sailed in to be of her Dominion There was an ancient Custom used in the East That when Great Kings had a design to bring any Nation under their power they commanded Water and Earth the pledges of Empire and Dominion to be delivered unto them conceiving that the Command of the Sea as well as of the Land was signified by such a Token And if we take a view of these late times as to the Rights and Customs of Forreign Nations we shall find that the Commonwealth of Venice hath enjoyed the Dominion of the Adriatique-Sea for many Ages The Tuscans to this day have an Absolute Dominion in the Tyrhene-Sea and those of Genoa in the Lygustick To conclude That the Dominion of the Sea is admitted amongst those things that are lawful and received into the Customs of Nations is so far from contradiction that nothing at all can be found to controul it in the Customs of our later times unless it be by the Encroaching Hollander who bordering so near our shores hath done and doth endeavour to violate the Right of His Most Sacred Majesty under the pretence of Civil Community Besides it is most evident from the Custom of all Times That Commerce and free Passage hath ever been so limited by Princes in their Territories that is either granted or denied according to the various concernments of the Publick Good Princes are concerned to be wary and careful that they admit no such Strangers or Forreign Commerce where the Commonwealth may receive any damage thereby Some Oppugners to the Mare Clausum introduce this Argument That the Water is open to All and therefore by Law it must be open at all times to all men What a trifle is this Before the distribution of things there was no Land which did not lie open to All before it came under particular possession If the Hollanders should object this Argument against our Dominion over the Narrow Seas I would ask them the reason of their Custom in Delph-land called Jus Grutae which hath ever been under the care of those Officers called in Dutch Pluymgraven whereby the Beer-Brewers are obliged to pay the hundredth part for the use of those Waters Having thus in general given you an account That almost amongst all Nations there hath been allowed a private Dominion of the Sea We shall now come nearer home and inform you That the ancient Britains did Enjoy and Possess the Sea as Lords thereof before they were subjected to the Roman Power We find no History of Britain to which any credit ought to be given elder than the time of Julius Caesar at whose coming we find the Britains used the Sea as their own for Navigation and Fishing and withal permitted none besides Merchants to sail into the Island without their leave nor any man at all to sound or view their Sea-coasts or Harbours Amongst several Kings of old that not only ruled this Land but had also Dominion over the Sea I find none more potent than King Edgar who possessing an absolute Dominion of the Seas sailed round it once a year and secured it with a constant Guard of Ships of which as is reported he had Four thousand eight hundred stout ones and what Dominion this was King Edgar had as Absolute Lord of the Sea appeareth in these words I Edgar King of England and of all the Kings of the Islands and of all the Ocean lying about Britain and of all the Nations that are included within the circuit c. After him King Canutus left a testimony whereby he most expresly asserteth the Sea to be a part of his Dominion for placing himself by the Sea-side on Southampton shore he is reported to have made trial of the Seas obedience in this manner Thou O Sea art under my Dominion as the Land also which I sit upon is mine therefore I command thee not to wet the feet or garments of thy Soveraign Although the event did not answer his expectation yet by this he professed himself to be Soveraign of the Seas as well as of the Land There is nothing more clear than that the Kings of England have been accustomed to constitute Governours who had a charge to guard the English Sea and these were called Custodes Maritimi In this number you shall find in Parliamentary Rolls of the 48 of Hen. 3. Thomas de Moleton who is called Captain and Guardian of the Sea this Title was afterwards changed into Admiral in the days of Edward the third The principal end of calling that Parliament was concerning the preservation of Peace both by Land and Sea giving us to understand that the Land and Sea together made one entire Body of the Kingdom of England And that the Dominion of the Seas is properly in the Power and Jurisdiction of the King may appear by those Tributes and Customs that were imposed and payed for the guard and protection of those Seas and this was paid to the Reign of King Stephen Since Subsidies have been demanded of the people in Parliament upon the same account Neither was this imposed only on the English but also upon the ships of Forreigners every Vessel paying after the rate of six pence a Tun that passed by such ships only excepted that brought Merchandize out of Flanders If a Vessel were employed to fish for Herrings it payed six pence a week for every Tun if for other fish so much was to be paid every three weeks as they who brought Coles from Newcastle to London every three months Mr. Selden that learned Antiquary affirmeth That before a Court of Delegates in France in express terms it hath been acknowledged That the King of England hath ever been Lord not only of the Sea but of the Islands therein contained upon the account of being King of England But to give greater light to this truth we may from several Records produce many testimonies That the Kings of England have given leave to Forreigners upon request to pass through their seas There are innumerable Letters of safe conducts in the Records especially of Henry the fifth and sixth and it is worthy of observation that those Letters were directed by those Kings to their Governors or Sea Admirals Vice-Admirals and Sea-Captains And to clear all at once The Kings of England have such an absolute Dominion in the English seas that they have called the Sea it self their Admiralty and this we find in a Commission of Edward the Third the Title whereof is de Navibus Arestandis Capiendis And as a freedom of Passage so a liberty of Fishing hath been obtained by Petition from the Kings of England We read that Henry the sixth gave leave to the French and other Forreigners sometimes for a year sometimes but for six months to go and fish throughout his seas provided that the Fishing-boats and Busses exceeded not the burthen of thirty Tuns and if any Forreigners whatever should molest or disturb any of the King's subjects as they were fishing they were forthwith to
years an ordinary practice which we have endeavoured in vain to reform by the ways of Justice and Treaties the World I think will now be satisfied that we have reason to look about us And no wise man will doubt that it is high time to put our selves in this Equipage on the Seas and not to suffer the Stage of Action to be taken from Us for want of Our appearance So you see the general ground upon which our Counsels stand In particular you may take notice and publish as cause requires That His Majesty by this Fleet intendeth not a rupture with any Prince or State nor to infringe any point of His Treaties but resolveth to continue and maintain that happy Peace wherewith God hath blessed His Kingdom and to which all His Actions and Negotiations have hitherto tended as by your own Instructions you may fully understand But withal considering that Peace must be maintained by the Arm of Power which only keeps down Warr by keeping up Dominion His Majesty thus provoked finds it necessary even for His own defence and safety to reassume and keep his ancient and undoubted Right in the Dominion of these Seas and to suffer no other Prince or State to encroach upon Him thereby assuming to themselves or their Admirals any Soveraign Command but to force them to perform due homage to His Admirals and Ships and to pay them acknowledgments as in former times they did He will also set open and protect the free Trade of his Subjects and Allies and give them such safe Conduct and Convoy as they shall reasonably require He will suffer no other Fleets or Men of Warr to keep any Guard upon these Seas or there to offer violence or take Prizes or Booties or to give interruption to any lawful intercourse In a word His Majesty is resolved as to do no wrong so to do Justice both to His Subjects and Friends within the limits of His Seas And this is the Real and Royal Design of this Fleet. Whitehall April 16. 1635. Your assured Friend and Servant JOHN COOK Nay farthermore you may see the Dominion of His Majesty in His Brittish Seas clearly represented asserted and fully proved by that Propriety of Title and Soveraignty of Power which the Duke of Venice exerciseth on the Adriatick Sea if you will consult Mr. Howel in his Commonwealth of Venice which by the manner of Prescription the Consent of Histories and even by the Confession of their Adversaries themselves is almost the same with his Majesties of Great Britain But his Majesty hath one Title more above all theirs which is the Title of Successive Inheritance confirmed as well by the Law of Nature as of Nations and is so much the more considerable in regard of the infinite advantages of the Profits of it as the Brittish Ocean in its latitude and circumference exceedeth the small boundaries of the Gulph of Venice Yet so it is that the Indulgence of the Kings of England to their Neighbouring-Nations especially to the Hollanders by giving them too much liberty hath encouraged them to assume a liberty to themselves and what at the first was but a License they improve into a Custom and make that Custom their Authority insomuch that some of the most busie of them have openly declar'd against the King's Propriety on the Brittish Seas Amongst these is one Hugo Grotius a Gentleman of great Ingenuity but in this particular so inclined to obey the importunities and serve the interests of his Countrey-men that he disobliged himself of the Dutch and moreover to speak the truth of his Conscience it self for if you look into his Sylvae upon the first Inauguration of King James he is pleased to express himself in these words Tria Sceptra Profundi in Magnum cojere Ducem which is that the Rights of the English Scottish and Irish Seas are united under one Scepter neither is he satisfied with this bare profession Sume animos a Rege tuo quis det jura Mari Take courage from the King who giveth Laws unto the Seas In the same Book in the contemplation of so great a Power he concludeth Finis hic est qui fine caret c. This is an End beyond an End a bound that knoweth no bound which even the Winds and the Waves must submit unto But with what Ingratitude have the Dutch answered the many Royal Favours which the Kings of England have almost perpetually conferred on them If there be no Monster greater than Ingratitude what Monsters are these men who of late are so far from acknowledging their thankfulness that like Vipers they would feed upon and consume those bowels which did afford them life and spirit We may observe that in their lowest condition which is most suitable to the name of their abode called the Low-Countreys they petitioned to the Majesty of the Queen of England whose Royal Heart and Hand being always open to those that were Distressed especially those that were her Neighbours upon the account of Religion she sent them Threescore thousand pound in the year 1572 and presently after there followed Four Regiments of Foot and after them the Warr encreasing there were sent over Col. North Col. Cotton Col. Candish and Col. Norris with other Persons of Quality who for the Honour of the English Nation made in that Warr excellent Demonstrations of their Valour and redeem'd the Dutch from the Power of those who otherwise would have brought them to a better understanding of their duties At the last the Prince of Orange being slain presently after the death of the Duke of Alanson Brother to Henry the Third of France the Queen of England sent over to them Robert Duke of Leicester with great provision both of Men and Money accompanied with divers of the Nobility and Gentry of good account and although the said Earl not long afterwards returned into England and the affairs of the Hollander were doubtful till the fatal battel at Newport yet Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed memory out of her unspeakable goodness to the Distressed and to those that suffered for Religion did as long as she lived assist the Hollanders both with Men and Moneys she gave them hope in despair gave them strength when weak and with the charity of Her Princely Hand did support them when fallen And although the Hollanders do ungratefully alledg That it was a benefit great enough for the English to assist them in Reason of State because by so doing they kept out a War from their own Countrey It is most certain that at that time the English had no cause to fear a War at all but only for their Cause and for the taking their parts for it was for their Cause that the English in the year 1571 had seized upon the sum of Six hundred thousand Ducats on the West of England being the Money designed from Spain to the Duke d'Alva for the advancement of the Spanish Interests in the Netherlands And although the Hollanders do
near Flamborough-head met with such multitude of Cod Ling and Herrings that one among the rest drew up in a small time as many as were sold for neer upon as much as her whole lading of Coales amounted to and some hundreds of Ships might have been there laden in two dayes and two nights Out of which wonderful affluence and abundance of Fish swarming upon our Seas that we the better perceive the infinite gain which the Dutch make thereof and by that means how infinitely beholding they unto us I shall insist upon the number of fishing Vessels they have formerly and lately imployed upon our coasts and by their vast income how they have increased in Shipping in Mariners in Trade in Towns and Fortifications in Power abroad in publick Revenue in private Wealth and lastly in all manner of Provisions and store of things necessary How poor and low these Hoghen Moghens were in Q. Elizabeths time is unknown to few at which time France tyred with labour the striving of her own Children had caused in the bowels of her state and child by the cold distrust conceived of the revolted Hollanders success rebelling against their lawful Soveraign deserted them into despair as well as other Neighbouring Princes then may they remember how England opened her tender arms to receive their Fugitives and her purse to pay their Soldiers so that a foot of ground cannot be called theirs that owes not a third part to the expence Valour or Counsel of the English of whom such glorious spirits have expired in their defence as have been thought at too too mean a rate to double the value of what they thought for Did not the English dispute their Title at Ostend till they had no Earth to plead on the very ground failing them before their Vallours yet whilst fighting there not only against the Flower of the Spanish Army but the Plague Hunger and cold despair so that it may be said without Hyperbole the Nobility and Gentry Queen Elizabeth lost doubled the number the cruelty of Spains great Philip had left you The Assistance that wise Queen gave them was good self-policy she made them able to defend themselves against Spain and was so at the Pole but they who inable them to offend others as her successors have done have gone beyond it questionless had this Thorne been removed out of the Spaniards side he might have been feared too soon to grasp his long intended Monarchy were the Spaniard possessed Lord of the Low-Countries or had the States General the wealth and power of Spain the rest of Europe might be like a People at Sea in a Ship on Fire that could only chuse whither they would drown or burn We have cherished this starveling Viper too long in our warm bosomes and now doth not only hiss at but indeavour to sting those who brought them to life from almost an irremediless condition Since we succoured them abroad and gave them leave to fish in our Seas pray consider their vast increase of Shipping They had many years since seven hundred Strand-boats four hundred Evars and four hundred Gallies Drivers and Jod-boats wherewith the Hollanders fisht on their Coasts every one of these employing another Ship to fetch Salt and carry the Fish into their own Country being in all three thousand sail maintaining and setting at work at least fourty thousand Persons Fishers Tradesmen Women and Children Besides they have an hundred Dager-boats one hundred and fifty tuns a peice or thereabouts seven hundred Pinds and Well-boats from sixty to an hundred tuns a peice which altogether fish upon the Sea of England and Scotland for Cod and Ling only and these too for the most employ other Ships to bring them Salt and carry the Fish home making in all sixteen hundred Ships which maintain and imploy at least four thousand Persons of all sorts For the Herring season they have at least sixteen hundred Busses all of them only fishing on our Coasts and every one of these maketh work for three other Ships which attend her the one to bring in Salt from forrein parts the other to carry that Salt and Cask to the Busses and to bring back the Herrings and the third to transport the said Fish into forreign Countries so that the total number plying the Herring-fishing is six thousand four hundred Moreover they have four hundred Vessels at least that take Herring at Yarmouth and there sell them for ready-money so that the Hollander besides their three hundred Ships fishing on their Coasts have at least eight thousand and four hundred Ships only maintained by the Seas of Great Britain by the which means principally Holland being not so big as one of our Shires in England conteining not above twenty eight miles in length and twenty three in bredth have increased the number of their Shipping to at least ten thousand sail and to that number they add in a manner daily although the Country it self affords them neither Materials nor Victuals nor Merchandise to be accounted of towards their setting forth Secondly let us consider the increase of their Mariners from the number of their Ships fishing on our Coasts which as we said before were eight thousand four hundred we must allow more hands to the fishing concern then for bare sailing if suppose ten men to every ship one with another the total of Marriners and Fishers will amount to fourscore and four thousand out of which number they continually furnish their longer Voyages to all parts of the World for by this they are not only inabled to brook the Sea and to know the use of the Tackle and Compass but are likewise instructed in Trade and in the Principles of Navigation and Pilotage insomuch as their chiefest Navigators have had from home their education and breeding and hence they are become as skilful and knowing in all the Sands Sholes Creeks and Channels belonging to our Coasts as the best of our Pilots Thirdly by reason of those multitudes of Ships and Mariners they have extended their Trade to all parts of the world and therein to speak the truth have out-thrown all ever yet have used the Sea many Bars length exporting in most of their Voyages Herring and other Fish returning in exchange the several commodities of other Countries From the Southern parts as France Spain and Portugal for our Herrings they return Oyl Wine Prunes Hony Wool Grain with store of forraign coyn from the Streights Velvets Sattins and all sorts of Silk Allom Currants all Grocery ware with much Money From the East Country for our Herrings they bring home Corn Wax Flax Hemph Pitch Tar Soap-ashes Iron Copper Steel Clap-board Wainscoate Masts Timber Deal-boards Polish-dollars and Hungary-gilders From Germany for Herrings and other Salt-fish Iron Steel Glass Mill-stones Rhenish-wines Battery-plate for Armour with other munitions also Silk Velvets Rashes Fustians Poratoes and such like Frankfort Commodities with store of Rixdollars From Brabant they return for the most part ready-Money with
his being cast in his passage out of Spain as his Father Charles the Fifth was upon the British shore knowing the English were cordial in your preservation then ever to suffer him to come and goe in Peace when he came on so bloody an errand 6. And though he as a Magnanimous Prince and so great a Monarch as he was yet he did often desire his Sister of England to hear his just defence for his so rigorous proceedings She refusing to dispute the truth of your complaints presuming it more probable for a stranger to be a Tyrant then that the Natural Inhabitants upon a slighter cause cast themselves into the no less bloody then scorching flames of a Civil and uncertain War She seeming rather to forget the Obligations She owed him either as a private Person or Brother when he was King of England then her Neighbours oppressions I shall not need here draw blood in your faces by application your Consciences if you have any such thing left will do it for me 7. Were not your messengers received into England in the quality of Embassadors they being then too modest to own higher Titles then of Poor Petitioners casting themselves prostrate at the feet of no less Potent Tribunal then what you were admitted to in the quality of Embassadors the other day and the which you now fight against at which time I blush to think thereof your Embassadors was pleased to say that in this conjuncture they would condescend to strike to Us if we would assist them against the French but upon condition that it should never be taken for a President here after to their prejudice this was such a condition which would soon have reduced us to a miserable and contemptible condition Did not your Embassadour forget himself what and where he was to be admitted into the quality of an Ambassadour was an honour you could never have attained to but through the Clemency of a gratious Prince your Messengers in the same quality but narrowly escap'd the Gallowes when they went with their Petition to his Catholick Majesty And did not his late Sacred Majesty out of his Princely goodness imbroider your Messengers with Titles unworthy such ingratitudes as you afterwards shewed him and his against your Alliance then made and professed 8. Have you not opened your Arms to receive those into your Councils and pay that even the whole World doth blush at the reflection of so horrid an Act such is it that tears fall on my Pen at its Relation as if it should say thou art not able to express blackness Wherein Holland canst thou glory not with colouring it with a charitable Protection O no! Then what satisfaction can you give the World or fancy to your selves when you shew a President how to protect the most horrid Regicide that ever drew breath such as are culpable of no less crime then the blood of the best of Kings and one who espoused you as it were into his Royal Family 9. Nay see farther your ingratitude that no sooner Providence had measured out the Kingdom into Peace by restoring our dread Soveraign unto his undoubted Right and the words of a firm Alliance and Amity concluded betwixt him and you scarce cold in his mouth but what wonderful outrages you committed on our Ships and Merchants in allmost all places and Ports where you could either find or meet them but especially there where you were able to treble the English power and strength who if equally but Man'd or Shipt would have reduced your Brandy-courages into that combustion which they say that Wine bears and that only by its flames to behold your own ruines nay such was your ingratitude as if nothing were more indifferent to you then who were happy so England were miserable 10. If you were not willing for those many years to come stealing and bribeing the Usurpers so long for your fishing why should you be so tutchy now with such as inquire whether it was worth your cost or their honour to defend the propriety thereof to the utmost hazard of their lives and fortunes I understand that the late Usurpers did not only give you the fish but baits to catch them Lampries I mean loaden by boat-fulls out of the Thames which they would never have done had they been as full of circumspection as that Creature is reported to be of eyes this kindness to you as all other kindnesses shown to you use to do made you so insolent as to fly in their face sor which they were forced to bring you into better manners witness the several Victories they obtained over you in the year 1652. But more especially that neer Portland wherein you were totally overthrown imputing your want of success to want of powder but I think those few of yours which were left they sent home with a powder Lastly all this considered why may not his Majesty assume to himself the rights of disposure and regulation of that which is undoubtedly his own and why may he not take till by you that never questioned style of Lord of the British Ocean as well as you at Guiny and the East-Indies that strive with your Maker who shall be most High and Mighty With these Expostulations pray take some of these following Queries Some pertinent and necessary Queries to the present Subject 1. What other Alliance can afford you so safe Harbourage in case of foul weather at Sea as England Scotland and Ireland if none whether contingencies driven in by storm under our shelter your West and East India and Straits men may not exceed all the Coales and Tobbacco Prizes De Ruyter or any under him shall scrape up in his Naval expedition If the raising a Flying Army in the Netherlands may not one time or other be reduced to such a faction especially when headed by one that cannot keep the same Consort with you as to cause the resolving you into the first Principles of both Poor Distressed and Oppressed Nay it may be further reduce you to be Vassals to some of your right or left hand Neighbours whose aim is wholly to root up that Vine which they perceive is likely to ecclipse but more willing to destory the glories of their rights and benefits of their Traffick and Trade 3. If Venice may not unproperly be called the Signet on Neptunes right hand whether England and the Netherlands being in a strait confederacy may not be styled his two Arms By which in relation to their shipping he embraceth the Universe 4. Whether your Maiden Towns as you call them may not longer enjoy that Title under the Alliance of England who hath many more rich and beautiful Havens and Harbours then any other Neighbouring Nation 5. Whether the making an honourable Peace with England by complying with her just commands may not be accounted putting of Money to more than common Interest 6. In case it so happens whether their Wisdomes do not cease too dangerous and chargable Wars the which
further alledg in their own excuse That they were so grateful as that they offered unto the Queen of England the Soveraignty of the Netherlands which she would not accept and therefore none of their fault that She obtained it not It is in reason truly answered That the Queen of England well knowing that she was in danger to draw a perpetual War on her Self and her Successors by the accepting such a Gift to which She had no right did wisely refuse their Liberality and yet for all that She continued to aid them without that chargeable obligation The Hollanders do further alledg That the Queen of England had the Cautionary Towns of the Brill and Flushing with other places delivered into her hands It is true She had so and thereby only enjoyed the benefit of being at the greater expence of Men and Money But pray take notice that most certain it is That the Hollander had no sooner made a Truce with the King of Spain and the Arch-Duke Albertus but he began presently to set the English at naught and take the Bridle out of their hands whereupon immediately ensued the bringing of English Clothes died and dressed into Holland and the adjoining Provinces without ever making the King of England or his Ambassador Leiger at the Hague acquainted therewith And to make amends for this their sawcy and insolent affront in a more high and peremptory way they demeaned themselves to King James himself For whereas the Duke of Lennox as Admiral of Scotland had by order from the Majesty of King James in the year 1616 sent one Mr. Brown to demand of the Hollanders then fishing on the Coasts of Scotland a certain ancient Duty called Size Herring they began to contest with him about it and after a long disputation they paid it as in former times it had been accustomed but not without some affronting terms That it was the last time it should be paid And it is most certain that the same Gentleman coming the year following with the same Authority and Commandment with one only Ship of His Majesty 's to demand the Duty aforesaid but by them he was denied it who as plainly as peremptorily told him That they were commanded by the States of Holland to pay it no more to the King of England Of which he took witness according to his Order from His Majesty This taking of witness did so startle them that without any more ado they pretended an Order to arrest him and so they carried him into Holland where a while he was detain'd Nay a little while after such was their insufferable abuse that when Mr. Archibald Ranthim a Scotch Gentleman and residing at Stockholm in Sweden where he sollicited for some sums of money due to the English Merchants at the same time in the same City was one Vandyke lying there as an Agent for the States of Holland who said unto some principal persons of the Swedes That they need not be so hasty in paying any moneys to the subjects of the King of England or to give them any high respect because the said Kings Promises were not to be believed nor his threatnings to be feared For which vile and insolent speeches being afterwards challenged by Mr. Ranthim he had no better excuse than to say He was drunk when he spake those words And by this means his excuse of playing the Beast did excuse him from playing the Man Now from these insolent Affronts by words let us proceed and come to what they have done by deeds more than what I have already declared in my preceding Discourse where in the first place we may observe their rude demeanour to out English Nation in the Northern Seas on the Coasts of Greenland and those parts about the fishing for Whales and the Commodity of Trayn-oyl where violently they have offered unpardonable abuses in an hostile manner driving the English away to their great loss and prejudice Their pride of heart was so high that it would not give their Reason leave to apprehend That Fishing at Sea is free for every man where it is not upon the Coast of any Countrey unto which the Dominion of the Sea belongeth by ancient Prerogative And yet all this is but inconsiderable in regard of their usage of our English in the East Indies where in open Hostility they have as fiercely set upon them as if they had been most mortal Enemies having in several Encounters slain many of our Men and sunk sundry of our Ships and when they had taken our men Prisoners they would use them in the sight of the Indians in such a contemptible and disdainful manner as if it at their own home and all places else the English in respect of them were but a sordid and slavish Nation and the Hollanders were either their Superiors and might use them at their own pleasure or the English were so spiritless or so unpowerful that they durst not be revenged but quietly must put up all the Affronts and Injuries which they received at their hands And as for the commodious and profitable Trade which the English have had in Muscovy for above these fourscore years and some other Countreys that lye upon the East and North which the Hollanders have now gotten quite out of their hands to the great grief and prejudice of several Merchants in London What shall we say seeing not long since they have been acting the same again with our English Merchants in Turkey And it is a practice so usual with them to spoil the Trade of other Nations that when they cannot find any occasion to do it they will show a nature so wretchedly barbarous that they will not stick to spoil one another And yet all this proceedeth out of an ignoble and sordid spirit for let them arrive to what wealth they will they can never be the Masters of a Noble and Generous Disposition Had it not been for their Neighbouring Nation of the English they had never arrived to the liberty of a free State yet so ingrateful have they been that they have endeavoured to forget all the Obligations of Humanity and have digged into the very bowels of those who did preserve them So many Examples of this nature may be instanced that I am forced to omit them for want of room The Perfidiousness and Ingratitude of the Hollanders to the English may be traced all along ever since they shook off their obedience to the King of Spain even unto this present time But we will pass from their Hypocrisie and Cruelty practised abroad and look on their actions at home How almost but the other day did they labour to impose upon His Majesty and Sir George Downing his Envoy Extraordinary by delivering Papers to many publick Ministers of State at the Hague as if his Majesty and his Envoy had been pre-possessed with them when they had not the least notice of any such thing How have they seemed to be most desirous of Peace when at the same