552 DUTCH MISSIONS TO ENGLAND IN 1689 October originally the property of one of the allies, were recaptured before the enemy had taken them intra praesidia, that is, into one of his ports or into the protection of one of his fleets flying the pavilion} Cases of this kind were not infrequent, and the rise of international agreements to settle those in which a ship previously belonging to one ally was recaptured by another is symptomatic of the way in which war at sea was becoming more orderly and regular. The previous Dutch practice, when both the owner and the recaptor of the ship were Dutch, seems to have been more generous to the privateer than the English practice for English subjects.^ The general principle on which the scales were arranged was that, the longer the ship had been in the enemy's hands, the greater was the reward for recapturing it and the smaller the share given to the original owner. The negotiations of 1689 began with the Dutch placaet of 1677 as a basis,^ but an additional step was added to the scale by offering a reward of one-eighth of the value of the ship for re- capture within twenty-four hours, a time which with the Dutch had given a title to the same reward as forty-eight hours.* Later, however, the Dutch having made up their minds not to allow any reduction below one-sixth for privateers, this small salvage money was limited to warships, privateers being given the old fifth. In this, as in more important things, the Dutch showed themselves more inclined to encourage the industry of privateering by commercial favours and less able to regulate it than the English. It remains now to trace very briefly the military and naval negotiations of this year. There was already in existence the treaty of Westminster of 3 March 1678, renewed in 1685, of which the separate articles laid down the minimum limit for the strength of the contingents of the two aUies, with a provision for agreeing on an increase in case of need. The numbers for land-forces laid down in this treaty were 10,000 infantry from England, if she were coming to the assistance of the Dutch, and in the opposite case, 6,000. The naval contingent was, in either event, to be twenty ships. The contingents were to be under the command of the power which, having been attacked by
- The text is in Dumont, vol. vii, pt. ii, p. 301, but is there out of place, being
given iinder 22 October 1691 and not under the true date 26 October/5 November 1689. The delays about the signature of the agreement make the dating some- what difficult ; see the ambassadors' dispatches of 22 October/1 November, 25 Octo- ber/4 November, and Witsen to Heinsius 1/11 November.
- See Martens, Essai concemant les Armateura (Gottingen, 1795), cap. 3.
» Text dated 3/13 April 1677 in Oroot Placcaeiboek ; see also StcU. Ckn. Ses , 18/28 February 1678.
- Dispatches of the ambassadors, 17/27 September, 1/11, 15/25 October; Privy
Council Register, 14/24 October.
