d the two fleets when on the point of
engaging in the Orkneys, but Ruyter and Blake met again in the Channel,
and after a fierce struggle the Dutch were forced to retire under cover
of night. Since the downfall of Spain Holland had been the first naval
power in the world, and the spirit of the nation rose gallantly with its
earliest defeat. Immense efforts were made to strengthen the fleet; and
the veteran, Tromp, who was replaced at its head, appeared in the
Channel with seventy-three ships of war. Blake had but half the number,
but he at once accepted the challenge, and throughout the twenty-eighth
of November the unequal fight went on doggedly till nightfall, when the
English fleet withdrew shattered into the Thames. Tromp swept the
Channel in triumph, with a broom at his masthead; and the tone of the
Commons lowered with the defeat of their favourite force. A compromise
seems to have been arranged between the two parties, for the bill
providing a new Representative was again pushed on; and the Parliament
agreed to retire in the coming November, while Cromwell offered no
opposition to a reduction of the army. But the courage of the House rose
afresh with a turn of fortune. The strenuous efforts of Blake enabled
him again to put to sea in a few months after his defeat; and in
February 1653 a running fight through four days ended at last in an
English victory, though Tromp's fine seamanship enabled him to save the
convoy he was guarding. The House at once insisted on the retention of
its power. Not only were the existing members to continue as members of
the new Parliament, thus depriving the places they represented of their
right of choosing representatives, but they were to constitute a
Committee of Revision, and in this capacity to determine the validity of
each election and the fitness of the members returned.

[Sidenote: The Parliament driven out.]

A conference took place between the leaders of the Commons and the
officers of the Army, who resolutely demanded not only the omission of
these clauses, but that the Parliament should at once dissolve itself,
and commit the new elections to a Council of State. "Our charge,"
retorted Haselrig, "cannot be transferred to any one." The conference
was adjourned till the next morning, on an understanding that no
decisive step should be taken; but it had no sooner reassembled on the
twentieth of April than the absence of the leading members confirmed the
news that Vane was f