intained that these seas were
public, and open to all the world; and they had a vast number of
fishing boats, called herring-busses, that used to resort to them for
the purpose of catching herring, which they made a business of
preserving and sending all over the world. The English ships attacked
these fleets of herring-busses, and drove them off; and as the Dutch
were not strong enough to defend them, they agreed to pay a large sum
annually for the right to fish in the seas in question, protesting,
however, against it as an extortion, for they maintained that the
English had no control over any seas beyond the bays and estuaries of
their own shores.

One of the chief means which Charles depended upon during the long
period that he governed without a Parliament, was a certain famous
tribunal or court called the _Star Chamber._ This court was a very
ancient one, having been established in some of the earliest reigns;
but it never attracted any special attention until the time of
Charles. His government called it into action a great deal, and
extended its powers, and made it a means of great injustice and
oppression, as the people thought; or, as Charles would have said, a
very efficient means of vindicating his prerogative, and punishing the
stubborn and rebellious.

There were three reasons why this court was a more convenient and
powerful instrument in the hands of the king and his council than any
of the other courts in the kingdom. First, it was, by its ancient
constitution, composed of members of the _council_, with the exception
of two persons, who were to be judges in the other courts. This plan
of having two judges from the common law courts seems to have been
adopted for the purpose of securing some sort of conformity of the
Star Chamber decisions with the ordinary principles of English
jurisprudence. But then, as these two law judges would always be
selected with reference to their disposition to carry out the king's
plans, and as the other members of the court were all members of the
government itself, of course the court was almost entirely under
governmental control.

The second reason was, that in this court there was no jury. There had
never been juries employed in it from its earliest constitution. The
English had contrived the plan of trial by jury as a defense against
the severity of government. If a man was accused of crime, the judges
appointed by the government that he had offended were not to be