[1]
In a short time that contest was decided in the battle of Worcester,
and the States condescended to become petitioners in their turn. Their
ambassadors arrived in England with the intention of resuming the
negotiation where it had been interrupted by the departure of St. John and
his colleague. But circumstances were now changed; success had enlarged
the pretensions of the parliament; and the British, instead of shunning,
courted a trial of strength with the Belgic lion. First, the Dutch
merchantmen were visited under the pretext of searching for munitions of
war, which they were carrying to the enemy; and then, at the representation
of certain merchants, who conceived themselves to have been injured by the
Dutch navy, letters of marque were granted to several individuals, and more
than eighty prizes brought into
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 179, 183, 188-195. Heath, 285-287. Carte's
Letters, i. 464. Leicester's Journal, 107. Parl. History, xx. 496.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. June 14.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. June 20.]
the English ports.[1] In addition, the navigation act had been passed and
carried into execution,[a] by which 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.
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