THE FIRST DUTCH WAR 391 



later with the unuttered plan for the fusion of the nations 

 in his pocket and with bitterness in his heart. His disappoint- 

 ment was to cost the Dutch dear. Within a few months of 

 his return the Navigation Act was passed, mainly by his 

 impulse, and it dealt a serious blow to the commerce of the 

 United Provinces. 1 It was the retort of the English Common- 

 wealth to the rebuff of the States. If the Dutch put their 

 commerce and fisheries above everything else, the Parliament 

 would show them how they could injure them and at the 

 same time foster English shipping and fisheries. 



But much more than the Navigation Act, some other pro- 

 ceedings of the Parliament increased the tension between the 

 two countries. In November they renewed certain letters 

 of reprisal against the Dutch, under which a few of their 

 vessels were captured. More serious were the actions of English 

 inen-of-war and of some privateers who held letters of reprisal 

 against the French. An informal maritime war with France 

 began in 1649 and continued till 1655, and though there 

 was nominally peace, the English captured French vessels, 

 and vice versa. They then began to seize Dutch ships, sus- 

 pected of having French goods on board, and brought them 

 into English ports for trial in the Admiralty Court. This 

 was an interference with freedom of commerce which the 

 States could not tolerate, and an embassy to England, which 

 had been decided upon after St John left The Hague, was 

 despatched thither. 2 The three ambassadors, Cats, Schaep, and 

 van de Perre, arrived in London on 15th December 1651. 



1 St John and Strickland left The Hague on 20th June, and the Act was recom- 

 mended to the Parliament by the Council of State on 5th August, and passed on 

 9th October (Gardiner, op. cit., ii. 82). The essence of the Act was to prohibit 

 the importation of extra-European commodities into any territory of the Common- 

 wealth except in English vessels, or from Europe unless in English vessels or vessels 

 belonging to the country in which the commodities were manufactured or produced. 

 The importation of salt-fish or fish-oil, and the exportation of salted fish, were to 

 be permitted only in English vessels, but the importation of fresh fish was not 

 forbidden. Early in the next year two Dutch doggers, driven into Yarmouth by 

 contrary winds, exposed their cod and haddocks for sale and were seized by the 

 bailiffs ; their release was ordered by the Council of State. 



2 Qeddes, op. cit., 192, 193. Tideman, op. cit., 89, 96. Gardiner, op. cit., ii. 



Gardiner, Letters and Papers relating to the First Dutch War, 1653-1654, 

 Navy Records Society. In the third volume (1906) of this valuable work the 

 papers are brought down to 10th February 1653. 



