47 



changes the scene from our seas to those of the mother country. I 

 refer to the. " ship-money," levied by Charles the First, and to Hamp- 

 den, who won undying fame by resisting its payment; Both are more 

 intimately connected with our general subject than seems to be com- 

 monly supposed. 



First, it cannot but have been remarked that the acts of Parhament 

 to "increase shipping," by encouragement to the different English 

 fisheries, are numerous throughout the period embraced in our inquifies. 

 The end desii^ed was obtained ; and I regard it as historically accurate 

 to say that the earliest considerable demand for English ships of proper 

 size and strength to perform long and perilous voyages was for explo- 

 rations and fishiiig upon our coasts. At all events, it is certain that 

 down to the time of Elizabeth the foreign trade of England was in the 

 control of German merchants, and that there had been no employment 

 for many or for large ships of the realm.* British navigation in- 

 creased with the growth of the fisheries. Without the fleets main- 

 tained at Iceland and Newfoundland there would have been neither 

 ships nor seamen to execute the plans for the colonization of New Eng- 

 land, and of other parts of the continent, during the reigns of James 

 and Charles. 



Yet, while the commercial marine gained strength, the royal navy 

 continued small, and at the accession of James it consisted of but 

 thirteen vessels. 



Charles succeeded to a naval force far too weak to cope -w^th the 

 fleets of his enemies ; and after his breach with the Commons, resorted 

 to the fatal levies of "ship-money" to augment it, and for a distinct 

 object, namely, that of breaking up the Dutch fisheries on the British 

 coast. The dispute was of long standing. Complaints against the 

 aggressions of the industrious Hollanders had been made to Elizabeth, 

 and- to her successor. It was said, indeed, in the time of the latter, 

 that the Dutch not only engrossed the fisheries, but the entire maritime 

 business of the country ; and James compelled them to pay an annual 

 tribute for the liberty of catching herring on the coasts of his kingdom. 

 New disagreements arose, when they were warned off" by royal procla- 

 mation. The Dutch were exasperated. Hugo Grotius appeared in 

 their defence ; and in his Mare Liberum contended for the freedom of the 

 seas. Selden, n his Mare Clausum, is supposed by British writers to 

 have refuted his arguments, and to have shown by records the first oc- 

 cupancy of the fishmg grounds by the English, and their dominion over 

 the four seas which surround the British isles, to the utter exclusion of 

 both Dutch and French; as well as the fact that the Kings of England, 

 even without the authority of Parliament, had levied large sums to 

 maintain the sovereignty of these seas. 



The Dutch, denying these conclusions, and insisting that the dominion 

 claimed by the EngHsh extended no further than the friths, bays, and 



* In 1485 (reign of TLenty VIII) Sir William Cecil, a London merchant, stated that there 

 were not above four merchant vessels, exceeding one hundred and twenty tons burden, belong- 

 ing to that citjr; and that " there was not a port in Jlurope, having the occupying that London 

 had, that was so slenderly provided with ships." Other writers assert that at the death of 

 Queen Elizabeth (1603,) more than a century later, there were only four merchant ships in all 

 England of more than four hundred tons. 



