THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 71 



quence the lawful date of June 24th was restored in the 

 next year, and not thenceforward departed from. 



In 1663 another difference occurred, still more strongly 

 illustrative of the efforts made by many to escape the 

 college's rule. One Francis Denick, a citizen of one of 



o 



the herring towns on the Maas, obtained the citizenship 

 of Veere, in Zealand, in order to avoid the statute of 

 Holland which prescribed all herring caught by Holland 

 fishermen to be brought to one of the markets of that 

 province. Though now a citizen of Zealand, Denick 

 continued to send his busses to sea from the Maas, and the 

 college therefore persisted in applying the law of Holland 

 to their skippers and cargoes. Upon the owner's petition 

 the States of Zealand instructed their delegates to the 

 States-General to remonstrate with those of Holland ; and 

 a debate on the Denick question accordingly took place 

 in the latter's assembly, in which the Zealanders advocated 

 their new made citizen's rights, but without any success, 

 Holland maintaining the supremacy of the college and the 

 validity of the provincial statutes of 1582 and 1656 over 

 all ships sailing from any of the Holland ports, whatever 

 province the owner might belong to. " The question made 

 much noise, but led to no result," as Van der Lely mentions 

 in his ' Recueil.' 



The short period of peace with England, as said above, 

 brought the Grand Fishery only comparative quiet and 



* Recueil v. d. Lely, p. 14. Res. Holl. 1663, pp. 336, 352, 609. It 

 will be remembered that the several Provinces were their own legis- 

 lators, and that only such statutes as were promulgated by the States- 

 General took effect in the whole of the republic. As there was no 

 codification, and laws were often laid down in very unprecise terms, 

 collisions between provinces on points of legislation were very frequent 

 throughout the Republic's existence. 



