CHAPTER X.

THE PARLIAMENT, THE COMMONWEALTH, AND THE PROTECTORATE.

THE FIRST DUTCH WAR.

Claim to the sovereignty of the sea and the salute continued--Instructions to naval officers essentially the same--Encounter with Swedish squadron--Action approved by Admiralty committee--Council of State instruct Blake to preserve the dominion of the seas--The Dutch strike willingly--Strained relations between the Parliament and the United Provinces--Political revolution in Holland--Mission of St John and Strickland to The Hague--Propositions for fusion and alliance--The _Intercursus Magnus_ taken as basis for treaty--St John’s seven Articles--The thirty-six Articles of the Dutch--Failure of negotiations--Feeling in England--English letters of reprisal--Embassy of Cats, Schaep, and Van de Perre--Dutch fleet increased--Discussion of thirty-six Articles--Fresh instructions from Holland--The negotiations suddenly interrupted--Blake’s encounter with Tromp in the Straits of Dover regarding the striking of the flag--Its antecedents--Tromp’s defective instructions as to striking--Account of the fight--Indignation in London--Embassy of the Grand Pensionary, Adrian Pauw--First Dutch war--Blake and the herring-busses--Tromp’s broom--The Parliament asserts the right of the Commonwealth to the sovereignty of the seas and the fishery--Selden’s _Mare Clausum_ translated and published by order of the Council of State--Controversy between Selden and Graswinckel 378