PROVISIONS UNDER THE ACT 115 



putes based upon the visits of foreign vessels 

 in search for herrings off our coasts. 



The Act of 1651 provided that no fish should 

 be brought into England or Ireland, or exported 

 from thence to foreign parts, or even carried 

 from one English or Irish port to another, 

 except fish caught by English and Irish fisher- 

 men in English and Irish ships, thus dealing 

 a death blow to the Dutch carrying trade, 

 which had till then been a monopoly. 



Blake's victories over the Dutch intensified 

 the ill-feeling between the two countries, and 

 ridicule of that " watery Babel " " Holland, 

 that scarce deserves the name of land," came 

 readily to the lips of Marvell, the laureate of the 

 Commonwealth, who overwhelmed the rival 

 land with watery images : — 



*' Yet will his claim the injured ocean aid, 

 And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples played, 

 As if on purpose it on land had come 

 To show them what's their rnare liherum. . . , 

 The fish oftimes the burgher dispossessed, 

 And sat, not as a meat, but as a guest ; 

 And oft the Tritons and the sea-nvmphs saw 

 Whole shoal of Dutch served up for cabillau * ; 

 Or, as they over the new level ranged. 

 For pickled herring pickled heeren changed." 



In 1654 some persons well known in the City 

 of London formed an Association to Capture 

 Herring, the Commonwealth Parliament en- 

 couraging the project by granting exemption 

 of duty on the salt and the ships' stores to be 

 used in the fishing. Money was subscribed 



* Cabillau = cod. C/. : " Hooks and Kabbeljaws," names of two 

 political parties in the Netherlands. 



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