CHARLES I. ! FISHERIES AND RESERVED WATERS 245 



powerful armada. But by this time his power at sea had 

 vanished. The Dutch lorded it in the Channel. 



When the Order in Council was penned, Tromp had hemmed 

 in the Spanish fleet in the Downs and was ready to pounce on 

 it the moment it quitted English waters, or to destroy it there if 

 he only could get a plausible excuse. Charles and his Council 

 were trembling with fear lest the best known of all the " King's 

 Chambers" should be flagrantly violated by the impatient 

 Dutchman, with all the world looking on. And twelve days 

 after the Council meeting this is just what Tromp did, and 

 Charles's sovereignty of the seas vanished for ever. And the 

 fishery scheme, "the Royal Fishery of Great Britain and 

 Ireland," set agoing after so much patient labour, heralded by 

 so many promises of profit and success, designed to be a great 

 instrument for the development of naval power and commerce, 

 was extinguished in the following year, with no tangible result 

 save that those who had given their money to it were left 

 "ijreat losers." 



