Charles II, shall not . . . hereafter be required to be taken, declared or subscribed by any person . . . whatsoever, who is or shall be employed in any office or place of trust, either civil or military, under us or in our Government ... and we do hereby give our free and ample pardon unto all nonconformists, recusants and other our loving subjects for all crimes and things. . . done contrary to the penal laws. . . .

.

17.

[James II's Second Declaration of Indulgence was issued on 27 April, 1688 (see P.C.R., lxxii., p. 653, for text). On May 4 the King ordered that it should be read in all the Churches. P.C.R., lxxii. 661.]

It is this day ordered by His Majestie in Councill that his Maties late Gracious Declaration bearing date the 27th of Aprill last bee read att the usuall time of Divine Service upon the 20th and 27th of this month in all Churches and Chappells within the Citties of London and Westminster, and ten miles thereabout and upon the third and tenth of June next in all other Churches and Chappells throughout the Kingdome. And it is hereby further ordered that the Right Reverend the Bishops cause the said Declaration to be sent and distributed throughout their severall and respective Diocesses to be read accordingly.

18.

[The Protest of the Bishops against Reading the Declaration. G. Robertson, "Select Statutes, etc.," p. 392, quoted from Bodleian Library, Rawl. MSS., C. 798, 3686.]

We are not averse to the publishing of the Declaration, out of want of due tenderness to the Dissenters, with whome we shall be willing to come to such a temper as shall be thought fitt when the matter comes to be settled

and considered in parlmt. But the Declaration being founded on such a dispensing power as may at pleasure sett aside all law, ecclesiastical or civil, appears to us illegal and did so to the parlm't of 72 and it is a point of soe great consequence that we cannot soe farre make ourselves p'ties to it, as the reading of it in the Churches at ye time of divine service will amount to.

BOOK IV. NAVAL HISTORY.

A. ORGANIZATION OF THE NAVY AT THE RESTORATION.1

1.

[The Navy Board, 1660. Pepysian MSS., vol. 2879, "Miscellaneous Docs.,” p. 220.]

7th July 1660.

His [The King's] Royal Brother ye D. of York was declar'd Admiral of England and ye persons following ye first Principal Officers 2 and Commissioners of ye navy under Him, viz.

Sir Geo. Carteret
Sir Rd. Slingsby

Sir Wm. Battine
Sam1. Pepys Esqre.
Jno. Ld. Berkeley
Sir Wm. Penn

Peter Pett Esqre.

TreasTM.

Soon after Comptroller
Surveyor

Clerk of the Acts

Commissioners.

1 For detailed accounts of the organization of the navy and the general history of the fleet during the Restoration period see J. R. Tanner, "Navy Records Society Catalogue of the Pepysian MSS.," vol. i., and A. W. Tedder, "Navy of the Restoration," in addition to the general works such as Clowes, "Royal Navy."

2 All these men possessed expert knowledge of naval affairs.

2.

[In 1662 the Duke of York issued a volume of Instructions, "The Oeconomy of H.M.'s Navy Office," exhorting the Commissioners to maintain supervision over the purchase of stores, etc. Letter from James Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy, 24 January, 1661-2. "Memoirs Relating to the Conduct of the Navy," p. 28.]

I have long deferred sending you a Book,1 containing the Duty of the Several Officers belonging to his Majesty's Navy. . . . I desire you that your first place May be . . . to discharge unnecessary workmen in the yards and next to set a mark upon such who shall appear to have served either deceitfully or negligently. . . . In the next place I desire you to take an account of the Behaviour of the several officers in the yards who are intrusted with the King's Expenses therein; which if you find any to be prodigal, I desire you to suspend them their Employments. . . . And under this Head, I desire you to examine if the Master Shipwrights have put the King to unnecessary Charge in Repairing of Ships. But if any Store Keepers, or other officers, who are intrusted with the viewing and judging the Condition of Stores delivered into the several Yards, shall have so far falsified their Trust, as to make a false Report of the Quality of the Stores so delivered in; and by it shall have misguided you in the signing Bills for Stores, which are indeed unuseful, or not of equal Goodness to the Price given upon their Report, I suppose it will be unnecessary to press you to be strict and severe towards them . . . the consequence of this being so great, both as to the real service to his Majesty and as to the Reputation of the Management of the Affairs of the Navy. .

As to the management of the Affairs among Yourselves,

1 "The Oeconomy of H.M.'s Navy Office," see Pepysian MSS. vol. 2867, pp. 356-98; and No. 2611, pp. 127-90.

that which I shall principally recommend to you, is, that there be due and timely Information gotten of the quantity of each sort of Goods needful in the Navy . . . and of the Prices; in both which I desire you not to rely wholly on the Informations of Purveyors . . . but to use all means to be fully informed . . . and to make your Contracts at your Publick Meetings in the Navy Office ... by this method, as the King's Contracts may probably be made with better Husbandry so it will be no small advantage to His Majesty in that it will take away all occasion of calumniating his Officers.

B. THE FIRST DUTCH WAR.

1.

["A Summary Narration of the Signal Victory which it pleased Almighty God to bestow upon His Majesties Navy, under the Command of his Royal Highness the Duke of York against the Fleet of the States of the United Netherlands on 3 June, 1665." Battle of Lowestoft. Pamphlet (B.M. Pressmark, 808. c. 35), 8 June, 1665.] Upon their [the Dutch fleet's] first appearance . it cost His Royal Highness but little time to make ready. Their number was taken to be 110 Sail and 10 Fireships. We followed them till Night, and endeavoured by several Tacks to get the Windward Quarter which his Royal Highness effected. . . . They bore up toward us and gave the first Broadside at Sunrising, Saturday 3rd. But finding they could not get from us, they bore up to Vice Admiral Minnes and gave him a broadside, who received them accordingly; and so their whole fleet passed by Ours, firing at every ship as they went and receiving returns from them; In the second pass the Swiftsure bore the first brunt, which was performed on both sides as the former. In the third (wherein we also kept the wind) Prince Rupert and Captain Minnes led the way, but