glories of Dunbar and Worcester by yet greater triumphs at sea. With
this view the quarrel with Holland had been carefully nursed; a
"Navigation Act," prohibiting the importation in foreign vessels of any
but the products of the countries to which they belonged, struck a fatal
blow at the carrying trade from which the Dutch drew their wealth; and
fresh debates arose from the English claim to salutes from all vessels
in the Channel. In May 1652 the two fleets met before Dover, and a
summons from Blake to lower the Dutch flag was met by the Dutch admiral,
Tromp, with a broadside. The States-General attributed the collision to
accident, and offered to recall Tromp; but the English demands rose at
each step in the negotiations till war became inevitable. The army
hardly needed the warning conveyed by the introduction of a bill for its
disbanding to understand the new policy of the Parliament. It was
significant that while accepting the bill for its own dissolution the
House had as yet prepared no plan for the assembly which was to follow
it; and the Dutch war had hardly been declared when, abandoning the
attitude of inaction which it had observed since the beginning of the
Commonwealth, the army petitioned, not only for reform in Church and
State, but for an explicit declaration that the House would bring its
proceedings to a close. The Petition forced the House to discuss a bill
for "a New Representative," but the discussion soon brought out the
resolve of the sitting members to continue as a part of the coming
Parliament without re-election. The officers, irritated by such a claim,
demanded in conference after conference an immediate dissolution, and
the House as resolutely refused. In ominous words Cromwell supported the
demand of the army. "As for the members of this Parliament, the army
begins to take them in disgust. I would it did so with less reason."
There was just ground, he urged, for discontent in their selfish greed
of houses and lands, the scandalous lives of many, their partiality as
judges, their interference with the ordinary course of law in matters of
private interest, their delay of law reform, above all in their manifest
design of perpetuating their own power. "There is little to hope for
from such men," he ended with a return to his predominant thought, "for
a settlement of the nation."

[Sidenote: Blake.]

For the moment the crisis was averted by the events of the war. A
terrible storm had separate