receiver of the king's rents, to a friend in London, and is dated Swaynston, July 16, 1667 :

To prevent such misreports as may come to yor eares I have thought fitt hereby to give you as well as I can an Accompt of or present Condition here. Upon Friday last the 12th instant towards the afternoone a Squadron of the Dutch fleet appeared on the East parte of or Island to the number of 50 sayle & upward whereof about 30 were great shipps the rest catches & small vessells, which gave the Island such an alarme that we were all suddenly in armes, that night the fleete came to Ancour in Sandham bay whereupon two companies of ffoote cf Newport & the other companies of the East Medham marched all that night, soe as wth the companies of horse & foote wch were there before, by sun rising on Satturday they were ready to the number of 2000 att least att Binbridge fort & St. Hellens to receive the Enimy in case he had made an attempt to land. The forces of the West Medham together wth about 300 of Barkshire foote were ready att St. George's Downe early that morning likewise to march towards the Enimy upon any orders to that purpose. In the morning they weighed Ancor & came Eastward wth in 2 miles or thereabouts of Binbridge fort & passed on to St. Hellens makeing shew as if they would have come wth in the Island towards Couze, wch caused all or forces of West Medham being att St. Georges Downe about one of the clocke to march to Couze where they continued all that night though the fleete came noe further then St. Hellens & there dropped Anchor our forces still facing them they did not att all offer to land but that evening about halfe an hour before sun setting I see them againe under sayle making westward of the Island but doe not since heare what is become of them, some doubt they expect more of their fleete to come to them.'

Sir Robert Holmes was still governor when William of Orange landed at Torbay in 1688. The English fleet was ignorant of the intentions of the Dutchmen, who were expected to attempt a landing on the island. It was also wholly unprepared to cope with the invaders. Complaints pour in to the admiral, Lord Dartmouth, of the state of the vessels under his command. The Newcastle' is leaky, and the pumps cannot 'vent' the water; the Montagu,'' Edgar,' andWarspite' are not fitted out, and the men are clamouring for their money; the Unity' fireship has lost her 'rurther,' and her complement of men is so 'short' that the captain cannot stow a boat, though but of seven oars;' the bad weather has disordered the Resolution; the Portland' is manned,but waits for her guns. Captain Tyrwhitt, of the Cambridge,' writes that, having lost by the late sick'ness his good head of hair, he would beg his Lordship to bestow on him one of his worst short periwigs to keep his

'head from the cold, and so enable him to come on board and kiss his Lordship's hands.'

Ships without sailors or guns, and captains without periwigs, were no match for the well-found Dutch fleet, which slipped past the island with an E.S.E. steady gale that held the English ships in the Thames. Like Lord Dartmouth, Sir Robert Holmes probably did his best for his master. But that best was little. He writes to Lord Preston that he feared he could not hold the island for the king, for he could not trust the militia. He has therefore drawn into Yarmouth and Hurst, which he means to hold. News comes in from all sides of the Dutch fleet. On November 4 Peter Gallows sends an express from Cowes that at break of day, on the east of the island, two hundred sail had been seen-supposed to be the Dutch fleet. 'The drums are beating now to have our company in arms, and likewise to 'order the boats off East and West Cowes to sail for Yarmouth.' A messenger rides in from Thomas Knight to say that a great fleet had been seen, but at such a distance that no exact accounts could be given. To increase the alarm and confusion, a heavy sea-fog hung all day over the island. It was impossible to see above two leagues to seaward. But through the mist the militia, which was out on the hills all day, could see great ships with their topsails upon the cap, and many of them with their lower sails brailed up, hovering off the coast.

6

Some attempt was made to effect a landing on the 5th. A Dutch man-of-war and two great flyboats, containing 1,800 men, had been ordered to cruise about the island, and give notice to such ships as lay behind to follow to Exmouth. They sent a boat on shore, inquired what Papists were in the island, and where the king was, and thought to have 'landed two boat-loads of men; but, seeing there was like to be some opposition by the moving of two companies 'commanded by Major Knight, they retired on board that boat which was first on shore, paid for what they eat and drank, with many protestations of friendship.' The current of island feeling ran strongly in favour of William. As late as December Sir Robert Holmes still thought of holding out for King James. But his men were turning against him, and he was left in a desolate condition, having no man to 'stand by me. The townspeople are ready to declare.' Resistance was indeed hopeless; the cause was abandoned by King James himself, and the revolution was peacefully accomplished in the Isle of Wight.

Sir Robert Holmes was succeeded in 1692 by Lord Cutts, who had gained his nickname of Salamander' from his enjoyment of the hottest fire that the French could pour from the batteries of Namur. A good soldier, a man of humour, a writer of tolerable vers de société, Lord Cutts was a man of imperious temper. Parliamentary interest was becoming more and more important. And the Captain found the castle interest threatened by the interest of the families of Holmes, Worsley, or Barrington. Lord Cutts roughrode the corporations, made himself three times mayor of Newtown, though not even a burgess, quartered soldiers upon his political opponents, took away their commissions from others, and bestowed the command of the island forts upon his partisans. He even imprisoned a clergyman, who had voted against one of his candidates, for two months in Cowes Castle. Eventually, however, the Captain came to terms with the islanders. In the latter years of his captaincy he lived much at Carisbrooke, where he kept open house. For the better accommodation of his guests he threw the Early English chapel of William de Vernon into the grand stair

case.

The difficulties which arose between the island and their fire-eating captain, whom Swift untruly calls brainless 'Cutts,' marks a new era in the history of the captaincy. Henceforward politics assumed more and more importance. The captain gradually ceases to be a military officer, and becomes a political agent. The romance of the office is lost in the traffic for parliamentary seats.

The parliamentary history of the island is an abstract of that of England. It dates from 1295, when one burgess from each of the towns of Newport, Yarmouth, and Newtown or Francheville, were bidden to the 'great council of the 6 realm.' There is also some evidence that a burgess was summoned from Brading; but the village successfully petitioned to be released from the burden of supporting a representative. Even in the case of the three larger places the privilege was for three centuries entirely suspended, partly because of the distance of Westminster, partly, doubtless, owing to the almost total destruction of the towns in the French invasion of 1377. Even when it was revived, it was revived for the benefit of the Crown, not of the boroughs. It was not till 1585 that the island boroughs again exercised the right of returning representatives to Parliament. The opposition in the Lower House could be no longer overawed by the Crown it must be neutralised. Elizabeth's advisers

therefore summoned representatives from constituencies which were more or less at the disposal of the Court. For this reason the old parliamentary rights of the three island boroughs were restored and increased. Each borough

returned two members to Parliament.

The experiment answered. The electorate was small. At Newport twenty-four corporators, at Newtown thirty-nine burgage tenants, at Yarmouth nine tenants of borough lands, nominally elected the six members. But the electors were neither free nor independent. Newport at once made over to Sir George Carey the right of nominating one of its burgesses during the term of his natural life. Yarmouth and Newtown were almost equally docile. In 1601 Carey, now Lord Hunsdon, wrote to the corporation of Yarmouth requesting that

'Inasmuch as I was the Means and Procurer of the Libertie for your Corporation, you will with all the Convenience you may, assemble yourselfs together, and with yr united Consent send up unto Me (as heretofore you have done), ye Writt with a Blank, wherein I may insert the Names of such Persons as I shall think fittest to discharge the Dewtie for your Behoofe.'

Lord Southampton did not allow what he considered to be the prerogatives of the office of captain to diminish. One, and sometimes two, of his nominations were accepted by each of the boroughs. It was not till the captaincy of Conway that any serious opposition to the wishes of the captain was experienced. At the election of 1628 the burgesses of Newtown and Yarmouth refused to return his nominees, though one of them was his son. A seat in Parliament was not always a coveted privilege. Thus, in the Short Parliament of 1640 William Oglander was chosen by the burgesses of Yarmouth. The young man was not elated by their choice, for he asserted in the hearing of two ladies that his electors were an ill-bred company of fools ' and loggerheads,' and that a meaner man than himself 'might have served their turn.' The ladies repeated the remark, and the offended corporation dismissed and ex'cluded' Oglander from his office. To men who had their way to make in the world a seat was, however, already a stepping-stone to fortune. In November, 1645, a contested election took place at Newport to fill the place of Lucius, Viscount Falkland, by judgement of the Commons of the 'Lower House of Parliament declared incapable of sitting 'longer as member thereof, and since, as is reported, dead.' William Stephens, the recorder of the borough, was elected,

after a contest in which he had made new burgesses to strengthen his party, overawed the freeholders by assembling a tumultuous rabble of the scum of the town,' and 'in the open hall, at the time of the election, peremptorily ordered the sergeants to lay a gentleman of known integrity and a freeholder by the heels.'

The dispute with Lord Cutts over the limits of the electoral influence of the governor has been already mentioned. It was compromised by an agreement between Cutts and the island gentry that when any persons stand for Parliamentmen at any time in the said Isle of Wight who are not of 'the said Island, the governor's recommendations shall be 'preferred against such persons not being of the island, before any other recommendation whatsoever.' The castle interest, as the captaincy became a political office, was sometimes Whig, sometimes Tory. Thus, Cutts was a Tory; his successor, the Duke of Bolton (1706-10) was a Whig; and the next captain, General Webb (1710-15), a Tory. The interest was vigorously used. 'All the Men of Places must Vote, or else by God they shall out,' said Colonel Morgan, lieutenant-governor in 1706. But the castle interest gradually yielded before the greater persistency and steadiness of resident families like those of Holmes, Worsley, or Barrington. We have already adverted at the commencement of this article to the number of distinguished men who sate for its close, corrupt, and thoroughly rotten boroughs. In 1832 the representatives of the island were reduced to a third of their former number: one member was left to Newport, and a second was given to the County of the Isle of Wight.' Now the borough of Newport has lost its member, and the member for the County' is the only island representative.

Lord Cutts was the last striking personality among the captains of the island. As has been said, their importance rapidly declined. General Webb, who, though a Tory, retained his office when the Whigs came into power at the death of Queen Anne, was succeeded in 1715 by his old comrade-in-arms, William, Earl Cadogan, a hot-headed Whig, who held the captaincy till his death, in 1726, and whom Atterbury denounced as

Ungrateful to the ungrateful men he grew by,

A big, bad, bold, blustering, bloody, blundering booby.

For the next century the captains of the island seem to have gone in and out with the Government. As their mili