98 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



and 400 at the " 225 decayed towns " in England and Wales 

 for the philanthropic purpose of giving work to the poor. 

 Nay, there was more. At the chief ports the surplus earnings 

 were to provide a salary for " an honest, virtuous and learned 

 man," who was to travel constantly about the coasts preaching 

 to the people, "as the Apostles did." Among the indirect 

 benefits to the nation Hitchcock included the transformation 

 of idle vagabonds, of whom there were plenty, " darly increas- 

 ing," into good subjects some of the Members of Parliament 

 thought this part of the scheme alone entitled it to national 

 support, the addition of 9000 mariners for manning the navy, 

 the saving of coin spent on foreign fish, the increase of the 

 Queen's customs, of commerce and navigation, and the repair 

 of the decayed towns. 



Such was the dream of this enthusiastic but thoroughly 

 sincere old soldier : to expel the Hollanders from our seas 

 by means of a national fishery organisation and to win back 

 for England the wealth they gathered from her waters. At 

 the time when he wrote, foreign fishermen were not nearly 

 so numerous on our coasts as they became later. The herring- 

 busses from the Low Countries which fished on the east coast 

 numbered, he says, between 400 and 500, and the Englishmen 

 "for feare of them," and of tempests, fished in small vessels 

 near the shore, as he shows in a " similitude," here reproduced 

 (fig. 2). Besides these, between 300 and 400 ships and barks- 

 from Biscay, Galicia, and Portugal fished off" the south-west 

 coast of Ireland from April to July, "near to Mackertymors 

 country " ; and also on the west and north-west coasts of 

 Ireland for cod and ling from about Christmas to March. 

 Hitchcock makes no complaint against the foreign fishermen 

 for fishing in " her Majesty's seas." With a fine catholic gener- 

 osity he indeed expressly says that all men of what country 

 soever should be free to do so ; that there was enough fish in 

 the northern seas for all, even if there were 1000 sail more than 

 there was. He believed that the English, by being so much 

 nearer the fishing grounds, ought to be able to undersell the 

 foreigner and get the markets and the trade. 1 



1 The Pollitique Plait is earnest and even religious in tone, and it is obvious 

 that the author spent much time in collecting the information and elaborating his 

 scheme, which in all sincerity was meant for the good of his country. Even after 



