THE SECOND DUTCH WAR 



and member of Parliament, who became the moving spirit 

 in the project ; and the adventurers were to have the option of 

 withdrawing after three years, on giving six months' notice. 1 

 Literary puffs were not neglected. A highly-coloured account 

 of the value of the Dutch fisheries (founded mainly on the 

 Raleigh tract) and of the rosy prospects of the society was 

 published "by command." The cost of a buss, equipped 

 and provisioned for four months, was set down at 835 ; the 

 herrings caught in that time were calculated to fetch a round 

 1000, giving an immediate profit of 165 after meeting all 

 expenses. 2 



Notwithstanding the active support of the Court and the 

 energy of many agents, subscriptions to the fishery society 

 filtered in but slowly. The sum collected for it in the London 

 churches in the year 1661 amounted to the paltry total of 

 818, 6s. 4d. scarcely enough to set forth one buss, and in 

 the autumn of 1664 it was reported that the amount collected 

 throughout England and Ireland was only 1076. The lottery, 

 too, from which a great deal was hoped, gave rise to much 

 corruption, confusion, and dispute, without notably enriching 

 the society. 3 In these depressing circumstances recourse was 

 again had to Parliament. On 5th March 1662 a "Bill to 

 confirm his Majesty's letters patent concerning the fishing 

 trade" was introduced into the House of Commons and re- 

 mitted to a committee; but it ultimately became transformed 

 into a mere local Act dealing with pilchard-fishing. 4 The 

 king was not yet discouraged. The Masters of the Trinity 

 House were consulted in July as to the cost of ten busses 

 he had resolved to build, and the amount required 9000 

 was actually handed over to Mr Thomas King. Charles 

 further offered to pay 200 to every person who had a new 



1 State Papers, Dom., xli. 20. 



2 IX0VO0HPA, or the Royal Trade of Fishing, Discovering the inestimable Profit 

 the Hollanders have made thereof, with the vast Emoluments and Advantages that 

 will redound to his Sacred Majesty and his three Kingdoms by the Improvement of it. 

 Now seasonably published by Command for the Benefit of the Nation. London, 1662. 



3 State Papers, Dom., 1663, Ixxiii. 56 ; Ixxxvi. 104, 105, 106 ; xci. 53 ; ciii. 130 ; 

 cix. 2. " But Lord ! " says Pepys, " to see how superficially things are done in the 

 business of the Lottery, which will be the disgrace of the fishery, and without 

 profit." Diary, iv. 369 (ed. 1893). 



4 Commons' Journals, viii. 378, 383. 14 Car. II., c. 28. 



