Stowe MS 301

POLITICAL and other tracts, viz.:-

1. Treatise on a war with Spain in the Low Countries, urging the disadvantages of it; beg. "The tyme of the daie is to be considered." f. 2.

2. " The number of Fleetes, 'besides the shippes mayneteyned in the Narrow Seas, that her Majestie set forth from the yeere 1585 until the yeere 1603, and what profitt retorned to her Majestie in the 18 yeere of warr." f. 8 b.

3. " A project how to increase two hundred scale of shippes ready upon all suddaine occasion to be sent to sea, if his Majestie "shall have cause," viz. by protecting the Newcastle coal trade by "prohibitiiig the stran-ers to fetch the coales at Newcastell, and for us to make a staple of coales at London and Wollage [Woolwich] for all strangers to fetche them there." f. 9.

4. A discussion on the North-West Passage, arguing that it would be useless if discovered ; beg. " There are three thinges to be considered in this pretended jorney." f. 10 b. The whole of the volume is in one band, and on the cover is the date 25 March, 1624. This, however, can only be the date of the copy, the first article having evidently been written in 1615-1618, and the fourth in 1612, the year after Hudson's last voyage. Paper; ff. 18. Small folio.

includes:

• f. 2 Political Tracts: On a war with Spain in the Low Countries, 1615-18: 1624.
• f. 8 b Navy; England: "The number of Fleetes that her Majestie set forth " from 1585 to 1603.
• f. 9 Navy; England: "Project how to increase two hundred seale of ships . . . if his Majestie shall have cause ": 1624.
• f. 10 b Voyages and Travels: Treatise on the North-West Passage: 1612.
• f. 10 b North-West Passage: Treatise on: 1612.