JAMES I. : DISPUTES WITH THE DUTCH 1*79 



required ; and if the answer was not satisfactory he might then 

 resolve upon the " next expedient," and the Council would be 

 ready to obey whatever he should command. 1 



The States-General, while they did not go so far as the 

 Council desired in prohibiting their fishermen from approach- 

 ing near to the land, did all that they reasonably could do 

 to prevent injuries being committed on the Scottish people. 

 After an inquiry was made among those taking part in the 

 great herring fishery, without any evidence being forthcoming 

 in support of the Scottish complaints, they published an edict 

 forbidding their subjects, under pain of severe punishment "as 

 pirates and malefactors," from interfering with the Scottish 

 fishermen, with whom they were enjoined to maintain "true 

 friendship, neighbourliness, and good correspondence." 2 In 

 forwarding a copy of this proclamation to the king, the States 

 said that they had issued it for his satisfaction, and had given 

 strict orders to their captains to apprehend any one who acted 

 contrary to it. But they expressed the hope that he would 

 not permit the fishermen of the United Provinces to be dis- 

 turbed or troubled in the liberty and freedom of taking herrings 

 throughout the whole sea, of which liberty they were in 

 immemorial possession, and it had been confirmed to them 

 by several treaties, in particular by that made in 1551 between 

 the king's predecessor and Charles V. The prosperity of their 

 country, it was added, depended on navigation, traffic, and 

 fisheries, and the freedom of these had been provided for in 

 treaties. 3 James, however, was far from satisfied. He sent on 

 the missive to the Privy Council in Scotland, with the request 

 that the rolls and registers should be searched to see if any 

 record existed of any such treaty, whether "with the said 

 Emperor or any other potentate of the Low Countries." The 

 States, he said, had promised to send a copy of it, but they 



1 The Council to the king, 4th April 1618. Melrose Papers, i. 306, 307. 



2 5th June 1618, Groot Placaet-Boeck, inhoudende de Placaten ende Ordon- 

 nantien van de H.M. Heeren Staten Generael der Vereenighde Nederlanden, <tc., 

 i. 707. In Eraser's Memorials of the Earls of ffaddington (ii. 66) there is printed 

 the copy which King James sent to Lord Binning. Sir Thomas Hamilton became 

 Lord Binning in 1613, the Earl of Melrose in 1619, and the Earl of Haddington 

 in 1627. 



3 Answer by the States-General of the United Provinces to the Propositions of 

 the Ambassador of James VI. relative to the Herring Fishery on the Coast of 

 Scotland, 5th June 1618. Fraser, Memorials, ii. 65. Resol., St.-Gen., 5th, 6th June. 

 Muller, op. cit., 115. 



