The military genius during these two reigns had not totally decayed among the young nobility.

Dorset, Mulgrave, Rochester, not to mention Ossory, served on board the fleet, and were present in the most furious engagements against the Dutch.
The commerce and riches of England did never, during any period, increase so fast as from the restoration to the revolution.

The two Dutch wars, by disturbing the trade of that republic, promoted the navigation of this island; and after Charles had made a separate peace with the states, his subjects enjoyed unmolested the trade of Europe.
The only disturbance which they met with, was from a few French privateers, who infested the channel; and Charles interposed not in behalf of his subjects with sufficient spirit and vigor.
* Pepys's Memoirs, p.

4.
** Memoirs of English Affairs, chiefly naval.
*** Lives of the Admirals, vol.ii.p.

476.
The recovery or conquest of New York and the Jerseys was a considerable accession to the strength and security of the English colonies; and, together with the settlement of Pennsylvania and Carolina which was effected during that reign, extended the English empire in America.