THE THIRD DUTCH WAR 



495 



the king's declaration. The States-General did not reply to 

 that document, but Wicquefort did so in the pamphlet referred 

 to, which was entitled "Considerations on the Present State 

 of the United Netherlands." The tone of his reply was ex- 

 tremely temperate. The writer insisted on the difference 

 between the striking of the flag and the sovereignty of the 

 sea; the former was merely a ceremony of respect which all 

 republics paid to monarchies, and not in the least a sign of 

 subjection or an acknowledgment of sovereignty, and as such 

 it had been regulated in the treaty of Breda. The States 

 had always resisted the claim that a whole fleet of theirs 

 should strike to a single English ship. In 1654 Cromwell 

 had abandoned a similar claim on their objecting; and as 

 the article in the treaty of Breda was the same as the one 

 agreed to in 1654, it was unjust to construe it now in the 

 sense of the article which Cromwell had withdrawn. On 

 that ground alone, therefore, it could not be maintained that 

 Van Ghent and the whole Dutch fleet were bound to strike 

 to the king's yacht. Moreover, the article applied only to 

 the British seas, and the writer argued that that meant the 

 Channel and not the North Sea, citing the seventh article of 

 the treaty of Breda as to the cessation of hostilities. Since 

 the Dutch fleet were lying at anchor off their own coast 

 when the king's yacht passed, they were not obliged to strike, 

 because they were in the North Sea, and not in the British 

 seas at all. The conclusion was drawn, and as we have seen 

 justly, that the king had sent his yacht for the deliberate 

 purpose of getting a ground of quarrel. As for the sovereignty 

 of the sea, the States attributed to God alone such dominion 

 as the king usurped to himself. They therefore refused 

 Downing's demands, which had been put forward to give 

 the king a pretext for war. To admit them would ruin the 

 United Provinces, which lived by commerce and the liberty 

 of the sea. As for the fisheries, they had never asked for 

 permission to fish from the King of England; and though 

 in 1636 licenses were forced upon some of their defenceless 

 fishermen by English men-of-war, that was an act of violence 

 from which no right or title could be derived, and the attempt 

 was relinquished at the demand of the States-General, and 

 had not been repeated. 



