under which those wars were fought, but the experience that was gained
from them.

This new light is mainly derived from a hitherto unknown collection of
naval manuscripts belonging to the Earl of Dartmouth, which he has
generously placed at the disposal of the Society. The invaluable
material they contain enables us to say with certainty that the orders
which the Duke of York issued as lord high admiral and
commander-in-chief at the outbreak of the war were nothing but a
slight modification of those of 1654, with a few but not unimportant
additions. Amongst the manuscripts, most of which relate to the first
Lord Dartmouth's cousin and first commander, Sir Edward Spragge, is a
'Sea Book' that must have once belonged to that admiral. It is a kind
of commonplace book, the greater part unused, in which Spragge appears
to have begun to enter various important orders and other matter of
naval interest with which he had been officially concerned, by way of
forming a collection of precedents.[1] Amongst these is a copy of
the orders set out below, dated from the Royal Charles, the Duke of
York's flagship, 'the 10th of April, 1665,' by command of his royal
highness, and signed 'Wm. Coventry.' This was the well-known
politician Sir William Coventry, the model, if not the author, of the
_Character of a Trimmer_, who had been made private secretary to the
duke on the eve of the Restoration, and was now a commissioner of the
navy and acting as secretary on the duke's staff. So closely it will
be seen do they follow the Commonwealth orders of 1653, as modified in
the following year, that it would be scarcely worth while setting them
out in full, but for the importance of finally establishing their true
origin. The scarcely concealed doubts which many writers have felt as
to whether the new system of tactics can have been due to the Duke of
York may now be laid at rest, and henceforth the great reform must be