good Protestants though they were. Marvell never liked the Dutch, and
had he lived to see the Revolution must have undergone some qualms.

In 1652 the Commonwealth was at war with the United Provinces. Trade
jealousy made the war what politicians call "inevitable." This jealousy
of the Dutch dates back to Elizabeth, and to the first stirring in the
womb of time of the British navy. This may be readily perceived if we
read Dr. John Dee's "Petty Navy Royal," 1577, and "A Politic Plat (plan)
for the Honour of the Prince," 1580, and, somewhat later in date,
"England's Way to Win Wealth," 1614.[56:1]

These short tracts make two things quite plain--first, the desire to get
our share of the foreign fishing trade, then wholly in the hands of the
Dutch; and second, the recognition that England was a sea-empire,
dependent for its existence upon a great navy manned by the seafaring
inhabitants of our coasts.

The enormous fishing trade done in our own waters by the Dutch, the
splendid fleet of fishing craft with twenty thousand handy sailors on
board, ready by every 1st of June to sail out of the Maas, the Texel,
and the Vlie, to catch herring in the North Sea, excited admiration,
envy, and almost despair.

"O, slothful England and careless countrymen! look but on these
fellows that we call the plump Hollanders! Behold their diligence in
fishing and our most careless negligence! Six hundred of these
fisherships and more be great Busses, some six score tons, most of
them be a hundred tons, and the rest three score tons and fifty tons;
the biggest of them having four and twenty men, some twenty men, and
some eighteen or sixteen men apiece. So there cannot be in this fleet