396 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



ambassadors were now told to insist on the articles relating to 

 visitation and search as an essential part of the treaty. No 

 Dutch vessel was to be visited, whether it was on the sea, in 

 harbour, or in a roadstead. The principle of "free ship, free 

 goods," was to be strictly enforced, and no investigation o1 

 the cargo of a merchant vessel was to be permitted ; still less 

 should they agree to the visitation of a man-of-war. The 

 ambassadors were specially requested to avoid discussion as to 

 any claim on the part of England to exclusive right in any 

 portion of the sea ; in any case, they were not to admit that 

 such right existed, but were to treat only about the liberty and 

 security of the fishery on both sides. 1 If the English protested 

 that they would not allow themselves to be prejudiced in any 

 of their " pretended rights," the ambassadors were then to make 

 a formal declaration that they, on their part, could not allow 

 the freedom of navigation and of fishery, or the free use of the 

 sea, to be called in question, nor could they recognise the special 

 claims of any one over the sea which might prejudice those 

 rights. In order to avoid, if possible, directly raising the 

 question of the dominion of the sea, they were requested when 

 dealing with the crucial articles to speak only of commerce and 

 fishery, and not of the "purging" of the sea of pirates; and 

 they were also to abandon the proposal for a division of the 

 sea into districts. 2 



So passed, peacefully enough, the early weeks of May at the 

 conferences in London. The States' ambassadors, on the one 

 hand, demanding freedom of navigation and fishery; above 

 all, that the visitation and seizure of their vessels should 

 cease. The English commissioners, on their part, putting 

 forward incompatible claims to the sovereignty of the British 

 seas : the right of exclusive jurisdiction, of guardianship, the 

 right to the fishery. Whether the negotiations would have 

 reached a happy conclusion, as the ambassadors, and appar- 

 ently also the States-General, believed they would, may only 



1 " De dispuyte over 't recht hetwelck de Engelsche pretenderen privative over 

 eenigh ghedeelte van de Zee te hebben, ende in alien ghevalle aan deselve geeu 

 soodanigh recht in eenigher wijse toe te staen, ende alleen te handelen over d 

 vryheijdt ende seeckerheijdt van wederzijts visscherije. " Tideman, op. cit., 119 

 Aitzema, op. cit., iii. 708. 



2 Cats' Verbael. Tideman, 118. 



