"As it is on all hands confessed, that never any English, perhaps I might say, any prince, without distinction of countries, understood maritime affairs so well as Charles II. did; so it cannot surprise any intelligent reader, when we assert, that the English navy received very great advantages from his skill and care in matters of this nature. It must indeed be allowed, that he found the fleet, at his restoration, in an excellent situation, and abundance of very able men employed therein; and it must likewise be confessed, to the honour of his government, that he preserved them in their several posts, without any respect to party, which, without question, contributed not a little to the increase of our naval power. How intent he was, for the first ten years of his reign, in promoting whatever had a tendency this way, appears from all the candid histories of those times, from the collections of orders, and other public papers relating to the direction of the navy while the duke of York was admiral, published of late;[203] and, in a short and narrow compass, from the speech made by the lord-keeper Bridgeman, who affirmed, that, from 1660 to 1670, the charge of the navy had never amounted to less than 500,000l. a year."--_Lives of the Admirals_, Vol. II. p. 331. Note V. _And heaven, as if there wanted lights above, For tapers made two glaring comets rise._ St. 16. p. 107. A comet was seen on the 14th of December, 1664, which lasted almost three months; and another, the 6th of April, 1665, which was visible fourteen days.--_Appendix to Sherburn's Translation of Manilius_, p. 241. Comets, it is well known, were in extremely bad repute among the astrologers of this period. Lilly, an unquestionable authority, treats these stars with extreme severity; hardly justifiable by his blunt averment, that "truth is truth, and a horse is a horse."[204] Dryden himself, not contented with turning these two blazing stars into farthing candles, has elsewhere, in this poem, charged them with causing the pestilence, and the great fire of London: The utmost malice of the stars is past; And two dire comets, which have scourged the town, In their own plague and fire have breathed their last, Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown. The evil opinion which the astrologers entertained of comets, they summed up in these barbarous lines: _Octo Cometa mala hæc fulgendo per Æthera signat; Ventus, Sterilitas, Aqua, Pestis prædominantur Rixa, Tremor, moritur Dux, fit mutatio regni._ Note VI. _Victorious York did first, with famed success, To his known valour make the Dutch give place;_ St. 19. p. 108.