474 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



mother country, had good reason not to meddle even with 

 the merely scientific side of the matter any more, because, 

 as he wrote to his brother in 1636, " Ego, cum Suecia 

 multum teneat orae maritimae, quid aliud praestare possum, 

 quam silentium f " The policy of " not waking sleeping 

 dogs " was in those days prevalent on all hands, and a 

 summer's unmolested fishing was the result for the Dutch 

 herring busses. 



The naval battle of the Downs (October 2ist, 1639), in 

 which the Dutch fleet under Tromp routed that of Spain 

 within the so-called " King's chambers," and in spite of 

 Charles the I.'s inclining towards Spain, was of wide con- 

 sequence even for the fishery interest The engagement 

 constituted a most flagrant breach of Charles's alleged 

 sovereignty of the sea ; but at the same time it showed to 

 what a pitch the Republic's naval power had in the mean- 

 time ascended. The British pretences to sea-kingdom 

 were virtually at an end after the affront of the Downs, 

 which never was resented openly. The king having on 

 October loth, 1639, pressed the States to accede to the 

 Franco-British alliance, under promise that their freedom 

 to fish in the straits should ensue from such accession, 

 their answer was : " they did not intend to stipulate that 

 right from any one," being, indeed, in tranquil possession 

 of it. Striking instances of outrageous treatment from 

 Dutch fishermen to British subjects occurred at this 

 period.* Feeling themselves masters of the sea, they 

 indulged in acts of piracy, which Charles, then sorely 



* Such acts were committed even before the battle of the Downs. 

 On the 26th of May, 1638, the States- General examined the matter of a 

 captain from Enkhuizen who appears to have gone ashore on a 

 piratical expedition, and plundered and sacked the house of one 

 Robert Sherret, a merchant of Ireland. 



