ANNUS MIRABILIS:

THE YEAR OF WONDERS, M.DC.LXVI.

IN thriving arts long time had Holland grown, Crouching at home, and cruel when abroad, Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own; Our King they courted, and our merchants aw'd.

Trade, which, like blood, should circularly flow, Stopp'd in their channels, found its freedom lost : Thither the wealth of all the world did go,

And seem'd but shipwreck'd on so base a coast.

For them alone the heavens had kindly heat,
In eastern quarries ripening precious dew:
For them the Idumæan balm did sweat,
And in hot Ceylon spicy forests grew.

The sun but seem'd the labourer of the year;

Each waxing moon supplied her watry store, To swell those tides, which from the Line did bear Their brim-full vessels to the Belgian shore.

Thus, mighty in her ships, stood Carthage long,
And swept the riches of the world from far;
Yet stoop'd to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong;
And this may prove our second Punic war.

What peace can be where both to one pretend? (But they more diligent, and we more strong) Or if a peace, it soon must have an end;

For they would grow too powerful were it long.

Behold two nations then, engag'd so far,
That each seven years the fit must shake each land;
Where France will side to weaken us by war,
Who only can his vast designs withstand.

See how he feeds the' Iberian with delays,
To render us his timely friendship vain ;
And, while his secret soul on Flanders preys,
He rocks the cradle of the Babe of Spain.

Such deep designs of empire does he lay

O'er them whose cause he seems to take in hand; And, prudently, would make them lords at sea, To whom with ease he can give laws by land.

This saw our King; and long within his breast
His pensive counsels balanc'd to and fro :
He griev'd the land he freed should be opprest,
And he less for it than usurpers do.

His generous mind the fair ideas drew

Of fame and honour, which in dangers lay;
Where wealth, like fruit on precipices, grew,
Not to be gather'd but by birds of prey.

The loss and gain each fatally were great;
And still his subjects call'd aloud for war.
But peaceful kings, o'er martial people set,
Each other's poise and counterbalance are.

He first survey'd the charge with careful eyes,
Which none but mighty monarchs could maintain ;
Yet judg'd, like vapours that from limbecs rise,
It would in richer showers descend again.

At length resolv'd to' assert the watry ball,
He in himself did whole armados bring;
Him aged seamen might their master call,
And choose for general, were he not their king.

It seems as every ship their sovereign knows,
His awful summons they so soon obey;
So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows,
And so to pasture follow through the sea.

To see this fleet upon the ocean move,

Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies; And Heav'n, as if there wanted lights above, For tapers made two glaring comets rise.

Whether they unctuous exhalations are
Fir'd by the sun, or seeming so alone;
Or each some more remote and slippery star,
Which loses footing when to mortals shown:

Or one, that bright companion of the sun,
Whose glorious aspect seal'd our new-born King ;
And now a round of greater years begun,

New influence from his walks of light did bring.

Victorious York did, first, with fam'd success,
To his known valour make the Dutch give place:
Thus Heav'n our Monarch's fortune did confess,
Beginning conquest from his royal race.

But since it was decreed, auspicious King,

In Britain's right that thou shouldst wed the main, Heav'n, as a gage, would cast some precious thing, And therefore doom'd that Lawson should be slain.

Lawson amongst the foremost met his fate, Whom sea-green sirens from the rocks lament: Thus as an offering for the Grecian state,

He first was kill'd who first to battle went.

Their chief blown up, in air, not waves, expir'd, To which his pride presum'd to give the law: The Dutch confess'd Heav'n present, and retir'd, And all was Britain the wide Ocean saw.

To nearest ports their shatter'd ships repair, Where by our dreadful cannon they lay aw'd: So reverently men quit the open air,

When thunder speaks the angry gods abroad.

And now approach'd their fleet from India fraught, With all the riches of the rising sun;

And precious sand from southern climates brought, The fatal regions where the war begun.

Like hunted castors, conscious of their store, Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coast they bring:

There first the North's cold bosom spices bore, And Winter brooded on the eastern Spring.

By the rich scent we found our perfum'd prey,
Which, flank'd with rocks, did close in covert lie;
And round about their murdering cannon day,
At once to threaten and invite the eye.

Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard,
The English undertake the' unequal war:
Seven ships alone, by which the port is barr'd,
Besiege the Indies, and all Denmark dare.

These fight like husbands, but like lovers those : These fain would keep, and those more fain enjoy; And to such height their frantic passion grows, That what both love both hazard to destroy.

Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball,
And now their odours arm'd against them fly:
Some preciously by shatter'd porcelain fall,
And some by aromatic splinters die.

And though by tempests of the prize bereft,
In Heaven's inclemency some ease we find :
Our foes we vanquish'd by our valour left,
And only yielded to the seas and wind.

Nor wholly lost we so deserv'd a prey;
For storms, repenting, part of it restor❜d:
Which, as a tribute from the Baltic sea,

The British Ocean sent her mighty Lord.

Go, mortals, now, and vex yourselves in vain
For wealth, which so uncertainly must come ;
When what was brought so far, and with such pain,
Was only kept to lose it nearer home.

The son who, twice three months on the' ocean tost,
Prepar'd to tell what he had pass'd before,
Now sees in English ships the Holland coast, [shore.
And parents' arms, in vain, stretch'd from the