148 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



Elizabeth had. He saw at once that on the Navy the 

 prosperity and even the liberty of England must even- 

 tually depend. If England were to remain Protestant, it 

 was not by Articles of religion or Acts of Uniformity that 

 she could be saved, without a fleet at the back of them. 

 But he was old-fashioned. He believed in law and order, 

 and he has left a curious paper of reflections on the 

 situation. The ships' companies in Henry VIII.'s days 

 were recruited from the fishing smacks, but the Eefor- 

 mation itdelf had destroyed the fishing trade. In old 

 times, Cecil said, no flesh was eaten on fish days. The 

 King himself could not have license. Now to eat beef or 

 mutton on fish days was the test of a true believer. . . . 

 The fishermen had taken to privateering because the fasts 

 of the Church were neglected. He saw it was so. He 

 recorded his own opinion that piracy, as he called it, was 

 detestable, and could not last. He was to find that it 

 could last, that it was to form the special discipline of 

 the generation whose business it would be to fight the 

 Spaniards. But he struggled hard against the unwelcome 

 conclusion. He tried to revive lawful trade by a Navi- 

 gation Act. He tried to restore the fisheries by Act of 

 Parliament. He introduced a Bill recommending godly 

 abstinence as a means to virtue, making the eating of 

 meat on Fridays and Saturdays a misdemeanour, and 

 adding Wednesday as a half fish day. The House of 

 Commons laughed at him as bringing back Popish 

 mummeries. To please the Protestants he inserted a 

 clause that the statute was politically meant for the 

 increase of fishermen and mariners, not for any super- 

 stition in the choice of meats ; but it was no use. The 

 Act was called in mockery " Cecil's Fast," and the recovery 

 of the fisheries had to wait till the natural inclination of 

 human stomachs for fresh whiting and salt cod should 

 revive in itself.' 



