68 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



The Treaty of Westminster, in April 1654, put a term 

 to the misery inflicted upon the United Provinces by this 

 disastrous war ; and in the same year the fishing was 

 recommenced, but still under difficulties, as appears from 

 several complaints of violence, suffered from English men- 

 of-war in the next years.* A general renovation, in 1656, 

 by the States of Holland of the placards of 1582 on the 

 Grand Fishery is the principal event on record during the 

 short interval of comparative quiet which succeeded the Peace 

 of Westminster. Nearly the whole of this placard of i6$6t 

 is a literal reproduction of the existing laws ; but a few 

 additions, now enacted for the first time, point out in some 

 degree the fishery's already altered condition. The fact 

 of convoying ships equipped by the Herring College being 

 always with the fleet is now, for the first time, officially 

 apparent from a clause which enjoins the " captains of the 

 Grand Fishery J: (i.e. the commanders of the above-men- 

 tioned direction-ships) to arrest any fishing skipper guilty 

 of either selling herring to foreigners or attempting to 

 carry it directly abroad, and send him home to be tried. 

 Besides this precaution against trespassers, a general 

 aggravation of the penalties, consecrated by the placard of 

 1656, may be considered as an indication of the pressure 

 exercised by the law upon the trade at large, and the 

 consequent frequency of infraction. A custom of selling 

 herrings unassayed and unbranded, or, as termed in the 

 new placard, "as it lies, or upon trial " % is made the object 



* Res. Holland, 1656, p. 990 and others. 



f Groot Placaetboek, vol. viii. p. 1242. 



\ *' Aen 't hoepje te tasten, of zoo die leyd." The former words are 

 obscure, and may perhaps be relative to some peculiar mode of sale 

 of unassayed herrings, viz., by touching the hoops of the barrel as a 

 sign of agreement followed by immediate transfer. But as " tasten " 

 in the Dutch of the period was, I believe, bometimes used for " to 



