The restoration of the church kept pace with that of the crown. Favour was at first shown to the Presbyterians, some of whom were appointed to high office; and the eminent clergymen, Baxter and Calamy, were made royal chaplains. While restoring the bishops to their sees, and filling up the vacant bishoprics, the king issued a declaration promising to the Presbyterians and Independents a consideration of their objections to the liturgy (Oct. 25). For this purpose a conference was held at the Savoy between twelve bishops and twelve leading Presbyterian ministers, but the result was only to widen their differences (April 15 to July 25, 1661).

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The king was crowned April 25, 1661; and on May 8 he met his new parliament, which proved at first devoted to the church and subservient to the court. It lasted, though with some long prorogations, till Jan. 24, 1679; and earned the title of the Pension Parliament" by the bribes which its members received from the kings both of England and of France. Its first act was one "for the security of the king's person and government," by which the Covenant was pronounced unlawful, and parliament was declared to have no legislative power without the king. By the Corporation Act all corporate officers were required to receive the sacrament in the Church of England, to abjure the Covenant, and to take an oath of non-resistance, renouncing the lawfulness of bearing arms against the king or his officers, even in self-defence. In the next session was passed the celebrated ACT OF UNIFORMITY (May 29, 1662), which required all clergymen to express their "unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything in the Book of Common Prayer," as recently revised and settled by convocation; to receive episcopal ordination; to abjure the Covenant, and take the oath of nonresistance. All who refused to submit to these conditions were to be ipso facto deprived of their preferments on the ensuing St. Bartholomew's day (Aug. 24), and on that day nearly 2000 clergymen left their livings. They were acknowledged to be among the most learned and pious, as their very sacrifice itself proved them to be among the most conscientious, of the clergy. The government tempted many of them with offers of high preferment, which were refused, with scarcely an exception. Even bishoprics were offered to Baxter, Calamy, and Reynolds, but accepted only by the last. Severer measures followed. The deprived ministers were forbidden by the Act of Uniformity to exercise their ministry, under the penalties of fine and imprisonment; and the like penalties, up to transportation for seven years, were imposed on their hearers by the Conventicle Act, if as many as five persons, besides the members of the same household, should assemble for worship (1664). The very means of subsistence left to the deprived clergy were struck at by

the Five Mile Act, which prohibited those who had refused to take the oath of non-resistance from coming within five miles of any corporate town, except in travelling, and also disabled them from keeping schools (1665). The Nonconformists were also included in the disabilities of the Test Act, which was passed against the Catholics in 1673 (see below, p. 235). These persecuting acts were only repealed in the reign of George IV.

In foreign politics a new era was opened in 1661 by the rise of LOUIS XIV., who was born Sept. 5, 1638, and succeeded to the throne of France, by his father's death, May 14, 1643. His minority was passed under the tutelage of cardinal Mazarin; but on that minister's death (March 8, 1661) the young king announced to his council his intention of directing his own government, and at once gave proofs of the vast powers and vaster ambition which held France in awe and Europe in alarm for more than half a century (Louis XIV. died Sept. 1, 1715, after a reign of 72 years). A close alliance was now formed between the courts of France and England, and both united to support Portugal against Spain. Henrietta, the sister of Charles II., was married to Philip duke of Orleans, the brother of Louis XIV., and Charles himself espoused Catherine of Braganza, daughter of John IV. of Portugal (May 21, 1662), a woman of sense, spirit, and virtue, whom he treated with heartless neglect, while he lived openly in the society of his mistresses. Her chief value in the king's eyes was her dowry of 500,000l., with the fortresses of Tangiers in Africa and Bombay in India. The money was squandered on his pleasures; but his returning necessities led him to sell Dunkirk and Mardyke (Cromwell's conquests) to the king of France for 400,000l. (Nov. and Dec.).

The Dutch and English meantime continued their rivalry for commercial supremacy at sea. A new "African Company," formed under the auspices of the duke of York, came into collision with the Dutch settlements on the Guinea coast;* and their fleet, under sir Robert Holmes, captured the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (since the great city of New York) on the coast of America (Aug. 27, 1664). Parliament voted 2,500,000l. for the war; and the clergy were for the first time included in the tax, instead of voting separate supplies in convocation. War was declared against Holland, Feb. 22, 1665; and a great naval victory was gained off Lowestoft by the English fleet under the duke of York, prince Rupert, and lord Sandwich (June 3). Louis XIV. now came to the help of the United Provinces, with whom he had previously made an alliance against Spain, and declared war against England,

✦ Guineas were first coined in the year 1663 from gold imported by this company.

Jan. 16, 1666. The French fleet of 40 ships sailed from Toulon, and Albemarle detached prince Rupert with 20 of his 74 ships to keep them in check. During his absence, the Dutch fleet of 80 sail, under De Ruyter and the younger Van Tromp, appeared off the North Foreland, and were engaged by Albemarle. The battle lasted four days (June 1-4). On the second the Dutch were reinforced by 16 ships, but the arrival of prince Rupert on the third saved Albemarle from destruction; and after a violent combat on the fourth, both fleets returned to their harbours. A more decisive battle on the 25th of July gave the English the mastery of the sea.

These two years, however, are still more memorable for pestilence and fire than for war. The mysterious epidemic, called distinctively THE Plague, which has been known on the shores of the Levant from the earliest ages, had long since appeared in Europe (imported, as some said, by the Crusaders), and the close streets of old London were seldom free from its ravages; but in 1665 it broke out with a violence unexampled except by the great plagues of Athens (B.C. 430) and Florence (A.D. 1348). In July the weekly deaths were 1100, in September they increased to 10,000, and in the course of the year 100,000 perished. The parliament removed to Oxford; the court and nobility fled from London; the houses were shut up, and whole streets deserted, except by the solitary passenger staggering home to die, and the heavy sound of the death-cart, with the voice of the bellman crying, “Bring forth your dead! Bring forth your dead!" The rites of burial were soon neglected, and the corpses were flung into great pits. As in all such seasons, the presence of death gave new licence to wanton pleasure; and the sounds of revelry were mingled with the cries of fanatics who stalked about denouncing "Woe unto the city!" The pestilence declined when winter had fairly set in (1665).

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The new year (1666) earned from the pen of Dryden the celebrated title of Annus Mirabilis" (the Year of Wonders), partly by the great sea-fights related above, but chiefly by the Great Fire," which almost totally destroyed the city of London. It broke out before daybreak on Sunday, Sept. 2, in a baker's house near London Bridge, at the spot marked by the column of sir Christopher Wren called "the Monument ;" and, aided by an east wind and a dry season, it devoured the close wooden houses from the Tower to the Temple, and as far north as Holborn Bridge and Cripplegate. It raged for three days and nights, defying the efforts to arrest it, which were directed by the king and his brother in person. It was only on Sept. 5 that its progress was stayed at great gaps made by blowing up houses with gunpowder. It destroyed about 400 streets and 13,000 houses, though only 8 lives were lost; but the remnants

of the plague were burnt out as by a refiner's fire, and the city rose from its ashes, with the magnificent dome of new St. Paul's on its central hill, under the master hand of sir CHRISTOPHER WREN. His plans, if fully carried out, would have made of London the noblest and most convenient city ever built, and of its cathedral the grandest basilica devoted to Christian worship; but the city was cramped by haste and economy, and the church was altered by the desire of the court to prepare it for Catholic worship. In the mean time the origin of the fire was falsely ascribed to the Papists; and the popular prejudice was commemorated on the Monument by an inscription which has been only recently removed.

These calamities favoured the desire for peace, and negociations were opened at Breda (May 14, 1667). During their progress the fleet was neglected, and the Dutch seized the opportunity for striking a terrible blow at our naval power. De Ruyter suddenly appeared at the Nore, took Sheerness (June 9), burnt some ships at Chatham (June 12), and ascended the Thames as far as Tilbury, where he was repulsed by sir Edward Sprague (June 29). But Louis held aloof, not wishing that any one power should be supreme at sea, and peace was concluded at Breda, July 21, 1667.

To appease the national indignation at this disgrace, and at the growing profligacy of the court, a victim was found in the EARL OF CLARENDON, the only great statesman Charles had. We have seen him, as sir Edward Hyde, among the popular leaders in parliament, and then passing over with Falkland to Charles I. He shared the exile of Charles II., and kept him back from much folly. After the Restoration he remained Charles's chief adviser, was made earl of Clarendon and lord chancellor, and had all the power of a modern prime minister. By the marriage of his daughter Anne to the duke of York, he became the grandfather of two queens of EnglandMary and Anne. But he was disliked by the queen mother, detested by Charles's licentious courtiers, and hated by the people for his haughtiness and avarice. To retain Charles's favour, he had sanctioned his most arbitrary acts, and had even advised the sale of Dunkirk; and now he fell unpitied before the anger of parliament and the intrigues of George Villiers duke of Buckingham, the worthy son of his father. He was insultingly deprived of the seals (Aug. 30), impeached by the commons (Nov. 12), and banished to the continent by Charles (Nov. 29). He spent his exile in writing the History of the Great Rebellion,' a work of great eloquence and power, but in many parts wilfully inaccurate, and therefore untrustworthy. He died at Rouen in 1674.

In the government which succeeded Clarendon, we have the first resemblance to the more modern "Cabinet;" for it bore the equiva

lent name of "Cabal," that is, a secret committee. Its chief members were the duke of Buckingham, lord Arlington, and sir William Coventry, with whom were associated lord Ashley and sir Thomas Clifford. Scotland was still governed by the earl of Lauderdale, who was chiefly engaged in a cruel persecution of the Covenanters. The derivation of "cabal" from the initials of these statesmen is merely founded on a curious coincidence, but it may help the memory to perpetuate the infamy of the ministers who sold their country to the king of France.

Louis XIV. had married Maria Theresa, the daughter of Philip IV. of Spain; and on the death of that king (1665) he laid claim to the Spanish Netherlands in right of his wife, and an army under Turenne overran Flanders in the summer of 1667. Upon this, the first of the many leagues formed to check the ambition of the "Grand Monarch" was devised by sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, our ambassador at Brussels. The Triple Alliance, between England, Holland, and Sweden, was signed on Jan. 13, 1668; and it led to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which Spain gave up the towns conquered by Louis, who renounced all claim to the rest of Flanders (April 25). Meanwhile Charles was secretly selling the common cause to Louis for the promise of a revenue which might enable him to govern without a parliament; and at length a secret treaty was signed at Dover (May 22, 1670), by which Charles engaged to make an open profession of the Catholic religion, and to assist Louis in his schemes on Spain and Holland, and Louis promised Charles a pension of 3,000,000 livres (120,000l.) while the war lasted, and the aid of 6000 men in case of an insurrection in England. Clifford and Arlington were parties to the treaty. The duke of York had already avowed his conversion to Romanism (1669); and his wife died, confessing herself a Catholic, March 31, 1671. About the same time great scandal arose out of the attempt to seize the regalia in the Tower by colonel Blood, a notorious ruffian (May 9, 1671), who was not only pardoned by the king, but presented with an estate of 500l. a-year in Ireland. But even if Charles had been an accomplice in the robbery, it would not have been more shameful than his seizure of 1,300,000l. which had been deposited by the bankers in the exchequer, in order to prepare for a Dutch war (Jan. 2, 1672).

War was declared against Holland, March 17, 1672, and a desperate naval action was fought in Southwold Bay between De Ruyter and the duke of York, the French fleet standing aloof. The Dutch retired, and on the side of the English lord Sandwich was killed (May 28). On land, a small English force under the duke of Monmouth and JOHN CHURCHILL (afterwards duke of Marlborough) followed Louis, who overran the United Provinces. The Dutch army