298 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



In his answer Lord Embassador Carlton says: 



"I told the Prince of Orange that howsoever His Majesty, both in honour 

 of his Crown and person and interest of his kingdom, neither could or would 

 any longer desist from having his rights acknowledged. * * * especially 

 finding the same openly oppugned both by their statesmen and men-of-war, as 

 the writings of Grotius and the taking of John Brown the last year may tes- 

 tify; yet this acknowledgment of right was no exclusion of grace and favour, 



* * * and that such was His Majesty's well-wishing to this State (the 

 Netherlands) that he presumed of his permission to suffer them to continue 

 their course of fishing, which they might use thereby with more freedom and 

 less apprehension of molestation than before, and likewise spare the cost of 

 some of their men of war, which they yearly sent out to maintain that by force 

 which they may have of courtesy. 



" The Prince answered that, for himself, at his return from Utrecht, he 

 would do his best endeavour to procure His Britannic Majesty's contentment. 



* * * And touching their men of-war, he said they must still be at the 

 same charge with them because of the pirates." 



By another letter, of January 21st, 1618, from Secretary Naunton to the 

 Lord Embassador Carlton, the latter was instructed to desire the States not to 

 suffer and tolerate the growing abuses committed on the coasts and seas of Scot- 

 land, and to issue a proclamation inhibiting their subjects from fishing within 

 fourteen miles of His Majesty's coast this year. 



Now, what effect the Ambassador's negotiation with the States had, appears 

 by a letter of his from The Hague, of February 6th, 1618, to King James him- 

 self, where, among other passages, he has this: 



" I find, likewise, in the manner of proceeding, that treating by way of propo- 

 sition here, nothing can be expected but their wonted dilatory and evasive 

 answers, &c., &c. The way, therefore, (under correction), to effect your 

 Majesty's intent, is to begin with the fishers themselves, by publishing, against 

 the time of their going out, your resolution, at what distance you will permit 

 them to fish, whereby you will force them to have recourse to their Council of 

 Fishery, that Council to the States of Holland, and those of Holland to the 

 States-General, who then, in place of being sought unto, will, for contentment 

 of their subjects, seek unto your Majesty." 



On the 16th of April, 1635, Secretary John Cook, writing to Sir William Bos- 

 well, the King's resident then at The Hague, after remarking that, " Whosoever 

 will encroach upon the King by sea, will do it by land also, when they see their 

 time " goes on to say : " To such presumption mare liberum gave the first 

 warning voice; which must be answered with a defence of mare clausum not 

 so much by discourses as BY THE LOUDER LANGUAGE OF A POWERFUL NAVY, to be 

 better understood." 



This was followed by the apperance, on the fishing-ground, of an imposing 

 naval force, and by a new proclamation which was issued on the 10th of May 

 of the next year, 1636. 



177 But the Dutch did not desist from their avocation, and stuck 

 to the shore and fished in the British seas, as before. 



The Treaty of 1654 is sometimes quoted as containing on the part 

 of Holland a full acknowledgment of England's sovereignty over the 

 sea. How impotent must the teachings of history be that such errors 

 can obtain credit and be received as truths. Holland had sustained a 

 protracted and most disastrous war against England, and from im- 

 pending exhaustion had agreed to the main condition of a Treaty of 

 Peace as early as 1561. (Sic.) The Long Parliament insisted upon 

 an Article being inserted in the Treaty by which England's sovereignty 

 should be recognized and her flag saluted wherever it might appear 

 on the high seas. This Holland bravely and peremptorily refused. 

 The war continued three years longer, and the Treaty could not be 

 signed, until in 1654 the obnoxious clause had been stricken out, and 

 another inserted in its place, granting the salute also, it is true, but 

 as a mere mark of deference and courtesy alone. 



Thus, as it seems, the concurrence of mankind repelled all attempts 

 at transforming the ocean into a thing manageable and compressible, 



