any trouble in a point so clear I would desire to know of the Hollanders by what right or title they fish upon the British Seas If they have a right Why did the Earls of Holland and themselves after the said Earls take Licences from the Kings of England for their Subjects to fish and pay tribute as they have done as it appeareth by many ancient Presidents in the Tower But now I remember it 's a Principle of their State That if they get the possession of any thing never to dispute the right so it be of conveniency or profit to them to keep it The next is the striking of the Sail which is nothing but an humble acknowledgement of His Majesties Soveraignty of the British Seas and a grateful submission for their liberty to pass upon them for strangers by the Law and Custom of the British Seas being to pass those Seas either in coming to England or going to any other place without so much as touching upon any of His Majesties Dominions have us'd to take safe Conducts and Licences of the Kings of England to secure and protect them in their passage Vide Rot. Franciae 11. H. 4 de Salvo conductu The Presidents are exceeding many amongst the Records in the Tower The striking of the Sail is one of the ancientest Prerogatives of the Crown of England For I observe in the second year of King John it was declared at Hastings by the King with the advice of His Lords Temporal for a Law and Custom of the Sea That if a Lieutenant in any voyage being ordained by the King doth encounter upon the Sea any ship or Vessel laden or unladen that will not strike or vail their Bonnets at the Commandment of the Lieutenant of the King or of the Admiral of the King or his Lieutenant but will fight against them of the Fleet that if they can be taken they be reputed as Enemies their Ships Vessels and Goods taken and forfeited as the Goods of Enemies And that the common people being in the same be chastised by Imprisonment of their bodies for their Rebellion Inter Leges Marinas Anno 2 Johannis Regis amongst the Records of the Tower The Hollanders therefore refusing to strike sail do deny His Majesties Soveraignty in the Seas one of the most precious Jewels of the Crown and the principal means of the Trade Wealth and Safety of this Nation and which all true English men with the hazard of their lives and fortunes are obliged to preserve and maintain for Imperator Maris est Dominus Terrae And as they have deny'd His Majesties Soveraignty so they have by their Artifice supplanted the Trade and Traffick of His Subjects which are the only Pillars of Riches and Safety to this Nation Consult the Muscovia Turkey c. Companies enquire at the Exchange they will all tell you It 's gone whither I know not but into Amsterdam and the United Provinces The English are as active and industrious a people as any but of a more generous and noble Allay they abhor to have Trade by those base practises or to gain it by those sordid means as the Hollanders do I doubt not but the English Nation being sensible of the Injuries and Oppressions done them by these men will in short time by their Sword and Valour reduce them to reason And as they have supplanted the Trade of His Majesties Subjects so they have endeavoured to make a diminution of His own Glory by abusive Pictures and false Libels not only in their own Territories but in most of the Dominions of the Kings and Princes of of Europe where the name of the King of Great Britain is renown'd Reputation abroad and Reverence at home are the Pillars of Safety and Soveraignty By these Arts they have endeavoured not only to lessen His Majestie Reputation abroad but to bring contempt upon Him even amongst His own Subjects at home Without doubt His Majesties good Subjects have a great Sentiment of these Indignities and will not only carry an Antidote in their ears against the poyson of these Libels but with their Swords Lives and Fortunes will vindicate His Dignity and bring these Ungrateful Miscreants to Justice The States having put so many scorns and indignities upon his Majesty and abuses upon His Subjects in their Trade for which His Majestie was more troubled than for the Indignities done to Himself He was resolved to have satisfaction of them But they to give His Majesty disquiet in His own Dominions and for a diversion to Him made their Addresses to some persons of the Scotish Nation with them for their Brotherly assistance promising them they should be furnished with Men Arms and Money what they pleased But the Scots too well remembring their late sufferings and calamities and having as great a sense of Loyalty and Duty for their King as any people in the world with the greatest scorn and abhorrency rejected their most impious and rebellious motion Not prevailing there they set upon some Factories of Sedition in England and by their Emissaries here endeavoured to work upon an honest party in this Nation though differing in some minute Ceremonies from the Church but they looked upon it as the greatest Injury and Indignity could be done them to tempt them from the Loyalty to so good and gracious a King And certainly His Majesty had a very good esteem for them or else He would never have granted them that Act of Indulgence An Act so transcendent and exceeding the bounty and grace of all former Kings that it could not be obtain'd of them though there had been many hundred thousand pounds offered for the purchase of it But as His Majesty hath granted them Liberty of Conscience so there 's no doubt they will make conscience of their Liberty His Majesty of Great Britain and the Most Christian King of all Princes in Europe have most studied and endeavoured for the good of their Subjects to advance Trade and Commerce yet their Subjects cry out they have no Trade and well they may when the Hollanders are the great Supplanters of Trade and obstructers of Commerce to all others but themselves in the world And no wonder for it 's a prime principle of their State That they must not be like the Joc-caul which provide food for the Lyon but they must imitate the prudent Cat who mouses only for it self Nothing can be more becoming the Majesty of two such Potent Kings not only out of charity to deliver the distressed Dutch an industrous and well meaning people of themselves from the Tyranny and Oppression of those insolent States but out of Piety towards God to settle peace in Christendom which is only by the power of these two Great Kings to be effected and to which all Kings and Princes are oblig'd to contribute their assistance For let it be soberly considered if these men if we may so call them since the Revolt from their Prince have
pretend great kindness to their Neighbour Princes and enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with them And by that means get the favour of those Princes to have some Ports or strong Castles for Defence of their Trade as they pretend in their Territories When that is done they either make Wars themselves and so those Princes must aid them or else perswade the Princes his Allies to make War upon another Prince which they do and so fight one Prince against another and when they are sufficiently enweakned they Conquer them all 11. If they have any difference with any potent King or Prince they get time if it be for their advantage they give good words but part with no money That done they make their Addresses to some Favorite of that Prince which do all in the Court of the Indian Kings and so with small charges they effect great matters By these steps they have clim'd up to those immense Pyramids of Dominion and Power in the Indies that they are become formidable to the greatest Emperours and Princes there ever making good in their practice that Lemma of Loyola the Apostle of their State Cavete vobis Principes They have excluded the Subjects of all Kings and Princes in Europe from Traffick and Commerce where they have any Territories or Power And by reason of the Dominion they have in the South Seas and the Conquests and Fortifications they make upon the North Seas all their Subjects will finally be debarred from any Traffick or Trade there Of what dangerous consequence this will prove it 's very well beseeming the Wisdom of the greatest Kings and Princes to consider For there are a Generation which are born to be the Plague Disquiet and Scourge of Europe and they gladly sacrifice the Publick Peace of Christendom to their own private Interest If we consider how many brave and large Dominions in the East-Indies were under the Sovereignty of the Kings of Great Britain what flourishing Factories their Subjects had there how great Kings they might have been in Treasure and Dominion how rich their Subjects it cannot but discompose an English Spirit that his King should be ousted of all those Dominions and his Subjects devested of their Riches and Hopes by a People who had nothing but the Favour of the King of Great Britain to support them nor no Fortress to defend them but that of Ambâ—yna and that built by the Monies of the English Company Well we may see what Treachery and Perfidiousness can do being accompanied with Ambition and Industry But they will ere long find that slippery are those Foundations of Might and Greatness which are not laid upon the Principles of Justice and regulated by the Maxims of Christian Piety And as America was the Theatre where they Acted these Tragedies and unparallel'd Insolencies so they have not spared to manifest their Ingratitude Affronts and highest Injuries against the Kings of Great Britain and the English Nation here in Europe Anno 1639. when his Catholick Majesty sent his Armado with some Souldiers into Flanders to strengthen his Garisons there but by cross Winds were driven upon the English Coasts the States Equipped out a great Fleet of Men of War charged the Spanish Armado ravished his Ships out of the Harbours of his late Majesty at Dover and destroyed most of that Fleet though in his Majesties Protection and Dominions and against his Majestles express Command thereby Usurping Sovereignty to themselves and giving Laws to his Majesty in his own Dominions A bold Affront And certainly they could not think but his Majesty did highly resent it But to keep him busied at home and that his Majesty might have no opportunity to bring them to Justice for their Insolency there being Anno 1639. some Distempers in Scotland they did greatly promote them and contributed their assistance to them in all manner of Military Provisions Monarchy and with that the Glory of the English Nation was now departed the People model themselves into a Commonwealth they take a full prospect of the Usurpations Injuries and Oppressions of the States which had such a horrid complexion of Injustice upon them that the new Commonwealth denounce War against the old States they obtain many signal Victories and had much disabled their Naval Forces Now the States being not well able to contest with the English Valour they project how they might deliver themselves from the fury of these men At last they having by their Emissaries first disseminated Sedition amongst the People whereby the Commonwealth became a burthen to the Nation and wise men began to be troubled at the ill face of affairs they adjudged the best expedient was to set up a single Person the States being now sensible of their former errour in not supporting the English Monarchy as their best safety and greatest Protection O. as the fittest person for such a Bold-fac'd Treason by their underhand practise and paying to him some hundred thousand of pounds is prevailed with to take upon him the Government of the Nation The War is continued against them with great success yet by their Interest they obtain a Treaty And thereupon paying a Million of Pounds to O. a Peace is concluded but the most dishonourable and unjust that ever was to this Nation But such as it was it continued till his Majesties blessed Restauration Anno 1641. there happening some difference betwixt his late Majesty and his Parliament they sent over their Rabbies of Sedition here into England and infus'd their Antimonarchical Principles and dangerous Doctrines into some giddy heads of the English Nation who thereby became so intoxicated that they were never at rest till like men infected with the Plague they infected others and thereby a great part of the people became disobservant to the Laws of the Nation and Rebels to their King An Army of these men were raised they having their chief Officers and Commanders and all Warlike Provisions out of the United Provinces to bring Destruction to the King and Desolation to the Kingdom Thereby that Great King being reduced to streights notwithwithstanding the many Obligations of the States to his Majesty they could never be induced to contribute any Aid or Assistance to redeem that Excellent Prince from so great Abyss of Misery or to preserve the Kingdom from Ruine and Confusion which with their Assistance might have been easily prevented But the States were so far from any Act of Charity or Piety that Amsterdam was made the great Emporium or Market for the Rebels to sell those rich and costly Goods which they had plundered from his Majesties best Subjects in England whereas no King or Prince in Christendom would suffer them to make use of any of their Ports to that purpose and the best Furniture that some of the States have in their Houses at this very day are many of those stollen Goods And by this means they brought Poverty and Misery to this Nation Riches and Plenty
to themselves This unfortunate Nation being thus in Combustion and all befry'd the Hogan Mogans with joy as an ingenious man observed did warm their hands at those unhappy flames which they themselves had kindled tuning their merry Harps when others were weeping over a Kingdoms Funeral In England there being nothing but Confusion and Ruine nothing to be seen but the Convulsions of a dying State His now Sacred Majesty for his own safety and security withdrew Himself out of England and resolved to live for some time in his Solitudes in the Belgick Provinces But the States were so far from affording Him any comfort as a distressed Prince or yielding Him any kindness as their best Friend and greatest Patron that if his Majesty had not had timely notice of it it is credibly said that he had been delivered up in their Territories as a Sacrifice to the fury of his cruellest Enemy His Majesty Anno 1660. being restored to his Kingdoms forgetting all their former Unkindnesses and Ingratitudes his care was to conclude a strict League with the said States But no sooner was it concluded but they return to their usual practise of breaking of Articles who expect an exact observance of them from others but perform none themselves Thereupon his Majesty 1664. was stirred up by the Complaints of his people and the Unanimous Votes of both Houses of Parliament to defend the Rights of his Crown and the Liberties of his People which the States had most notoriously invaded yet his Majesty to prevent the effusion of bloud as Tyrants shed bloud for pleasure Kings for necessity spent the whole Summer in Negotiations to bring them to reason but all his endeavours proved ineffectual Thereupon Anno 1665 ensued the War and continued to the year 1667. Wherein his Majesty obtained so many signal Victories that by their humble Supplications and Addresses to his Majesty for Peace he was induced to a Treaty And his Majesty having the Garranty of the most Christian King and of the said States that no Act of Hostility during the said Treaty should be attempted by them against his Majesty or any of his Dominions thereupon his Majesty did forbear to Equip his Fleet. Yet the said States contrary to their Faith during the said Treaty with their Fleet though not half mann'd or Victuall'd for any time most treacherously invaded his Majesties Dominions burnt and committed Destruction upon several Ships of his Majesties Navy Royal in his own Ports and Harbour Whereas if his Majesty had set forth his Fleet they had not been able to have put to Sea that year for want of Mariners and other discouragements upon them having received so many memorable defeats by the Valour and Courage of his subjects No sooner was there a Peace concluded but every Article was broken by them And no wonder for it 's a Maxime of their State That all Alliance as to them is inconsiderable the foundation of their Greatness and Safety consists in their own Power and Strength Therefore to keep any Article is of no consideration to them Now they invade his Majesties Fishing upon the British Seas without his Royal License they refuse to strike Sail and dispute his Sovereignty of the British Seas Affronts so high and Indignities so transcendent that no King or Potentate except these men did ever so much as question any of them It doth appear by the Records in the Tower and the Municipal Laws of this Nation that the Kings of England have had ever from the time of the Romans an absolute and uninterrupted Right and exclusive Property in the Sovereignty of the British Seas in the Passages and Fishing thereof and hath power to make Laws and exercise Supreme Jurisdiction over all Persons and in all cases within or upon the said Seas as 't was agreed 26 E. 1. by the Agents and Embassadors of Genoa Catoloigna Spain Almaine Zealand Holland Friesland Denmark Norway and divers other places in the Empire And by all the States and Princes of Europe in a case then in question between the King of England and his most Christian Majesty concerning Rayner Grimbold his Admiral exercising some Jurisdiction upon the British Seas See the Records in the Tower 26 E. 1. de Superioritate Maris Anglici The Laws of Olleron which after the Rhodian Laws were antiquated have now near five hundred years been received by all the Christian World for regulating Sea-Affairs and deciding of Maritine Controversies were first declared by King R. 1. at his return from the Holy Land and by him caused to be published in the Isle of Olleron as belonging to the Dutchy of Aquitane If the Subjects of any King or Prince have a Right to Fish in the British Seas I do desire to be satisfied What should be the reason that all Neighbour Princes have by Treaty obtained license from the Kings of England for their Subjects to Fish in those Seas and have paid Tribute as it doth appear by the Licences granted by H. 4. unto the French By H. 6. unto the Dutchess of Burgundy To those of Brabant and Flanders by E. 4. To Francis Duke of Britain for his Subjects Philip II. King of Spain in the first year of Queen Mary obtained a Licence for his Subjects to fish upon the North Coasts of Ireland for the term of one and twenty years paying yearly for the same 1000 l. which was accordingly paid into the Exchequer of Ireland And the Presidents in R. 1. King John E. 3. and other Kings are almost infinite And if any King or Prince could pretend to any right certainly His Most Christian Majestic hath as good a pretence as any But that King by the special Licence of the Kings of England and not otherwise hath fish'd upon the British Coasts with a set and limited number of Boats And that for his own Family and being likewise to observe the Laws and Orders of his own Fishermen For breach whereof divers of his Subjects have been taken and imprisoned in Dover Castle and elswhere as doth appear by many presidents in time of E. 3. H. 4. H. 7. c. in the Tower Neither is this singular in the King of England only for in Russia many Leagues from the Main Fishermen do pay for their fishing great Taxes to the Emperor of Russia And in most places other Nations are prohibited to fish The King of Denmark doth the like and taketh great Tribute both at Wardhouse and the Sound And the like he doth now for Norway All the bordering Princes of Italy do the like within the Mediterranean Seas The States do take an Imposition upon fish which is taken upon the British Seas and within the Streams and Dominions of other Princes The Hollanders do allow the tenth Fish both in Russia Lappia and other places or pay a Composition for the same And do also pay a Tribute in the Sound for passage to fetch the said Fish But I shall not give my self