hich it was enacted that no goods, the
produce of Africa, Asia, and America, should be imported into this country
in ships which were not the property of England or its colonies; and that
no produce or manufacture of any part of Europe should be imported,
unless in ships the property of England or of the country of which such
merchandise was the proper growth or manufacture.[2] Hitherto the Dutch
had been the common carriers of Europe; by this act, the offspring of St.
John's resentment, one great and lucrative branch of their commercial
prosperity was lopped off, and the first, but fruitless demand of the
ambassadors was that, if not repealed, it should at least be suspended
during the negotiation.

The Dutch merchants had solicited permission to indemnify themselves by
reprisals; but the States ordered a numerous fleet to be equipped, and
announced to all the neighbouring powers that their object was, not to make
war, but to afford protection to their commerce. By the council of state,
the communication was received as a menace; the English ships of war were
ordered to exact in the narrow seas the same honour to the flag of the
commonwealth as had been formerly paid to that of the king; and the

[Footnote 1: It seems probable that the letters of marque were granted not
against the Dutch, but the French, as had been done for some time, and
that the Dutch vessels were detained under pretence of their having French
property on board. Suivant les pretextes de reprisailles contre les
Francois et autres.--Dumont, vi. ii. 32.]

[Footnote 2: An exception was made in favour of commodities from the Levant
seas, the West Indies, and the ports of Spain and Portugal, which might be
imported from the usual places of trading, though they were not the growth
of the said places. The penalty was the forfeiture of the ship and cargo,
one moiety to the commonwealth, the other to the informer.--New Parl. Hist.
iii. 1374.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 9.]

ambassadors were reminded of the claim of indemnification for the losses
sustained by the English in the East Indies, of a free trade from
Middleburgh to Antwerp, and of the tenth herring which was due from the
Dutch fishermen for the permission to exercise their trade in the British
seas.

While the conferences were yet pending, Commodore Young met[a] a fleet of
Dutch merchantmen under convoy in the Channel; and, after a sharp action,
compelled the men-of-war to salute the Englis