THE SECOND DUTCH WAR 



473 



naval ceremonies which took place at this time throughout 

 Europe. Even the petty states in the Mediterranean became 

 infected with the spirit of their powerful neighbours, and 

 followed their example. At Genoa and Leghorn frequent dis- 

 putes, and sometimes sanguinary encounters, occurred between 

 the authorities and Dutch and English men-of-war as to the 

 number of guns that should be fired, or the striking of the 

 flag. French and Dutch men-of-war lying in the Tagus were 

 only prevented by the governor of the castle from putting 

 to the arbitrament of force the question whether the latter 

 should strike to the former. At Civita Vecchia, at Gliick- 

 stadt, at Dover, at Dieppe, at Kronberg, similar incidents took 

 place. The Earl of Essex, going on a special embassy to the 

 King of Denmark, and on board the king's yacht, had a sharp 

 dispute with the Governor of Kronberg, in the Sound, as to 

 lowering his flag, which the Danish officer requested him to 

 do. But Essex was well primed with precedents before he 

 left England, and was able to maintain his refusal. 1 Though 

 Dutch men-of-war engaged with spirit in such quarrels about 

 the salute in foreign ports, their action was not countenanced 

 by the policy of the States-General. On 16th May 1670 they 

 instructed that the fort of Kronberg should be saluted by 

 Dutch vessels in such manner as the King of Denmark might 

 require ; and on 3rd February next year the States of Holland 

 issued a general order that their men-of-war should salute 

 those of other sovereigns on their coasts, within the reach of 

 the guns of batteries or forts, in the precise manner that the 

 Government of the country might demand, leaving it entirely 

 to the discretion of that Government to return the salute or 

 not, just as they pleased. Every foreign Government, they 

 added, was sovereign within its own jurisdiction, and every 

 foreigner was a subject there. 2 



1 State Papers, Dom., 1668, ccli. 191 ; 1670, cclxxiv. 157 ; cclxxv. 43 ; cclxxvi. 

 206 ; cclxxxi. 15 ; 1671, ccxc. 5, &c. Temple's Memoirs, iii. 433. Justice, 

 Dominion and Laws of the Sea, 298. 



2 Bynkershoek, De Dominio Maris, cap. ii. iv. As elsewhere explained (p. 557), 

 it was this custom which helped to prepare the way for the acceptance of the 

 principle that now determines the extent of the territorial sea on an open coast 

 viz., the range of guns. 



