CHAPTER II. 



CHARLES I.: FISHINGS OFF THE COAST OF BRITAIN. 



CONCERNING Charles I., many have observed that the 

 untoward events of his life were mainly due to the fact 

 that he carried into actual practice ideas with regard to 

 which his father had been content merely to theorise. 

 Again, it has often been remarked that whereas James I. 

 was by natural temperament so timid that, shrinking from 

 conflict, he never carried matters to their logical conclusion, 

 his son possessed a spirit which impelled him to risk all 

 rather than relinquish an opinion of the truth of which he 

 had become convinced, or an undertaking upon the accom- 

 plishment of which he had set his heart. It is no matter for 

 surprise, therefore, to find that while James was content 

 to moralise concerning the infringement of the natural rights 

 of his people by the Dutch fishermen, the more practically 

 minded Charles, who had inherited all his father's opinions 

 with regard to the constant presence of the Hollanders upon 

 the British coasts, set himself, almost immediately upon 

 his accession, to devise some means of establishing the 

 British fisheries as a national industry worthy of the name. 

 It is also characteristic of Charles to find him, in a short 

 time, demanding that the Dutch should recognise, in prac- 

 tical fashion, his claim to sovereignty in the North Sea, 

 and strengthening his navy with a view to the conflict 

 that he knew must inevitably ensue. In point of fact, 

 only the outbreak of the Great Civil War prevented the 



