An empty exchequer was the chronic disease of Charles II.'s reign, and so low did the Royal revenue sink this year that twenty-six footmen in His Majesty's establishment were forced to petition for wages, which had been due the previous Michaelmas. To meet the exigences of the moment, letters were written to the Lord Chancellor, as the head of the legal profession, to the Lord-Lieutenants of Counties, as representing the landed interest; and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to procure loans and voluntary contributions at that "time of public danger." "We are the rather," it is observed in the letter to His Grace, "induced to believe labour herein will be successful, because you are to deal with a sort of persons endued with discretion and ingenuity, who cannot forget what tenderness we have for them, what care to protect and support them, and how much their interest and welfare is involved in ours; but arguments and motives of this nature we leave to your prudent management."[523] The damage actually done by the Dutch fleet was small; and nothing compared with the dangers threatened by the audacity of its advance. The treaty of peace, which speedily followed, relieved the nation from alarm, but it by no means wiped out the disgrace which the nation had to bear, and which its rulers had incurred.[524] [Sidenote: 1667.] Within three months after the booms had been broken by the Dutch in the Medway, Clarendon's term of power was at an end. A bad harvest is a bad thing for an English Ministry, especially for the Chief of the Cabinet. The visitations of Heaven are set down to his account, and all the weak points of his administration, all the errors of his policy, all the faults of his character, are brought out most vividly in the light of adverse circumstances. So it was, that after the Plague and the Fire of London--with which Clarendon could have had nothing to do--the eyes of the people were strangely opened to the defects of his government; and, when the English Lion was bearded by the insolence of the Hollanders, there fell upon the great statesman the anger of the whole people. To meet the evil, which he had failed to prevent, he counselled the King to dissolve Parliament, and maintain the defences of the country by forced contributions. This private advice was blown abroad, inspiring indignation in the people, and bringing discomfiture to the Prime Minister. He did not want courage, but it was now useless. What he hoped would appear to the King the firmness of an upright mind, was regarded by His Majesty as the obstinacy of a stubborn will. In vain the Duke of York pleaded in his behalf. The Chancellor was forced to resign the Great Seal on the 30th of August.[525] [Sidenote: CLARENDON.]