Cromwell took pains to let the Estates of Holland know his favourable feelings towards them by sending over, in February, a private emissary, Colonel Dolman, a soldier who had served in the Netherland wars.  On his part John de Witt succeeded in persuading the Estates of Holland to send secretly, without the knowledge of the States-General, letters to the English Council of State and the Parliament expressing their desire to open negotiations.  Thus early did the new council-pensionary initiate a form of diplomacy in which he was to prove himself an adept.  This first effort was not a success.  The Parliament published the letter with the title “Humble Supplication of the States of Holland.”  The indignation of the Orange partisans was great, and they threatened internal disturbances throughout the country.  Such however was the skill of De Witt that, on Parliament showing a willingness to resume the negotiations that had been broken off in the previous summer, he induced the States-General by a bare majority (four provinces to three) to send a conciliatory letter, the date of which (April 30, 1653) coincided with Cromwell’s forcible dissolution of the Rump Parliament and the assumption by him, with the support of the army, of dictatorial powers.  The English Council of State, however, was well informed of the serious economical pressure of the war upon Holland; and their insistence now on the full satisfaction of all the English demands made a continuation of hostilities inevitable.

Tromp, after successfully bringing in two large convoys of merchantmen, encountered (June 12), near the Gabbard, the English fleet under Monk and Deane.  Each fleet numbered about 100 sail, but the Dutch ships were inferior in size, solidity and weight of metal.  For two days the fight was obstinately and fiercely contested, but on Blake coming up with a reinforcement of thirteen fresh ships, Tromp was obliged to retreat, having lost twenty ships.  He complained bitterly, as did his vice-admirals De Ruyter and De With, to the Board of Admiralty of the inferiority of the vessels of his fleet, as compared with those of the adversary.

The English now instituted a blockade of the Dutch coast, which had the effect of reducing to desperate straits a land whose welfare and prosperity depended wholly on commerce.  Amsterdam was ruined.  In these circumstances direct negotiation was perforce attempted.  Four envoys were sent representing the three maritime provinces.  At first it seemed impossible that any common ground of agreement could be found.  Cromwell was obsessed with the idea of a politico-religious union between the two republics, which would have meant the extinction of Dutch independence.  The Council of State met the Dutch envoys with the proposal una gens, una respublica, which nothing but sheer conquest and dire necessity would ever induce the Dutch people to accept.  Accordingly the war went on, though the envoys did not leave London, hoping