470 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



drawing a distinction between the Channel and the other seas, 

 since their fisheries, the main object of solicitude, were carried 

 on, not in the Channel, but in the North Sea. But as the 

 whole subject was very delicate, they advised De Witt to pass 

 from it for the time and to allow things to remain on their 

 old footing ; and to show the spirit in which the matter was 

 regarded in England, they sent him specimens of the coin issued 

 by Charles a few years before, which bore the king's effigy on 

 one side with the inscription Carolus a Carolo, and on the 

 obverse the figure of Britannia, with the proud words, Quatuor 

 Maria Vindico. 1 De Witt, who had just arranged with 

 Temple that the matter should be brought to the notice of the 

 king, acquiesced, but with reluctance. He expressed satis- 

 faction that they now at least knew more about the English 

 pretension, so that fresh hostility and war could be avoided 

 on that point; but that an English frigate or ketch should 

 claim to compel a whole fleet to strike was, he said, intolerable. 

 And it was this very thing that Charles selected to force war 

 upon the United Provinces a few years later. 2 



It was not only with the Dutch that discussions arose at 

 this time as to the rights of the English to demand the salute. 

 The astute Dutch statesman, as was his wont, began to pull 

 diplomatic wires at other Courts in orqler to have the subject 

 raised by them. The King of Denmark in the following year 



1 This was the farthing known later as the "Lucas farthing," from the gibes of 

 Lord Lucas in his attack on the king's policy made in the debate on the Subsidy 

 Bill in the House of Lords in 1670. Speaking of the scarcity of money in the 

 kingdom, he said : " What supply is preparing for it, my Lords ? I hear of none, 

 unless it be of copper farthings ; and this is the metal that is to indicate, according 

 to the inscription on it, 'The Dominion of the Four Seas.' " Parl. Hist., iv. 473. 



2 " Omtrent het point van de Vlagge, saegen wy alhier seer gaerne lets eeeckers 

 gedetermineert, ten minsten dat wy moghten weten waer mede men buyten nieuwe 

 feytelyckheydt ende Oorloge konde verblyven ; dat een Fregatje ofte een Kitsje 

 een gantsche Oorloghs - Vloote soude doeu strycken, is notoirlyck intolerabel." 



12 29 Fob 3 7 



De Witt to Meerman, ^ June 1668. The same to the same, -T-JJ ^-, , April, 



' Al ft iv li la If 



' 1668 ' De Witt to Meerman and Boree1 ' March, 2 1668. 



Meerman to De Witt, 2 ah , June 1668. De Witt's Brieven, iv. Sir William 



2 6 



Temple to Lord Arlington, Feb., March 1668 ; the same to the Lord-Keeper 



2 

 



Bridgeman, 1668. Works, iii. 134, 199, 348. State Papers, Dom., 1668, 



ccxxxv. 49, 62 ; ibid., 1665, cxxiii. 67. Aitzema, Saken vanStaet en Oorlogh, v. 390. 



