464 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the fleets of two sovereign states was not an act of submission 

 of an inferior to a superior, but one of civility, honour, and 

 respect, and should therefore be mutual and equal. They, 

 as a republic, offered to strike first, and to keep their flag 

 lowered until the French admiral had struck and re -hoisted 

 his flag. This discussion about the re -salute was prolonged, 

 extending from June 1666 to July 1667, for De Witt was 

 not a man lightly to agree to diminish the dignity of his 

 country; and after the peace conference met at Breda, and 

 De Ruyter was master of the sea, the Dutch roundly de- 

 clared they would not strike to the French admiral at all, 

 unless he agreed to return the salute by dipping his flag, 

 but would only salute him with guns. 1 



At the conferences at Breda Charles had little right to expect 

 that he would gain much, in view of the inglorious events at 

 the end of the war. He retained New Amsterdam (re-named 

 New York), which Holmes had taken in 1664, but he lost 

 Poleroon and Surinam, and relinquished the claims which 

 had been put forward to justify the war. An important con- 

 cession was made to the Dutch by a modification of the Navi- 

 gation Act, for a repeal of which they pressed, by a stipulation, 

 in separate articles, that they might import into England in 

 Dutch vessels all commodities produced or manufactured in 

 Germany or Flanders, for which, it was claimed, the United 

 Provinces were the natural outlet to the sea; and all the 

 essential articles of the commercial treaty of 1662 w r ere 

 confirmed. 2 All pretensions to exclusive fishing off the 

 British coasts were withdrawn; the old stipulations of the 

 Burgundy treaties were not, however, renewed. 



With regard to the "honour of the flag," De Witt, in the 

 preliminary negotiations, strove to come to an arrangement 

 with France and Denmark, who were also parties to the 

 treaty, to compel England to relinquish her claim to pre- 



12 18 



1 De Witt to Van Beuningen, ^ July 1666 to ^ July 1667 ; Van Beuningen to 



De Witt, y-jj^r 1666 to ^ Jul y 1667 ' " R^ 80118 pa r lesquelles il paroit, que le 

 contre-salut du Pavilion, aux rencontres des Flotes de Sa Majeste Tres-Chretienne 

 et des Etats Ge'ne'raux, est d'une justice toute Evident." De Witt's Brieven, ii. 

 473, &c. Pontalis, op. cit., i. 353. 



01 



2 Articles touching Navigation and Commerce, concluded at Breda, ^ July 1667. 



