484 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



thought fit, but they were haughtily told that it was none 

 of their business to draw up papers for the Dutch. Finally, 

 they signed a written engagement to give satisfaction about 

 the flag, but at the conference appointed for its reception 

 the English refused to consider it, saying the time for nego- 

 tiations was now past. 1 



The time was now obviously ripe for a declaration of war ; 

 but Charles before taking this step had resolved on an auda- 

 cious and treacherous stroke, by which he hoped to gain 

 much plunder for himself while diminishing the resources 

 of the Dutch. In spite of the solemn obligations of treaties 

 for the temporary security of their shipping even if war 

 broke out, it was decided to attack and capture Dutch mer- 

 chant vessels in time of peace. Here also a ready excuse 

 might be found by contriving disputes about the striking 

 of the flag. As early as 26th January, Sir Robert Holmes 

 sent an express to Arlington recommending the seizure of 

 a Dutch fleet laden with salt and wine, which lay wind- 

 bound at the Isle of Wight, under the convoy of three or 

 four States' men - of - war. He said that in Holland there 

 was a great scarcity of salt, and that without it they could 

 not carry on their fishery or provide for their garrisons ; 



1 Pontalis, op. cit., ii. 130, 134. Hume, op. cit., cap. xlv. Sir William Temple 

 to his brother, 23rd May 1672. Works, iii. 505. Clarendon's Memoirs, ii. 289. 

 England's Appeal, p. 22. State Papers, Entry Boole, 24, fol. 54. Ibid., Dom., 

 1671, ccxciv. 127 ; 1672, cccii. 55, 112, 233 ; ccciii. 206. Entry Book, 34, f. 147. 

 It was in connection with the offers of the Dutch on this occasion or a little later 

 in the year that Sir Leoline Jenkins made the following pronouncement as to 

 the king's rights to the dominion of the seas. He was asked by Secretary 

 Coventry "what his Majesty, his heirs and successors, Kings of England, may 

 reasonably pretend to be signified by these words, en la pleine et entiere joil- 

 issance du droit de pavilion" ? Jenkins replied (1) that the King of England for 

 the time being was Lord of these seas, where he had the right of his flag acknow- 

 ledged, and that these seas were, as much as that watery element is capable of 

 being so in its nature, no less a domain of the Crown than the Honour of 

 Greenwich or the Manor of Eltham ; (2) that the droits souveraines of the king 

 in his seas against strangers had all the legal requisites of a prescription beyond 

 the memory of man, and did not consist in one individual point, as for instance 

 in having the flag struck to, or in having the liberty of fishing acknowledged by 

 yearly sums of money ; but in all the several rights, honours, and perquisites that 

 a sovereignty is capable of producing, and have been enjoyed by former kings of 

 England, with this difference from all seigneuries that move from a mesne Lord, 

 or Lord Paramount, that our kings hold this as they do their crown, from God 

 alone, and by their sword. Life, ii. 697. 



