289. They have not lost their loyalty by fire; 290. Not with more constancy the Jews, of old, Or with more vigour to rebuild it went. * 291. The utmost malice of the stars is past, And two dire comets, which have scourged the town, In their own plague and fire have breathed their last, Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown. 292. Now frequent trines the happier lights among, 293. Methinks already from this chemic flame, Rich as the town which gives the Indies name, 294. Already labouring with a mighty fate, She shakes the rubbish from her mountain brow, And seems to have renewed her charter's date, Which heaven will to the death of time allow. # Note LVI. + Note LVII. + Mexico. 295. More great than human now, and more august, * 296. Before, she like some shepherdess did show, 297. Now, like a maiden queen, she will behold, 298. The silver Thames, her own domestic flood, 299. The wealthy Tagus, and the wealthier Rhine, 300. The venturous merchant, who designed more far, And touches on our hospitable shore, Charmed with the splendour of this northern star, Shall here unlade him, and depart no more. Augusta, the old name of London. + Note LVIII. 301. Our powerful navy shall no longer meet, 302. And while this famed emporium we prepare, 303. Already we have conquered half the war, 304. Thus to the eastern wealth through storms we go, But now, the Cape once doubled, fear no more; A constant trade-wind will securely blow, And gently lay us on the spicy shore. † * The disgraceful surprise of Chatham, in 1667, baffled this prophecy. + Referring to the monsoons, which the navigators fall in with upon doubling the Cape of Good Hope. NOTES ON ANNUS MIRABILIS. Note I. In thriving arts long time had Holland grown, Our king they courted, and our merchants awed. THE jealousy of commerce between Holland and England recommended a Dutch war to the nation; while the king, insensible to the many advances made him by the States, cherished a hearty detestation at their mode of government, and the manners of their people in general. Some of the regicides had sought shelter in Holland; and it was only by the uncommon alertness of Downes, the British ambassador, that they were seized and sent to England. Nay, De Witt, and other leaders in the States, kept up a secret correspondence with Ludlow, and the other banished republican English, in hopes that their party might yet find work for Charles in his own kingdom. Meanwhile, they extended beyond measure their personal deference for Charles; willing to avoid a war, which, in any event, must be prejudicial to their commerce, and which, from the valour which the English had displayed in 1655, might probably be unfortunate. But the interest of the East Indian and African Companies, both of which were highly favoured by Charles in the beginning of his reign, and the unatoned injuries which they had sustained from the Dutch, were a sufficient counterpoise to every pacific overture on the part of Holland. Note II. And this may prove our second Punic war. St. 5. p. 105. The first being that which the Parliament declared against the States, and which Cromwell carried on with great success in 1653-4. Note III. See how he feeds the Iberian with delays, St. 8. p. 105. France, a nation ever remarkable for seeing, almost intuitively, her own interest, was not willing that the domineering spirit of Cromwell should revive under the restored monarchy of England. Richelieu had been forced to comply, to a certain extent, with the rash, and often impolitic, but always energetic and daring, schemes of the Protector, endeavouring, at the same time, to make them subservient to his own purposes. But when there was no danger of England uniting with Spain and Holland against France, it was much more the interest of that kingdom, that the two great naval powers should waste their strength in mutual warfare, or even that France should assist the weaker, than that she should join with the stronger, to oppress the other entirely. Besides, the French faction, with De Witt at their head, was now paramount in Holland; and the indirect effect of any signal success of the English must be the restoration of the house of Orange, so closely allied to Charles II., and the hereditary enemy of France, to the dignity of the office of Stadtholder; an office, which, with the family who held it, has been uniformly respected or degraded, as the English or French faction prevailed in the United Provinces. The French court had therefore various reasons for making the Dutch "lords by sea," since they could give them " law by land;" and these finally weighed so deeply, as to lead them to take a part, though but a cold one, against Britain in this very war. The Spanish provinces in the Netherlands had always been the object of French cupidity; and, according to count D'Estrade, a scheme was now formed for dividing them between France and Holland; which, however, the French court took great and successful care to conceal from the This policy Dryden has termed, of Spain." party who were to be sufferers. rocking the cradle of the babe |