vessel taken, and £6, 13s. 4d. for every piece of ordnance, "this to be shared amongst them proportionately, according to their respective offices in the ship, and the custom of the sea." What was probably not less agreeable to the sailors was an order that they should have the pillage, that is to say, the right to appropriate at once, as booty, whatever was found on or above the gun-deck of a prize, while a reward of £10 per gun was to be paid for every vessel destroyed. If they could have been fairly carried out, these conditions would have done much to reconcile men to the navy, but, as has been already said, the chronic want of money both of the Council of State and, in later times, of the Protector, drove them to fail in their promises of payment, and to lay hands upon the money in the possession of the Commissioners of Prizes. Yet these Governments strove hard to make both ends meet, and did resolutely endeavour to stop pilfering in the administration of the navy. By expedients and hard work they contrived to keep powerful fleets at sea in an efficient condition. CHAPTER VIII THE LATTER HALF OF THE WAR The only satisfactory account I have met of the sea fights of 1653 and the transactions at Leghorn are given by the letters printed at length in the Calendar of State Papers of the Interregnum for this year. It is on them that this chapter is based, in addition to authorities named above. During the pause in hostilities between the end of February and the end of May, the scene of operations of the two fleets was shifted from the Channel to the North Sea. It was well understood on the English side that the most effectual way of breaking the power of the Dutch was to attack them on their own coast. Our headquarters were fixed for the brief remains of the war at Yarmouth and Harwich. The violent measure by which Cromwell ended for the time the existence of the Long Parliament made no change in the conduct of the naval war. It was on the 19th of April that he suddenly burst in on the eloquence of Sir Henry Vane by declaring that there had been too much of this, put his hat on, and ordered Colonel Harrison's regiment of musketeers to turn the honourable members into the street. His action was accepted, and had no doubt been foreseen, by the officers commanding the fleet, and the men followed the lead of their superiors. At a meeting of naval officers held on board the =Resolution= at Spithead on the 22nd of April 1653, a general declaration of adhesion to Cromwell was drawn up. It leaves no doubt that the fleet was at least prepared to accept Cromwell as the effectual ruler of England. It was addressed to the Council of Officers, and is as follows:--