CHAPTER II. 
CHARLES I.: FISHINGS OFF THE COAST OF BRITAIN. 
ConcerNnine Charles I., many have observed that the 
untoward events of his life were mainly due to the fact 
that he carried into actual practice ideas with regard to 
which his father had been content merely to theorise. 
Again, it has often been remarked that whereas James I. 
was by natural temperament so timid that, shrinking from 
conflict, he never carried matters to their logical conclusion, 
his son possessed a spirit which impelled him to risk all 
rather than relinquish an opinion of the truth of which he 
had become convinced, or an undertaking upon the accom- 
plishment of which he had set his heart. It is no matter for 
surprise, therefore, to find that while James was content 
to moralise concerning the infringement of the natural rights 
of his people by the Dutch fishermen, the more practically 
minded Charles, who had inherited all his father’s opinions 
with regard to the constant presence of the Hollanders upon 
the British coasts, set himself, almost immediately upon 
his accession, to devise some means of establishing the 
British fisheries as a national industry worthy of the name. 
It is also characteristic of Charles to find him, in a short 
time, demanding that the Dutch should recognise, in prac- 
tical fashion, his claim to sovereignty in the North Sea, 
and strengthening his navy with a view to the conflict 
that he knew must inevitably ensue. In point of fact, 
only the outbreak of the Great Civil War prevented the 
