506 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



wrote to Arlington that although they had not been instructed 

 to claim as British the sea between the limits named, yet, 

 if these limits were adhered to, the Dutch would not fail to 

 alarm the Dane and the Swede, the French and the Spaniard. 

 They were justly suspicious of the too generous offer of the 

 Dutch to strike in all seas. They saw in it the design to make 

 the special right possessed in the British seas, in virtue of the 

 king's sovereignty there, less certain and evident in future ages, 

 and to transform it into a mere mark of civility. Charles gave 

 way to a slight degree. In February 1674 he sent on another 

 article, in which the northern limit was brought down from 

 the North Cape to the middle point of the Land-van-Staten 

 in Norway. 1 



By this time, however, negotiations for a separate peace 

 between England and the United Provinces had been begun 

 in London, and the sluggish congress at Cologne, slowly evolv- 

 ing a general peace, broke up and dispersed. Charles was 

 driven to negotiate separately by the action of the Parliament, 

 which financial necessities had forced him to summon in 

 October, and which lost little time in showing its ill-humour 

 with his policy. In his opening speech he stated that he 

 had hoped to be able to announce the conclusion of an honour- 

 able peace, but the Dutch, he said, had treated his ambassadors 

 at Cologne " with the contempt of conquerors," and had other 

 'thoughts than peace; and he asked for supplies. Shaftes- 

 bury, as usual, filled in the picture. The king, he said, had 

 expected to meet them with the olive-branch of peace, but the 

 obstinacy of the Dutch had foiled the negotiations, although 

 his Majesty's concessions had been so great. "He could not," 

 he continued, "be King of Great Britain without securing 

 the dominion and property of his own seas : the first, by 

 an article clear, and not elusory, of the flag; the other, by 



1 The same to the same, ~ Oct. 1673 to -^ Feb. 1674. Ibid., i. 139, &c. State 

 Papers, Foreign, Treaty Papers (Breda, sic), Bdle. 73. There were prolonged 

 discussions as to the extent of the British seas both in regard to the article on 

 the flag and that on the cessation of hostilities on the sea, as shown by the very 

 numerous notes on the draft articles. The ambassadors were of opinion with 

 regard to the latter article that St George's Channel and the sea between England, 

 Ireland, and Scotland were comprehended in the term "the Channel," a point 

 which was left for the opinion of the king. 



