466 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



and in the Baltic Sea and the Channel, &C." 1 However 

 trifling such points may appear to us now, they had a real 

 importance in the seventeenth century, and the phraseology 

 cited caused some heart-burning in England as being dero- 

 gatory to our rights to the dominion of the British seas. 2 



For some years after the conclusion of peace at Breda, 

 and indeed up to the opening of the third Dutch war, the 

 question of the salute was a frequent subject of international 

 discussion. Dutch statesmen had always wished to come to 

 a definite arrangement with England about it, for they saw 

 that to leave it in ambiguity while the English looked upon 

 it as touching their national honour, was fraught with danger. 

 A whole series of points was in doubt, any one of which 

 might furnish occasion for war unless clearly defined and 

 mutually understood. Was a whole fleet or squadron of the 

 States to strike to a single English ship of war ? Were they 

 to strike to a frigate, or to a still smaller ship, such as a 

 ketch, or only to ships carrying the flag of an admiral, vice- 

 admiral, or rear-admiral ? Was the salute to be returned by 

 the English in the same way, by dipping the flag and lowering 

 the top-sails as well as by guns ? Within what parts of the 

 sea was the salute to be enforced, or differentiated, or the 

 re -salute given ? English statesmen purposely left many of 

 these points undefined, in order to gain as wide a recognition 



1 Treaty of Peace and Alliance betiveen Charles II. and Frederick III., concluded 

 at Breda, ^ July 1667. Art. ii. 



2 In the negotiation of subsequent treaties, controversy was usually occasioned 

 about the wording of these articles relating to the date of cessation of hostilities 

 on the sea, the United Provinces or France pointing to the treaty of Breda as a 

 precedent, while the English took their stand on Cromwell's treaty of 1654. In 

 the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, between the United Provinces and France, the 

 term " British Channel " was employed in conjunction with the Baltic and North 

 Sea (Art. ii.) ; and in the treaty between William III. and Louis, signed at Ryswick 

 on the same day, the words were "in the British and North Seas, as far as the 

 Cape St Vincent" (Art. x.) In the negotiation with France in 1712 for a sus- 

 pension of hostilities, the French insisted on the words, " the seas which surround 

 the British Isles," citing the treaty of Breda, while the British were equally 

 obstinate to have the term in maribus Britannicis inserted, as in the treaty of 

 1654, arguing that the "error" of Breda had been rectified in the later treaty of 

 Ryswick ; the result being that in one article " the Channel, the British Sea, and 

 the North Sea" were specified, and in another the phrase was "in the Channel and 

 North Sea." Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, VIII. i. 306. Burchett, A Complete 

 History of the Most Remarkable Transactions at Sea, &c,, p. 38. 



