.Charles II. Naval Expeditions, dec. of the English, Book III*

1653. This Year likewise happened a veryClarendon, memorable Change in England . OliverWhitlock. Cromwell, whose Projects were now ripe,having let a good Body of the Membersof the New Parliament into the Secretof his Intentions, was at Length resolv-ed to put them in Execution. ThisParliament, of Cromwell' s own Creation,had now fate more than five Months,without doing, or indeed being designedto do, any Thing considerable ; At last,The new on the twelfth of December , the Speak-'refn^it’s er ’ ^ith the Rest who were in the Se-Pmer! ^ cret, coming sooner to the House thanordinary, one of them rose up and said,That Men of their Abilities were une-qual to the Weight laid upon them;And therefore proposed a Dissolution ofthemselves, and a Re-delivery of theSovereign Authority into the Handsfrom whence it was received. ThisMotive meeting with a general Appro-bation, they immediately repaired toCromwell > and the Council of Officers,and acknowledging their own Impotency,prayed them to take the Governmentinto their own Hands.

Cromwell, and his Council of Offi-cers, being thus invested with the Su-pream Power, by a Sort of Parliamen-tary Authority of their own creating,two Days after wards, the Council declar-ed, that for the future the Governmentshould reside in one single Person;namely, Oliver Cromwell, General ofthe Forces of England, Scotland andCromwell ^ re ^ an d ; who should have the Title ofmade Pro- Protestor of the three Kingdoms, and beteffor. assisted by a Council of one and twenty

Persons. An Instrument of Govern-ment was accordingly drawn up inForm, (r) and, on the sixteenth, com-municated to the Commissioners of theGreat Seal, and the Lord Mayor andAldermen of London. Cromwell, afterhaving sworn to it, and being installedin jfrejhninjler- hall, assumed theTide ofHighness and Lord Protestor, was pro-claimed as such at London, and after-wards throughout the three Kingdoms,which were now declared to make butone State, was invited to a magnificentEntertainment in the City, and receivedall the Honours there, which werewont to be given to Kings, on the likeOccasions.

The several Transactions of thisYear, ’till the Declaration of the Warwith Spain, towards the End of it, Ishall only hint at. Such were the Con-clusion of the Peace with the Dutchthe fifth of Jlpril ; (V) a Conspiracy a-gainst Cromwell discovered; The King'spoor Condition in France, and Retire-ment to Cologn, The Affairs of Irelandand Scotland ; The Calling of a Parlia-ment, on the third of September,the Ex-clusion of several of the Members, andthe illegal Dissolution of it, even ac-cording to the new Form of Govern-ment ; New Conspiraces defeated, TheAffairs between England and France ,which ended, the next Year, in an Alli-ance. These, I say, are Occurrencesfor which I shall refer the Reader toClarendon, Whit loch, and our otherHistorians.

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" ling. On the contrary those taken by th eHutch" did not amount to the fourth Part, either in" Number or Value. Within that Time the" Englifi were victorious, in no less than five" General Fights, some of which lasted several“ Days ; Whereas the Hutch cannot justly boast“ of having gained one : For the Action between« He Ruyter and Jfeough , in which they pre-" tended to some Advantage, was no General" Fight: And the Advantage gained by Van" Tromp in the Howns is owned to have been" gained but over a Part of the Englijh Fleet.“ This ihort War reduced the Hutch to greater" Extremities, than the long War of eighty Years" had done, against the Crown of Spain. And« one of their own Authors allows, that jn thisrc short War, and in the Time of the Northern« Troubles, which followed, between theCrowns“ of Sweden and Henmark , his Countrymen lost" more than they had gained in twenty Years be-" fore.

Rapin. Rap in , who probably has followed the

Hutch Writers, fays, in Favour of that Nation,that they were in the last Engagement much in-feriour to the Englijh, both in the Number

and Largeness of their Ships; tho” in the former,according to his own Account, they were fuperi-our. He fays, likewise, that the Battle lastedthree Days, and that, at last, the two Fleets, asif by Consent, stood away to their own Coasts,unable to fight any longer ; And neither Side hav-ing any good Reason to boast of the Victory. Wemay, at the Conclusion of this War, in general ob-serve, that the Hutch Writers, who were Rapine.Oracles, have left the Englijh very little Successin any of the Engagements which happened in it:But as they must own they were forced to sue foraPeace, and to conclude it upon very hardTerms,they thereby manifestly contradict their own Re-lations.

(r) See the Instrument at large in Whitlock’s,

( s ) Some of the Conditions of this PeaceWere, the Payment of large Sums for theDamagesdone to the Engliflj thirty Years before, and parti-cusiriy three Hundred Thousand Pounds for theAffair of Amboyna , to deliver up the Island ofPolercon in the Eafi.Indies, to consent to theStriking of the Flag, in its utmost Extent, to a?bandon the Interest of Charles , Lcc.