114 CHARLES II. 



company had been purchased in Holland, and were not 

 only Dutch built but also Dutch manned. The natural 

 result was that these vessels were seized as lawful prizes 

 by the French. 



The company had thus scarcely begun its work before it 

 had to provide itself with a new fleet. The strain upon its 

 capital was so great that, in 1682, the council of management 

 declared that a capital of 30,000 or at least of 20,000, should 

 be raised as quickly as possible. The minds of men, however, 

 were already beginning to be agitated by the Romanist 

 sympathies of the Duke of York, and no cause could hope 

 for much popular sympathy which had him at its head. 

 The proposal, therefore, met with no hearty response, and 

 as a means of interesting a greater number of gentlemen in the 

 enterprise, the Council now agreed that the company should 

 consist of not more than forty-five and not less than twenty- 

 eight members. 



The members of the company now set themselves to the 

 task of placing the affairs of their society on a sound basis, 

 but while they were thus labouring Charles II. died. The 

 position of the company was now almost exactly similar 

 to that in which the first Association for the Fishing had 

 found itself in 1642. The kingdom was seething with 

 discontent, no man knew what might be the upshot of the 

 king's mad quarrel with his people. It was certainly not 

 a time in which men would be willing to risk capital in a 

 a company which depended for its very existence, to a con- 

 siderable extent, upon royal patronage. The fate of the 

 dynasty was trembling in the balance, and it was to be 

 expected that the establishment of the Fishery Company 

 should be looked upon as a matter of little importance. 

 Men put the question into the background until brighter 

 days should dawn, and the endeavour to found a national 

 fishery was once more abandoned until a stable government 

 should be established in England. 



