7?o W. and M. Naval Expeditions , &c of the English, Book IV*
169^. by one; And it was continued ’till five,in the Evening, during which Time,the English throw’d in about fix Hun-dred Shells: [d) But (fays Bishop Bur-net ) the French did not suffer so muchby these Bombardments as was expell-ed. The Country, indeed, was muchalarmed by it; They had many Troopsdispersed all along their Coals ; 80 thatit put their Affairs in great Disorder,and we were every where Masters ofthe Sea. Father Daniel, however, whomakes light of these Bombardments,fays, the Damage, sustained by all theTowns they bombarded, did not a-mount to a Thousandth Part of the Ex-pence they were at. I have leen seve-ral other, as well French as Dutch Ac-counts of these Bombardments j But asthe French agree in lessening their Dam-ages, tho’ with more Modesty, thanFather Daniel, and the Dutch Relationsagree with ours, I shall not detain myReaders with Repeating them.
A Squadron Another Squadron, commanded byti ff er th ; e , rf t ^ e Marquis of Carmarthen, lay off ofCarmar- 1 the Isles of Scilly , to secure our Trade,then ; and convoy our Merchant-ships. BishopBurnet gives this Nobleman the Characterof an extravagant Man, both in his Plea-sures and Humours; Andadds; He was
Hift of K ) While these Things were doing at Sea,
William ' the Siege of Namur , one of the most remarka-Kennet.' die in History, was carried on with great Vigour,and many gallant Actions were performed, as wellby the Besieged, as the Besiegers ; But they be-ing foreign to my Purpose, I shall only observe,that, on the thirty-Srst of August, the Capitula-tion for the Castle (the Town having surrenderedthe fourth) was signed, and Part- of the Out-works given up immediately, three Days beingallowed for the total Evacuation of it. What re-dounded most to the Honour of the ConfederateArms, in the taking of this almost impregnablePlace, was, that it was defended by one Marshalof France, (the Marshal de Boasters ) the firstwhoeversigned a Capitulation;)And in the Sight ofanother, (the Marlhal de Villerot) who was ad-vanced to its Relief, with a Hundred ThousandMen, but was only a Spectator of the Bravery ofthe former, and of the consummate Prudence ofthe King of Great Britain, under whose Conductand Direction all was happily atchieved; And itwas allowed, at all Hands, that no Siege was evercarried on with greater Regularity.
The Campaign ending soon after, theKing retired for some Time, as usual, to Loo,and from thence came to the Hague, where hav-ing settled, with the States General, the Plan ofthe War, for the ensuing Year, His Majesty em-barked on the Maese, the ninth of October, onBoard the William and Mary Yacht, and convoy-ed by a Squadron of Englijh and Dutch Men ofWar, under the Commandos Sir Cloudesty Shovel,landed the next Day, at Margate, and lying one
flow in going to Sea ; And, when he was 1695*out, he fancied the French Fleet wascoming upon him, which proved to beonly a Fleet of Merchant-Ships; So heleft his Station,and retired into Mils or d-Haven; By which Means, that Squa-dron became useless, and our Merchants ,were great Sufferers, by French Crui- esers and Privateers, and especially theEafl-India Company,who lost five Ships,valued at a Million Sterling. This wasMatter of great Discontent in the Cityof London, where the Merchants com-plained, that neither the Admiralty,nor the Government, took the Carethat was necessary for preserving theWealth of the Nation.
To conclude the Naval Transactions °{xL-
ofthis Year, I shall mention what hap- fl- } s h npen’d to a home-ward-bound Eafl-IndiaShip, perhaps one of the five above-mentioned : This Ship was the Henry ,of four Hundred Tuns, and four andthirty Guns. As she was putting intoVentry-Bay , in Ireland, she was attack’dby a French Privateer, of six and thirtyGuns, commanded by Captain Neagle,an Irijh-man. After a long Fight, sheboarded the Henry ; But Captain Hud-son, her Commander, cleared her Deckstwice. The third Time, the Irijh-man
boarded
Night at Canterbury, came the second Day toKenstngton.
The first Thing the King did was to dissolvethe Parliament, by Proclamation, and to summona New One, tomeet the twenty-second of Nov em-,her following ; During which Time, His Majestywent a Progress to the North, as it was said, toinfluence Elections. At the King’s Return, theParliament met, according to the Writ of Sum-mons. I shall not detain the Reader with a Relationof the Proceedings of this Parliament farther thanthey regard the Navy; for whichtheyvoted aSupplyof two Millions, five Hundred Thousand Pounds;And by observing, that, on the tenth of Decem-ber, the Commons took that famous Resolution, ofRecoining the Clift Many, according to the efia-blijhed Standard of the Mint, both as to Weightand Fineness, and that the Loss of such Clft Ma-ny should be born by the Publics. This was a boldAttempt, at this Time, which might have em-broiled the Nation, and brought it into the utmostConfusion ; And it was, indeed, believed, the firstProject was set on Foot with that View, by theEnemies of our Constitution. However, by theprudent Resolutions which were afterwards ta-ken, some Inconveniences, which at first arose,were soon removed, and the Matter brought toa happy Conclusion, to the Astonishment of thewhole World. The Affair of Darien may per-haps be thought by some a proper Subject to findPlace here ; But as I am writing the Naval Tran-sactions of England ; And Scotland , ’till the Uni-on, must be regarded as a separate Nation, tho’under the fame Government, I shall pass it by.