112 THE HERRING FISHERY 



pay the same sum yearly for the same per- 

 mission. The gain to the Enghsh was, as so 

 often happens, not taken full advantage of, 

 and in 1637 — 8, when the English fishermen 

 sent herring to Dantzig the fish were so badly 

 cured that considerable loss fell upon the 

 fishermen. De Witt, in his '' Interest of 

 Holland," remarks when speaking of this 

 matter, " Whereupon the British changed 

 their former claim upon the whole fishery 

 for that of demanding The Tenth Herring, 

 which the diligent and frugal Hollanders con- 

 sidered to be a claim by the English that 

 the Dutch should catch herring for, and pay 

 tribute to a slothful and wasteful people 

 simply for the right of passing along the coast 

 of Britain." 



In April, 1639, however, when Charles I. was 

 at York, on his way to suppress the rebellion 

 in Scotland, he found himself compelled to 

 revoke many of his previous licences, grants, 

 monopolies, privileges and commissions, pre- 

 viously issued, among them one for " gauging 

 red herring," while the question of ship 

 money was decided once for all by an Act of 

 Parliament (17 Car. I. c. 2), introduced by 

 Selden in 1641, and by the Civil War which 

 followed. 



The dispute regarding the right of the Dutch 

 to fish in the " Straights " was carried on by 

 Cromwell, but it was soon merged in the larger 

 questions involved in his naval policy, which 



