shall seize the said goods or commodities, and shall prosecute the same in any Court of Record within this Commonwealth. And it is further Enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That no goods or commodities of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, or of any part thereof, shall, after the first day of December, one thousand six hundred fifty and one, be imported or brought into this Commonwealth of England, or into Ireland, or any other lands, islands, plantations, or territories, to this Commonwealth belonging, or in their possession, in any ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of this Commonwealth, as the true owners and proprietors thereof, and in no other, except only such foreign ships and vessels as do truly and properly belong to the people of that country or place, of which the said goods are the growth, production, or manufacture; or to such ports where the said goods can only be, or most usually are first shipped for transportation; And that under the same penalty of forfeiture and loss expressed in the former branch of this Act, the said forfeitures to be recovered and employed as is therein expressed. And it is further Enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That no goods or commodities that are of foreign growth, production, or manufacture, and which are to be brought into this Commonwealth, in shipping belonging to the people thereof, shall be by them shipped or brought from any other place or places, country or countries, but only from those of their said growth, production, or manufacture; or from those ports where the said goods and commodities can only, or are, or usually have been first shipped for transportation; And from none other places or countries, under the same penalty of forfeiture and loss expressed in the first branch of this Act, the said forfeitures to be recovered and employed as is therein expressed. And it is further Enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That no sort of cod-fish, ling, herring, pilchard, or any other kind of salted fish, usually fished for, and caught by the people of this nation; nor any oil made, or that shall be made of any kind of fish whatsoever; nor any whale-fins, or whale-bones, shall from henceforth be imported into this Commonwealth, or into Ireland, or any other lands, islands, plantations, or territories thereto belonging, or in their possession, but only such as shall be caught in vessels that do or shall truly and properly belong to the people of this nation, as proprietors and right owners thereof: And the said fish to be cured, and the oil aforesaid, made by the people of this said Commonwealth, under the penalty and loss expressed in the said first branch of this present Act; the said forfeit to be recovered and employed as is there expressed. And it is further Enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That no sort of cod, ling, herring, pilchard, or any other kind of salted fish whatsoever, which shall be caught and cured by the people of this Commonwealth,

shall be from and after the first day of February, one thousand six hundred fifty-three, exported from any place or places belonging to this Commonwealth, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels, save only in such as do truly and properly appertain to the people of this Commonwealth, as right owners; and whereof the master and mariners are for the most part of them English, under the penalty and loss expressed in the said first branch of this present Act; the said forfeit to be recovered and employed as is there expressed. Provided always, That this Act, nor anything therein contained, extend not, or be meant to restrain the importation of any of the commodities of the straits or Levant seas, loaden in the shipping of this nation as aforesaid, at the usual ports or places for lading of them heretofore within the said straits or Levant seas, though the said commodities be not of the very growth of the said places. Provided also, That this Act nor anything therein contained, extend not, nor be meant to restrain the importing of any East India commodities loaden in the shipping of this nation, at the usual port or places for lading of them heretofore in any part of those seas, to the southward and eastward of Cabo Bona Esperanza, although the said ports be not the very places of their growth. Provided also, That it shall and may be lawful to and for any of the people of this Commonwealth, in vessels or ships to them belonging, and whereof the master and mariners are of this nation as aforesaid, to load and bring in from any of the ports of Spain and Portugal, all sorts of goods or commodities that have come from, or any way belonged unto the plantations or dominions of either of them respectively: Be it also further Enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That from henceforth, it shall not be lawful to any person or persons whatsoever, to load or cause to be loaden and carried in any bottom or bottoms, ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, whereof any stranger or strangers born (unless such as be denizens or naturalized), be owners, part owners, or master, any fish, victual, wares, or things of what kind or nature soever the same shall be, from one port or creek of this Commonwealth to another port or creek of the same, under penalty to every one that shall offend contrary to the true meaning of this branch of this present Act, to forfeit all the goods that shall be so laden or carried, as also the ship upon which they shall be so laden or carried, the same forfeit to be recovered and employed as directed in the first branch of this present Act. Lastly, That this Act, nor anything therein contained, extend not to bullion, nor yet to any goods taken, or that shall be taken, by way of reprisal, by any ship or ships, having commission from this Commonwealth. Provided, That this Act, or anything therein contained, shall not extend, nor be construed to extend to any silk or silk wares which shall be brought by land from any parts of Italy, and there bought with

the proceed of English commodities, sold either for money or in barter; but that it shall and may be lawful for any of the people of this Commonwealth to ship the same in English vessels from Ostend, Newport, Rotterdam, Middleburgh, Amsterdam, or any ports thereabouts; the owners and proprietors first making oath by themselves, or other credible witness, before the Commissioners of the Customs for the time being, or their deputies, or one of the Barons of the Exchequer, that the goods aforesaid were so bought for his or their own proper account in Italy.

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"Passed the ninth of October, 1651."

Mr. Ricardo says-" The first effect of these restrictions was war with the Dutch," and adds

"Ten years of peace followed this outbreak, during which the Dutch regained their ground, and, spite of our restrictions, prospered in their commerce, kept the lead in their carrying trade, and increased their shipping. Their success was looked upon with envy in England, and with hatred by the King, so that Cromwell's Navigation Act was adopted."

Broad assertions, such as those above quoted, ought not, in common decency, to have been hazarded without being accompanied by the authority on which they were founded. I know not whether "the Anatomist" ever saw the books from which I am about to furnish extracts, but if he ever had seen them, I think he could hardly have had the temerity to make such statements.

Sir Francis Brewster, who published, in 1694, a volume, entitled, "Essays on Trade and Navigation," thus details the circumstances so summarily comprised by Mr. Ricardo in six lines:

"When this Act was first thought on, in the time of the Rump Parliament, thus as I find it by Story, and relation of some that were merchants and commanders at sea in that time, the Rump Parliament quarrelling with the Dutch, took the opportunity of making trade the chiefest pretence for it, believing that would be popular, and affect England; and the truth is, there was ground enough for quarrel in matters of trade. The Dutch grew very fast upon us all the reign of Charles I.; and it is a mistake to say that we lost our trade into the Sound and Muscovy since the Act of Navigation, for it was stealing from us the year 1634, and was in a manner quite lost by the year 1652. But that which most affected and

gave offence to the nation, was, the Dutch had got such a trade to our plantations in the West Indies, that we could scarce get so much sugars home as the nation consumed. They supplied our plantations with wines, brandies, linen, and almost everything they spent [used] in the islands. This being so notorious, the then Government thought upon the Act of Navigation, which had the good effect in preserving that part of our trade and navigation that was left, and perhaps ne one at this day the preservation of these kingdoms to it; for that upon the restoration of Charles II., had not this Act lain in the way, there might not have been such course taken as there was in our trade and navigation.

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Upon the restoration of Charles II., there was a set of people in trade that had been bred up in it in the time of the Parliament, and these men, having the money as well as the trade of the kingdom in their hands, were at that time easier heard than they have been since. They, not knowing what force foreign money might have at court, thought themselves never safe until they got the Act of Navigation confirmed, and being early in their application, they succeeded to their own satisfaction, with some advantages more than was in the former Act. For it is to be observed that, under Oliver's Government, the Act of Navigation had little force; both the Government and the merchants were willing to let it sleep; for that during the war with Spain, to avoid their privateers, which were so numerous that scarce a ship could stir without a convoy, most of our trade was managed in Dutch bottoms, they being at peace with Spain. This management had almost stifled the Act of Navigation; and merchants, finding their present gain by the cheapness of Dutch sailing, did not consider the future consequence: immediate gain was what they minded. But, upon the Restoration, the same men that, under the usurped Government, were content with the general scramble, and to come in for a share, were now for securing trade to posterity, which they were careless of whilst they had no foundation of law or Government. I have been the larger in this account, because I find it generally believed that this Act of Navigation was originally brought forth in prejudice to the Dutch, and for the same reason renewed in the reign of Charles II., whereas in truth it was at first made with much reason and necessity."

A very carefully-written volume, printed in 1727, entitled, "Columna Rostrata," being a critical history of the English

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sea affairs," compiled "from original pieces, or from the "testimonies of the best foreign historians, by Samuel "Colliber," contains the following passages, from which

the reader may be able to arrive at the fact, that war with the Dutch would in all probability have occurred, had we continued to insist upon claiming our national rights, whether the Navigation Act had been passed or not:

"The late successes of the Hollanders against the Spaniards and Dunkirkers had, it seems, so raised their courage, that they were forward enough to try their strength with the English, whom they regarded as their chief competitors in point of trade. But because what the English had done in granting letters of mart, and in passing the Act of Navigation, was no other than what all other nations have a right to do; therefore they could not with so good a grace proceed to hostilities, upon those accounts. They therefore chose rather to begin the war by refusing to strike the flag, or acknowledge the English dominion of the seas, which method, they thought, could not but appear very plausible, it being, as they pretended, the resisting a tyranny which other nations were equally concerned to oppose. * # * * The whale, herring, and cod fisheries, joined with the commerce of almost the whole world, had rendered the Dutch the most powerful nation at sea that, perhaps, the world ever saw. The number of their fishing and trading vessels is computed to have exceeded that of all other nations in Europe. Their people were well exercised, and animated by their successes in the Spanish war, which had been but lately finished by an advantageous peace; and the vast confluence of sea-faring men from all the northern ports, drawn by the fame of their commerce, furnished them, without pressing, with such numbers of able sailors as could not easily be exhausted by a long war; so that to wage war with them was in some respect to war against a great part of Europe."

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Mr. Carlyle, who has lately given to the world" Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," accompanied by remarks smacking of the quaint style of the period, writes as follows:

"July 9, 1652. A great external fact, which no doubt has its effect on all internal movements, is the war with the Dutch. The Dutch, ever since our death warrant to Charles First, have looked askance at this new Commonwealth, which wished to stand well with them, and have accumulated offence on offence against it. Ambassador Dorislaus was assassinated in their country; Charles Second was entertained there; evasive slow answers were given to tough St. John, who went over as new Ambassador, to which St. John, responding with great directness in a proud, brief, and very emphatic manner, took his leave