220 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Sir William Alexander was also requested to ascertain 

 how many busses and how much money might be contri- 

 buted in Scotland, and he was to urge the Council to confer 

 on the subject with the nobility and gentry, and especially 

 with the burghs. Moreover, as it was not thought to be 

 feasible to manage the whole project by one common joint- 

 stock, the king advised that subsidiary companies should 

 be formed in the principal town or burgh of each province, 

 to be related to one central body or corporation. No for- 

 eigners were to be admitted as members of the company, 

 although they might be employed as servants. All the 

 adventurers, whether English, Irish, or Scottish, were to be 

 allowed to fish freely " in all places and at all times " ; and 

 the king signified that as the Lewes was "the most proper 

 seate for a continuall fishing along the westerne coasts," it 

 was his resolve to take it from the Earl of Seaforth into 

 his own hands, as "adherent" to the crown, and to erect 

 one or more free burghs in the Isles. If difficulties arose 

 in the acceptance of the scheme, the Lords of Council were 

 to be asked to appoint commissioners to treat with those 

 he would nominate to act on behalf of England and Ireland. 



The king's proposals were brought before the Scottish 

 Parliament on 29th July 1630, and remitted to a large com- 

 mittee to report upon them. 1 They were ill - received in 

 Scotland. The free burghs in particular opposed the scheme 

 with great energy. They had brought about the withdrawal 

 of the charter obtained by the Earl of Seaforth, and were 

 negotiating among themselves for the formation of a company 

 to carry on the fishing at the Lewes and establish a free 

 burgh there. But the charter of the Highland Earl was 

 a small thing to the scheme of the king. They saw in it 

 an invasion of their special rights and privileges in trading 

 and fish-curing, which had been conferred on them and con- 

 firmed by many Acts of Parliament, not merely at the Lewes 

 but throughout the country. The "reserved waters," more- 



1 Acta Parl. Scot., v. 225. The committee consisted of fifteen peers, several 

 bishops, and a large number of commoners. Mason, who had accompanied Sir 

 William Alexander to Scotland, reported to Coke that the Council gathered in 

 the Lord Chancellor's chamber, "he lying sick of the gout," to hear the king's 

 letter read, and that Mr John Hay " violently opposed " the scheme and attacked 

 the Earl of Seaforth for bringing in the Hollanders. State Papers, Dom., clxxii. 19. 



