One great reason assigned for the two oppressive Acts just described, was, as we have seen, the disaffection of Nonconformists; and—particularly in reference to the Five Mile Act—the allegation that they were implicated in certain designs of invasion contemplated by the Dutch was strongly urged. In this, as in former cases, we have no means of testing the information which abounds in the letters written at the time by the enemies of the accused. Many of the rumours are utterly incredible—as for example that it was intended to restore Richard Cromwell; that it would be easy to secure in some parts the gentry on his side; that the watchword was to be "Tumble down Dick, they will declare for a Commonwealth;" and that the Earl of Derby favoured the disaffected party. We may be confident, too, from what we know of their characters, that the principal Nonconformist ministers frowned upon all political plots. Yet no one who has perused the State Papers can deny, that at the time now under review, enough was reported at headquarters to make the Government very uncomfortable.[501]
DUTCH WAR.
France just then was looking to England for elements of disturbance which might favour its designs upon our country in aid of Holland, Louis XIV. being on terms of friendship with the Dutch; and we find the Grand Monarque, in a letter to the States, proposing to give occupation to Charles at home by exciting the Presbyterians and Catholics to revolt.[502]
In the summer of 1665, the Dutch, encouraged by promises of assistance from the French, had been seen cruising around our coasts, and were defeated by the English fleet; in 1666 a more important action occurred on the 5th of June, when our countrymen burnt or disabled between twenty and thirty of the ninety ships belonging to the enemy; and another occurred on the 25th of July, which ended, after three days' fighting, in the defeat of the Dutch.[503]
1666.
It was to one of the engagements at that period that Dryden refers in his picturesque description: "The noise of the cannon from both navies reached our ears about the city, so that all men being alarmed with it and in dreadful suspense of the event, which we knew was then deciding, every one went following the sound as his fancy led him; and leaving the town almost empty, some took towards the park, some cross the river, others down it—all seeking the noise in the depth of the silence."[504] Such imminent peril alarmed the whole country, as well as London; and when, for a time, the worst was over, apprehension remained of further attacks from the great naval power of Holland, and some persons of Republican sentiments were hoping that their own objects would be promoted by the war. English refugees in the United Provinces were corresponding with their friends at home; and much, it would appear, was said and done to nourish Republican hopes on English soil. A considerable amount of sympathy with the Dutch existed in the West of England; and, in consequence of this sympathy and correspondence, the Government took measures to prevent letters passing between the two countries. Aphara Behn—an eccentric and notorious poetess and novelist—was employed upon a semi-official mission to Antwerp, for the purpose of obtaining information from the English fugitives respecting any political schemes which they might have in hand.[505]
A great calamity now requires attention.