47 



changes the scene from our seas to those of the mother country. I 

 refer to the " ship-money," levied by Charles the First, and to Hamp- 

 den, who won undying tame by resisting its payment. Both are more 

 intimately connected with our general subject than seems to be com- 

 monly supposed. 



First, it cannot but have been remarked that the acts of Parliament 

 to " increase shipping," by encouragement to the different English 

 fisheries, are numerous tliroughout the period embraced in our incjuiries. 

 The end d(>sircd was obliiincil ; and I regard it as historically nccurate 

 to say that the earliest considerable demand for English ships of proper 

 size and strength to perform long and perilous voyages was for explo- 

 rations and fishing upon our coasts. At all events, it is certain that 

 down to the time of Elizabeth the foreign trade of England was in the 

 control of German merchants, and that there had been no employment 

 for many or for large ships of the realm.* British navigation in- 

 creased with the growth of the fisheries. Without the fleets main- 

 tained at Iceland and Newfoundland there would have been neither 

 ships nor seamen to execute the plans for the colonization of New Eng- 

 land, and of other parts of the continent, during the reigns of James 

 and Chcirles. 



Yet, while the commercial marine gained strength, the royal navy 

 continued small, and at the accession of James it consisted of but 

 thirteen vessels. 



Chiirles succeeded to a naval force far too weak to cope with the 

 fleets of his enemies; and after his breach with the Commons, resorted 

 to the fatal levies of " ship-money " to augment it, and for a distinct 

 object, namely, that of breaking up the Dutch fisheries on the British 

 coast. The dispute was of long standing. Complaints against the 

 aggressions of the industrious HolLmders had been made to Elizabeth, 

 and to her successor. It was said, indeed, in the time of the latter, 

 that the Dutch not only engrossed the fisheries, but the entire maritime 

 l)usin('ss of" tlie country ; and James compelled them to pay an nnnual 

 trilnite for the liberty of catching herring on the coasts of iiis kingdom. 

 New disagreements arose, when they were warned off by royal procla- 

 mation. The Dutch were exasperated. Hugo Grotius appeared in 

 their defence; and in his Mare Liheriim contended i'or the fi(>edom of the 

 seas. Seiden, n his Mare Clausian, is supposed by British writers to 

 have refiitcd his arguments, and to have sliown by records the first oc- 

 cupancv of the fishing grounds by the English, ;ind their dominion over 

 the f(»ur seas which surnjund the British isles, to the utter exclusion of 

 l)()lh Dutch and French; as well astlie fact that the Kings of England, 

 even witliout the authority of P;irlianient, had levied large sums to 

 mainlain tin; sovercMgnty of these seas. 



The Dutcli, denying lii(;se conidusions, and insisting that the donn'ni^n 

 claimed by the Enghsh extended no further than the friths, bays, and 



• In l4Hr> (n-iun of Ili-nry VIII) Sir William ('ceil, a T.diidon iiicrchant, Rfatcd tliat tlicrfl 

 worf not abovi- four incrcliunt, vf^ssfls, cxcri'diiit,' orir hiindn-il and twenty tons liiirdtMi, Ix'lonR- 

 inc to that r-ity; and that " thopf was not a jwirl in I".iiro|>t', having tlic^ occiipyin*,' that London 

 htt<i, that was so slenderly provided with shi]ts." Other writers assert that at the death of 

 Queen Klizalieth ( Mlu:?,) more than a eentnry later, thero wuru uuly lour uicrcliaut ships in all 

 Kuglaud of mure ihuu I'uur huudrod tuus. 



