70 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



tend greatly to the advantage of the foreign Fishermen, 

 who are not constrained to obey them." 



Being unable efficiently to enforce their self-made rules 

 at sea, the Herring College resorted to the greater stringency 

 in the execution of such part of them as lay within the 

 control of their officers ashore ; and the towns whose 

 delegates were excluded from the college were of course 

 the first sufferers by this severity. The laws were not 

 only executed with great severity, but actually overstepped 

 by the college. Thus, in 1659, Hoorn, which it will be 

 remembered had no seat in the college, complained of her 

 ship's masters being obliged, before sailing, to get a licence 

 (acte van consent) from the Grand Fishery, which docu- 

 ment was only delivered upon the applicant taking oath 

 not to fish before July 8th.* This date was posterior by a 

 fortnight to the lawful opening of the fishing season, and 

 it is not clear in virtue of what alleged competency of 

 their own the college established a " keure" or bye-law 

 derogating from the law of the realm in so vital a point. 

 The author of Van der Lely's Register, who certainly 

 wrote at a much later period, does not appear to have 

 been precisely informed about the matter, and simply 

 states that, " in 1659," the opening date was at one time 

 delayed till some day in July," f without adding whence 

 the college derived a title to such delay. At any rate, 

 Hoorn, being excluded from the college, alleged the 

 proceeding to be unlawful as applied to her own busses, 

 and laid the matter before the States of Holland. A 

 conference was called between delegates from the college 

 on one hand and Hoorn on the other ; and as a conse- 



* Res. Holland, 1659, p. 199. 



f " In 1659, wierd het eens vers (choven) tot in July, maar't Jaar 

 daaraan hersteld." Recueil, p. 14. 



