D'Estrades,
October 13, 1665.
In the present distress, two expedients were embraced: an army of twelve
thousand men was suddenly levied; and the parliament, though it lay
under prorogation, was summoned to meet. The houses were very thin; and
the only vote which the commons passed, was an address for breaking the
army; which was complied with. This expression of jealousy showed the
court what they might expect from that assembly; and it was thought more
prudent to prorogue them till next winter.
But the signing of the treaty at Breda extricated the king from his
present difficulties. The English ambassadors received orders to recede
from those demands, which, how ever frivolous in themselves, could not
now be relinquished without acknowledging a superiority in the enemy.
Polerone remained with the Dutch; satisfaction for the ships Bonaventure
and Good Hope, the pretended grounds of the quarrel, was no longer
insisted on; Acadie was yielded to the French. The acquisition of
New York, a settlement so important by its situation, was the chief
advantage which the English reaped from a war, in which the national
character of bravery had shone out with lustre, but where the misconduct
of the government, especially in the conclusion, had been no less
apparent.
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