434 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Dutch had asked for, and the ambassadors they had re- 

 turned with the title of extraordinary ambassadors were 

 anxious to avoid any more discussion about it. For this 

 reason Beverning disapproved of the resolution of the States- 

 General, above referred to, for the amendment of the third 

 article by specifying the North Sea and Baltic, and after 

 his first interview with Cromwell he wrote to them expressing 

 his opinion that it would occasion new disputes about the 

 fisheries and the sovereignty of the sea. We have seen how 

 it was received by Thurloe ; and from what followed it would 

 appear that Cromwell had either heard of the rumours going 

 about that he had sacrificed the rights of England to the 

 sovereignty of the seas in order to gain the exclusion of 

 the Orange family, or that he was determined to keep the 

 matter open until the secret arrangement for that exclusion 

 had been officially accepted in the United Provinces a task 

 in which De Witt was struggling against enormous difficulties. 

 At all events, after the treaty had been signed by the negoti- 

 ators and ratified by the States-General, and when Cromwell 

 was on the point of ratifying it, he suddenly reopened the 

 question as to the extent of the British seas. Thurloe began 

 by asking the ambassadors what was meant by the distinction 

 drawn in the third article between the British seas and Cape 

 St Vincent. Such a distinction seemed to prejudice the limits 

 of the British seas, and might besides give rise to disputes later 

 as to the seizure of vessels. He then treated the ambassadors 

 to a discourse on the extent of the British seas, the particulars 

 of which are, unfortunately, not recorded. They were, how- 

 ever, told that they extended to and along the coast of France, 

 "Xaintonge" (Saintonge, an old French province) and round 

 about there. It had not been thought, he said, to limit or 

 define any seas in stating the districts, and he asked them for 

 a declaration on the subject. They suspected that the design 

 was to extract from them an explicit statement as to the 

 southward limit of the British seas, and they said they had 

 now no power either to alter the article or even to interpret it. 

 The treaty had been signed on both sides and ratified by 

 the States - General, and their instructions and commission 

 were at an end. The proposal to alter it, they now alleged, 

 came from themselves alone, without instructions from the 



