THE SECOND DUTCH WAR TO THE FOUR DAYS' BATTLE
AUTHORITIES.--The State Papers, which are very fully copied in the Calendars for these years, are by far the best authorities for the events of the second. The official narrative of the battle of Lowestoft published by the Government, and drawn up by the Duke of York's secretary, Sir W. Coventry, is printed in the Life of Penn. A very full account of the Four Days' Battle by a French eyewitness is to be found in the _Memoirs of the Comte de Guiche_. Clarendon gives the fullest account of the transactions at Bergen. Captain Mahan's _Sea Power in History_ and Admiral Colomb's _Naval Warfare_ now become inestimable, and Pepys, it is needless to say, indispensable. Brandt's _Life of De Ruyter_, the _Life of Cornelius van Tromp_, and M. de Pontalis' _Jean de Witt_ give the Dutch side.
If proof were wanted that the Dutch were not prepared for war, it might be found in the length of time they allowed to the English Government to get its fleet ready for sea. The cruise of Sir Robert Holmes would have been more than sufficient provocation to a Power really in search of a pretext for hostilities. Yet the Dutch let a year pass, and even then did not fight until they were attacked, for it must be remembered that the counter-cruise of De Ruyter was strictly limited to the ground already covered by Holmes, or to reprisals in the colonies. If John de Witt and his party had been really disposed for a new struggle with England, it would have been easy for them to attack her at home while unprepared. Unprepared she was until the early months of 1665. Happily, the Dutch were not in a better case. The commercial oligarchy had sacrificed everything to economy, and their fighting fleet was not ready. Therefore the English Government was allowed time to fit out its armaments.
It needed every hour which the delay of its enemy allowed. Even as late as November 1664 the total force of the English fleet ready, or being made ready, for sea was only this: On the coast of Ireland there were three vessels. Thirteen were stationed in the Straits of Gibraltar. One was on duty at Tangier. The convoy to the Newfoundland fishery employed two, which, with the three assigned to New England, and two at Jamaica, made seven vessels on the coast of America. There were three on the Guinea Coast of Africa, one was in the Medway, one on transport duty, one in the East Indies, fourteen with Prince Rupert in the North Sea, and twenty-four in the Channel. These ships, sixty-six in all, were ready, but a third of them were not available for service in Europe. Thirty-seven others were being fitted for sea. When it is remembered that this was the state of things a year after the Government of King Charles had made an attack on the Dutch which must almost certainly lead to war, it will be obvious that if England was unprepared it was because her rulers were wanting in foresight, and if the Dutch were not ready it was because they had not been casting about for an excuse for a quarrel.
