Part 11 (1/2)
This court sat in Clifford's Inn, and was usually presided over by Sir Matthew Hale, whose skill both as an arithmetician and an architect completed his fitness for so responsible a position Within a year the as done
The Act for rebuilding the City is an elaborate”the regularity, safety, conveniency and beauty” of the new London that was to be The buildings were classified according to their position and character, and had to maintain a prescribed level of quality The materials to be employed were named New streets were to be of certain widths, and so on This is the Act that contains the first Better and to be rebuilt will receive e in the value of the rents by the liberty of air and free recourse for trade,” it was enacted that a jury ht be sworn to assess upon the owners and others interested of and in the said houses, such sum or sums of money with respect of their several interests ”in consideration of such iood conscience they shall think fit”
It takes nothing short of a catastrophe to suspend in England, even for a few months, those rules of evidence that often hts of landlords which for centuries have appropriated public expenditure to private gain[126:1]
The moneys required to pay for the land taken under the Act to widen streets and to accomplish the other authorised works were raised, as Marvell informs his constituents, by a tax of twelve pence on every chaldron of coal co as far as Gravesend Few taxes have had so useful and so har on, but the heart was out of it
Nothing in England is so popular as war, except the peace that co noanted peace, and the lutted their ire In February 1667 the king told the Houses of Parlialad to see peace Unluckily, it seems to have been assumed that we could have peace whenever anted it, and the fatal error was co up” the first-and second-rate shi+ps It thus caland had no fleet to put to sea It did not at first seem likely that the overtures for peace would present much difficulty, when suddenly arose the question of Poleroone It is alishmen have ever heard of Poleroone, or even of the Banda Islands, of which group it is one Indeed, a nificant speck in the ocean it would be hard to find To discover it on an atlas is no easy task Yet, but for Poleroone, the Dutch would never have taken Sheerness, or broken the chain at Gillingham, or carried aith theht back Charles the Second to an excited population
Poleroone is a so, not far fro Jaht to it, and, at any rate, Oliver Croreat point of Poleroone Have it he would for the East India Coave way, and by an article in the treaty with Oliver bound theive up Poleroone to the Company All, in fact, that they did do, was to cut down the nut foryear Physical possession was never taken For some unaccountable reason Charles, who had sold Oliver's Dunkirk to the French for half a million of money, stuck out for Poleroone What Croive up! On the other hand, neither would the Dutch give up Poleroone This dispute, about a barren island, delayed the settlement of the peace preliet out to Breda, in May 1667 Our sanguine king expected an immediate cessation of hostilities, and that his unpreparedness would thus be huddled up All of a sudden, at the beginning of June, De Ruyter led out his fleet, and with a fair wind behind hiht napping The doleful history reads like that of a sudden piratical onslaught, and reveals the fatal inefficiency of the administration Sheerness was practically defenceless ”There were a Coood soldiers there under excellent officers, but the fortifications were so weak and unfinished, and all other provisions so entirely wanting, that the Dutch Fleet no sooner approached within a distance but with their cannon they beat all the works flat and drove all the round, which, as soon as they had done with their Boats, they landed men and seemed resolved to fortify and keep it”[128:1] Capture of Sheerness by the Dutch! No need of a halfpenny press to spread this news through a London still in ruins What madepaid with tickets not readily convertible into cash Many of them actually deserted to the Dutch fleet, whichUpnor Castle, which had guns but no ammunition, till it was almost within reach of Chatham, where lay the royal navy General Monk, as the handy man of the period, and whose authority was always invoked when the king he had restored was in greater trouble than usual, had hastily collected what troops he could muster, and marched to protect Chatham; but anted were shi+ps, not troops The Dutch had nothree warshi+ps (the _Royal Ja the _Royal Charles_, ”they thought they had done enough, and ain”[129:1] These events occupied the tenth to the fifteenth of June, and for the impression they produced on Marvell's mind we are not dependent upon his restrained letters to his constituents, but can turn to his longest rhymed satire, which is believed to have been first printed, anonyust 1667
This poem is called _The Last Instructions to a Painter about the Dutch Wars_, 1667 The title was derived froyric poem on the occasion of the Duke of York's victory over the Dutch on the 3rd of June 1665, when Opdam, the Dutch admiral, was blown up with his shi+p[129:2]
Sir John Denhaood an excuse for hating the Duke of York as this world affords, had seized upon the same idea and published four satirical poems on these same Dutch Wars, entitled _Directions to a Painter_ (see _Poems on Affairs of State_, 1703, vol i)
Marvell's satire, which runs to 900 lines, is essentially a House of Commons poem, and could only have been written by a member It is intensely ”lobbyish” and ”occasional” To understand its allusions, to appreciate its ”pain-giving” capacity to the full, is now impossible
Still, the reader of Clarendon's _Life_, Pepys's _Diary_, and Burnet's _History_, to na into the spirit of the perforh in execution, careless, breathless A rugged style was then in vogue Even Milton could write his lines to the Ca of the nificence of Dryden, or of the finished malice of Pope He plays the part, and it is sincerely played, of the old, honest ues and speaks right out, calling spades spades and the king's woht to be called He is conversational, and therefore coarse The whole history of the events that resulted in the national disgrace is told
”The close cabal oes not to the cheats; So therefore secretly for peace decrees, Yet for a War the Parliament would squeeze, And fix to the revenue such a sum Should Goodricke silence and h all the yards their orders were To lay the shi+ps up, cease the keels begun
The timber rots, the useless axe does rust, The unpractised saw lies buried in the dust, The busy haot rid of to the joy of Clarendon
”Blither than hare that hath escaped the hounds, The house prorogued, the chancellor rebounds
What frosts to fruits, what arsenic to the rat, What to fair Denham mortal chocolate,[130:1]
What an account to Carteret, that and more, A parliament is to the chancellor”
De Ruyter ainst the Dutch is pressed
Often, dear Painter, have I sat and mused Why he should be on all adventures used
Whether his valour they so much admire, Or that for cowardice they all retire, As heaven in storusts of state, On Monk and Parliament--yet both do hate
Ruyter, the while, that had our ocean curbed, Sailed now ast our rivers undisturbed; Surveyed their crystal streareen, And beauties ere this never naked seen”
His flags fly from the topmasts of his shi+ps, but where is the enelides, And at Sheerness unloads its stormy sides”
Chatham was but a few ed in su fowl, a weak and easy prey, For whose strong bulk earth scarce could timber find, The ocean water, or the heavens wind
Those oaken giants of the ancient race, That ruled all seas, and did our channel grace; The conscious stag, though once the forest's dread, Flies to the wood, and hides his armless head
Ruyter forthwith a squadron doth untack; They sail securely through the river's track
An English pilot too (O, shame! O, sin!) Cheated of 's pay, was he that showed theham is broken, to the disht does view; Our feather gallants, who came down that day To be spectators safe of the new play, Leave hiun, (Cornbury,[131:1] the fleetest) and to London run
Our seaht, Unpaid, refuse to mount their shi+ps for spite, Or to their felloi ht