A. D. 1 65 1. 44-5 



our own fliipplng lay rotting in our harbours : our mariners alfo, 

 for want of employment at home, went into the fervice of the 

 Dutch. To thefe confiderations were fuperadded the haughty carriage 

 of the flates of Holland upon the parliament's demand of fatisfac- 

 tion for the murder of their envoy, Dr. Doriflaus, at the Hague ; and 

 for the infult put upon the ambaflador they fent afterwards, whole pro- 

 pofals the ftates alio had received very coldly : all which jointly con- 

 fidered determined the parliament to enaft, that no merchandize, either 

 of Afia, Africa, or America, including alfo our own plantations there, 

 fhould be imported into England in any but Englifh-built fhips, and be- 

 longing either to Englifli or to Englifh-plantation fubjeds, navigated 

 alfo by Englifli commanders, and three-fourths of the failors Englifli- 

 men : excepting, however, fuch merchandize as fhould be imported di- 

 redly from the original place of its growth or raanufadure in Europe 

 folely. Moreover, no fifh fhould thenceforward be imported into Eng- 

 land or Ireland, nor exported from thence to foreign parts, nor even 

 from one of our own home ports to another, but what is caught by our 

 own fifhers only. This was the firfl famous general ad, commonly called 

 the aB of navigation : and as it was nine years after confirmed (like 

 the preceding one for the redudion of intereft of money) we fliall then 

 be more particular in relation to the benefits arifing therefrom. Yet it is 

 highly proper here to obferve that this law grievoufly affeded the 

 Dutch, who till now had been almofl the fole carriers of merchandize 

 from one country of Europe to another ; the greatefl part of their im- 

 ports into England being thereby cut off: for till this law was enaded, 

 all nations in amity with England were at liberty to import what com- 

 modities they pleafed, and in what fhipping they pleafed. By authority 

 therefor of this law, the Englifh frequently feaixhed the Dutch fhips, 

 and often made prize of them : whereupon the ftates fent over four am- 

 baffadors to expoflulate with the rump and Cromwell; who in their 

 turn made five feveral demands on the ftates, viz. ' firft, the arrears of 

 ' the tribute due for fifhing on the Britifh coafts ; fecondly, the re- 

 ' ftoration of the fpice-iflands to England ; thirdly, juftice on fuch 

 ' as were flill alive of thofe who committed the cruelties at Am- 



* boyna and Banda ; fourthly, fatisfadion for the murder of their 

 ' envoy Doriflaus ; and fifthly, reparation for the Englifh damages fuf- 



* tained from the Dutch in Ruflia, Greenland, &c. amounting to fo 



* great a fum as Li, 700,000.' Thus it is plain that the navigation- 

 ad proved the occafion of the cruel naval war, which broke out in the 

 year following : for thefe five demands were made with fo much pe- 

 remptorinefs as convinced the flates, that it was time to prepare for a 

 war with England. 



In the mean time the novelty of this navigation-ad, and the igno- 

 rance of fome traders, occafioned at fiift loud complaints, that though 



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