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niSTOur op England.

chap, was at Whitehall, and had offered his purse and sword to the— Queen. It had been in contemplation to put the fleet underthe command of some great nobleman with two experiencednaval officers to advise him. Shrewsbury begged that, if suchan arrangement were made, he might be appointed. It con-cerned, he said, the interest and the honour of every man inthe kingdom not to let the enemy ride victorious in the Channel;and he would gladly risk his life to retrieve the lost fame of theEnglish flag. *

His offer was not accepted. Indeed, the plan of dividingthe naval command between a man of quality who did not knowthe points of the compass, and two weatherbeaten old seamenwho had risen from being cabin boys to be Admirals, was verywisely laid aside. Active exertions were made to prepare theallied squadrons for service. Nothing was omitted wtpch couldassuage the natural resentment of the Dutch. The Queen senta Privy Councillor, charged with a special mission to the StatesGeneral. He was the bearer of a letter to them in which sheextolled the valour of Evertsen’s gallant squadron. She assuredthem that their ships should be repaired in the English dock-yards, and that the wounded Dutchmen should be as carefullytended as wounded Englishmen. It was announced that astrict inquiry would be instituted into the causes of the latedisaster; and Torrington, who indeed could not at that momenthave appqared in public without risk of being torn in pieces,was sent to the Tower. **

During the three days which followed the arrival of thedisastrous tidings from Beachy Head the aspect of London was

* Mary to William, July 3. 10. 1690; Shrewsbury to Caernmrthcn,July 15.

** Mary to the States General, July 12.; Burchett’s Memoirs; An im-portant Account of somo remarkable Passages in the Life of Arthur, Earlof Torrington, 1691.