-that adventurers and soldiers should not be disturbed in their possessions, without receiving an equivalent; that all persons who had joined neither the parliament nor the confederates, should be restored to their rightful estates; that such as had accepted lands in Clare and Connaught should be bound by their own act, but the others should recover their lands or be compensated. When the distribution came to be made, it was found that the lands at the king's disposal were nearly gone, by reason of grants to the Dukes of York, Ormond, and Albermarle, the Irish peers, and others. The parties in actual possession maintained their cause by bribery, and when moved by the Irish House of Commons, commenced the formation of associations for defending it with the sword. Ultimately, the soldiers, adventurers, and grantees consented to relinquish one-third, to form a fund for compensating the claimants. Still the majority did not regain their rights, and were left in most cases in abject poverty; an injustice was acknowledged, but it was urged that it would be dangerous in the highest degree to provoke to extremities the English settlers and the Irish Protestants. It was many years before the so-called settlement received its completion.

SECTION II.-THE SECOND DUTCH WAR, 1664-1667.

1. Cause of the second Dutch war. The African Company, of which the Duke of York was governor, was earning large gains from the importation of gold dust, and the transport of slaves to the West Indies. But the Dutch were formidable rivals, and with the aid of recently erected forts along the coast, greatly interfered with the success of the English. The Duke advocated war, but Charles and Clarendon opposed it, as the increased expenditure would render the sovereign dependent on the parlia ment. The merchants however carried their complaints to the parliament that the treaty of 1654 was not yet executed, for the English traders had not received redress, neither was the island of Polerone restored; that English ships were seized and condemned on frivolous pretences; that English factories were demolished, and our trade damaged by the Dutch; and that the losses of the English merchants already amounted to £700,000. The Commons voted for redress and promised to stand by the king with their lives and fortunes. Charles himself was now turned in the same direction, for which two reasons are assigned. First, that he might be revenged on the Louvestein faction, because of those indignities to which they subjected him during his exile, and that they had deprived his nephew of Orange of his dignity; and secondly, that he might have the opportunity of diverting a portion of the funds granted for the war, to the support of his extravagance. Nor is the latter supposition improbable, when to raise money for that purpose, he had grievously offended the nation by the sale of Dunkirk and Mardyke to Louis of France for £400,000.

2. Events in the second Dutch war.

(1) THE WAR IN 1664. The commencement of this war may be dated from 1664, though it was not formally declared by the English till the year following. Hostilities were commenced by Sir Robert Holmes, who was sent out by the African Company to recover the castle of Cape Corse, of which the English had been dispossessed. Having discovered in a Dutch vessel proof of further hostile designs on the English, he at once commenced offensive operations! The forts on Goree were captured, as were also several Dutch stations along the African coast; Sir Robert then sailed to North America and reduced the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, changing its name into that of New York in honor of the Duke. This was done not merely by way of reprisal, but by virtue of a claim of right, it having been always esteemed a part of the English possessions since its discovery by Cabot. De Witt, on intelligence of these proceedings, sent out secret instructions to De Ruyter, then in the Mediterranean, acting upon which, he first retaliated on the English along the Guinea Coast, and then crossing to the West Indies, captured

twenty sail of English merchantmen. The Duke of York, having a hint of what was doing, ordered out two fleets which swept the Channel, and brought in a hundred and thirty Dutch traders. Charles, now the passions of the nation were roused, demanded money to carry on the war, and the parliament was induced to vote the unprecedented sum of £2,500,000.

(2) THE WAR IN 1665. Early in the year, the English fleet of ninety-eight sail of the line put to sea in three divisions; the red commanded by the Duke, the white by Prince Rupert, and the blue by Montague, Earl of Sandwich. For more than a month the English blockaded the Dutch ports, but being driven off by an easterly wind, the enemy came out with a fleet of a hundred and thirteen ships, commanded by Opdam, under whom served the bravest and noblest youths of Holland. The fleets met in Solebay, off Lowestoffe, June 3, and after manoeuvring for seven hours to obtain the weather gage, the advantage was with the English. The battle continued for four hours, when the superiority of the English became evident. Opdam shortly after perished by the explosion of his ship, the Dutch then drew off and were conducted by Van Tromp into the shallows of their own coast. The loss of the enemy was very severe, and included four admirals, seven thousand men, and eighteen ships; the English lost but one ship, two admirals, and six hundred men. There however fell in the admiral's ship, several noblemen who served as volunteers. The new mode of fighting in line was introduced by the Duke in this war, and continued the rule of naval warfare till Rodney's great battle in 1782. Glorious as was this victory, the news of it was tamely received by a nation depressed by the terrible plague which then raged. The only other event in this year was an attempt to take or destroy the Turkey and East India fleets, which De Ruyter had taken round the north of Scotland, to the port of Bergen for shelter. An attempt made by the Earl of Sandwich to take these, ships out of Bergen failed, but a storm afterwards threw in his way eight ships of war and twenty-two other veseels, two of the latter being the richest India ships. Charles was now at Oxford on account of the plague; the parliament summoned to meet him there, made a further grant for the war of £1,250,000.

(3) THE WAR IN 1666. In this year the war was likely to become more formidable, for De Witt had sought to strengthen his party, by securing the aid of Louis of France. Philip of Spain having died in the preceding year, Louis resolved to take possession of Flanders, alleging a custom of the Netherlands called the right of devolution, by virtue of which these provinces, he said, belonged to his wife Maria Theresa, she being Philip's daughter by his first marriage. As this would probably lead to hostilities with Spain, Louis was not anxious to increase his foes by complying with the proposal of the Dutch. But on consideration, the French king was persuaded that by aiding the States, he might better forward his views on Flanders. War was therefore declared against England, on the ground of an offensive alliance made with the Dutch in 1662; by the influence of France, the Danes were induced to make common cause with the States. The English fleet put to sea, under prince Rupert and Monk. While in the Downs, a report reached them that the Dutch would not be ready for sea for some weeks, and that a French squadron was

coming up the Channel to the aid of the enemy. Rupert therefore separated himself with twenty sail to look out for the French, but the report proved to have been made for the purpose of deceiving the English. Monk sailing northwards was surprised to find (June 1) a Dutch fleet of eighty ships, under De Ruyter and De Witt, at anchor, at the back of the Goodwin Sands; though his force was only fiftyfour ships, the Duke engaged, and lost nearly the whole of his blue squadron. The second day, the Dutch were reinforced to the extent of sixteen sail, and Monk was reduced to protract the engagement till night-fall, when he sent off or destroyed his disabled ships. The third day, with but sixteen ships, he held in check the pursuit of De Ruyter; the finest ship in the English navy was lost on the Galloper Sand, and the remainder in great jeopardy, from which they were rescued by the arrival of Rupert's fleet in the evening. On the fourth day, the hostile fleets were more nearly equal, and the renewed engagement ended by their separating under cover of a mist. The best of the contest was with the Dutch, but the loss was more nearly equal than might have been expected, from the disparity of force. The English lost seventeen hundred men and ten ships, the Dutch eighteen hundred men.

Both fleets were repaired and sent out again with all speed. On the 25th of July, they met off the North Foreland; the English were victors, not only defeating the enemy, but driving them for shelter into the Warings. In this action the Dutch lost twenty ships and four thousand men, while the English loss was inconsiderable. After insulting the Dutch coasts for weeks, an attack was made on the shipping at Schelling, which resulted in the destruction by fire of two ships of war and a hundred and fifty merchantmen. The loss to the Dutch was upwards of a million sterling; within less than a month, the English lost seven times that amount by the Fire of London. Though in alliance with France, the Dutch had reaped little advantage from it; it was, so Louis thought, good policy to allow the two great maritime powers to exhaust themselves. The French monarch was however endeavouring to embarrass his brother of England in another way. Agents were employed to raise a rebellion, by intriguing with the Irish Catholics who had lost their lands, and with Algernon Sydney, then in exile, who was willing to aid the establishment of a republic in England, by means of French gold.

(4) THE WAR IN 1667. This year was one of disgrace to England. Money to fit out the fleet could not readily be obtained. The bankers, who had been accustomed to advance money, could not do so now, for the plague and the fire had embarrassed all kinds of monetary transactions. To meet the difficulty, it was proposed to lay up the line of battle ships, and equip only some frigates to gather up the Dutch traders. Great objections were made, but as there was a prospect of a speedy peace, on account of the desire of Louis to free himself from war with England, the ships were laid up. Charles opened negotiations for a secret treaty with the French king, both parties corresponding through the queen dowager, Henrietta Maria. After much opposition on the part of De Witt, negotiations for a general peace were opened at Breda, May 12. An armistice was proposed, but rejected by the Dutch, and while the French and English were arguing for it, the Dutch fleet of seventy sail was ordered to proceed by

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