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CLXXXV. Upon this concession, so humiliating to the countrymen of Ruyter and Van Tromp, so little to be expected by those who in 1667 had demolished Sheerness and set fire to Chatham, Bynkershoek (g) ingeniously remarks: “Usu scilicet maris et fructu contenti Ordines, aliorum "ambitioni, sibi non damnose, haud difficulter cedunt." And in his Treatise De Dominio Maris, published in 1702, and before the work from which the extract just cited is taken, he observes, on this Article of the Treaty: "Sed quod ita accipiendum est, ut omnes pactiones, quas, ut "bello abstineatur, paciscimur, nempe Anglis id competere, "quia in id convenit, per se enim nihil in eo mari habent, "præcipuum. Porro ut ita hoc accepi velim ut ne credamus Belgas eo ipso Anglis concessisse illius maris dominium, nam aliud est se subditum profiteri, aliud majestatem "alicujus populi comiter conservare (ut hæc explicat Pro"culus in Dig. xlix. t. 15, 7, de Captiv. et Postlim.); fit "hoc, ut intelligamus alterum populum superiorem esse, non "ut intelligamus, alterum non esse liberum " (h).

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CLXXXVI. France, however, as Mr. Wheaton observes, never formally acknowledged the British pretension. Louis XV. published an ordinance on April 15, 1689, not only forbidding his naval officers from saluting the vessels of other princes bearing a flag of equal rank, but, on the con

tibus se obviam dederint, sive illæ naves singulæ sint, vel in numero majori, si majestatis suæ Britannica aplustrum sive vexillum Jack appellatum gerant, prædictæ Unitarum Provinciarum naves aut navigia vexillum suum e mali vertice detrahent et supremum velum demittent, eodem modo parique honoris testimonio, quo ullo unquam tempore aut in illo loco antehac usitatum fuit, versus ullas Majestatis suæ Britannicæ aut antecessorum suorum naves ab ullis Ordinum Generalium suorumve antecessorum navibus.”—Tractatus Pacis inter Carolum II. Regem Magnæ Britanniæ et Ordines Generales fœderati Belgii, 1674, Art. 4. Bynkershoek, Quæst. J. P. 1. ii. c. xxi.

Temple's Memoirs, ii. p. 250.

Hume, vol. vi. c. lii,

Wheaton's Hist. pp. 155-6.

(g) Quæst. J. P. lib. i. cap. xxi.

(h) De Dominio Maris, cap. v.

trary, enjoining them to require the salute from foreign vessels in such a case, and to compel them by force, in whatever seas and on whatever coasts they might be found. This ordinance was plainly levelled at England. Accordingly, in the manifesto published by William III. on May 27, 1689, he alleged this insult to the British flag as one of the motives for declaring war against France (¿).

CLXXXVII. In another part of his very able treatise, Bynkershoek clearly and irrefragably lays down the principles of law applicable to the occupation of the sea:-"Totum, "qua patet, mare non minus jure naturali cedebat occupanti, "quam terra quævis, aut terræ mare proximum. Sed diffi"cilior occupatio, difficillima possessio; utraque tamen "necessaria ad asserendum dominium, jure videlicet gentium, "ad quod ea disputatio unice exigenda est. Nam ex iis, quæ cap. 1 enarravimus, certum est consequi, dominium "maris prima ab origine non fuisse quæsitum nisi occupa❝tione, hoc est, navigatione eo animo instituta, ut qui libera per vacuum ponit vestigia princeps, ejus, quod navigat, "maris esse velit dominus; certum est et porro consequi, non aliter id dominium retinere, quam possessione perpetua, "hoc est, navigatione, quæ perpetuo exercetur ad custodiam "maris, si exterum est, habendam: ea namque remissa, "remittitur dominium, et redit mare in causam pristinam, "atque ita rursus occupanti primum cedit" (j).

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CLXXXVIII. Thus the opinion of Sir Leoline Jenkins and Bynkershoek are in harmony upon this question; and in spite of the proclamation of William III. it does not appear

(i) Valin, Commentaire sur l'Ordonnance de la Marine, liv. v. tit. 1, p. 689: De la Liberté de la Pêche: "Que le droit de pavillon, qui appartient à la couronne d'Angleterre, a été disputé par son ordre (de Louis XIV); ce qui tende à la violation de notre souveraineté sur la mer, laquelle a été maintenue de tout temps par nos prédécesseurs, et que nous sommes aussi résolus de maintenir pour l'honneur de notre couronne et de la nation angloise."

Wheaton's History, p. 155–6.

(j) Bynkershoek, de Dominio Maris, cap. iii. pp. 365–6.

that Great Britian has ever again insisted upon any other limits to her or to other nations.

This right, however, was alluded to by Lord Stowell in his judgment in the Maria (k), a Swedish vessel sailing under convoy of an armed ship condemned for resisting the belligerents' visitation and search: "It might likewise" (he observes) "be improper for me to pass entirely without notice, as "another preliminary observation (though without meaning "to lay any particular stress upon it), that the transaction in "question took place in the British Channel close upon the "British coast, a station over which the Crown of England "has, from pretty remote antiquity, always asserted some"thing of that special jurisdiction which the sovereigns of "other countries have claimed and exercised over certain "parts of the seas adjoining to their coasts."

(k) 1 C. Rob. Adm. Rep. p. 352.

CHAPTER VII.

NARROW SEAS-STRAITS.

CLXXXIX. WITH respect to Straits (détroits de mer, Meerenge, freta), where there is, as Grotius says in the passage already cited, supra et infra fretum, both the shores of which belong to one nation, these may be subject to the proprietary rights of that nation. Or if the shores belong to several nations, then, according to Puffendorf (a), the dominion is

(a) Lib. iv. c. v. s. 7: "Aquandi ergo et lavandi usus nec magni est, nec nisi littorum accolis patet, et revera inexhaustus est. Inservit quoque aqua marina sali excoquendo; sed quo usu accola littorum duntaxat gaudent. Inexhaustum quoque et innoxiæ utilitatis est mare quantum ad navigationem. (Vid. 1. xxiii. s. 1. D. de Servit. præd. rust.) Verum sunt præter hos alii quoque usus maris, qui partim non penitus sunt inexhausti: partim populo maris accolæ occasionem damni præbere possunt, ut ex re ipsius non sit, omnes maris partes cuivis promiscue patere. Prioris generis est piscatio, et collectio rerum in mari nascentium. Piscatio etsi in mari fere sit uberior, quam in fluminibus aut lacubus: patet tamen ex parte eam exhauriri posse, et accolis maris maligniorem fieri, si omnes promiscue gentes propter littora alicujus regionis velint piscari; præsertim cum frequenter certum piscis, aut rei pretiosæ genus, puta, margaritæ, corallia, succinum, in uno tantum maris loco, eoque non valde spatioso inveniantur. Hic nihil obstat, quo minus felicitatem littoris aut vicini maris ipsorum accolæ potius, quam remotiores sibi propriam queant asserere; quibus cæteri non magis jure irasci aut invidere possunt, quam quod non omnis fert omnia tellus; India mittit ebur, molles sua thura Sabæi. Ex posteriori genere est, quod mare regionibus maritimis vicem munimenti præbet." And at the close of s. viii. he observes-" Ex hisce patet, hodie post rem navalem ad summum perductam fastigium, præsumi, quemvis populum maritimum, et cui ullus navigandi usus, esse dominum maris littoribus suis prætensi quousque illud munimenti rationem habere, censetur imprimis autem portuum, aut ubi alias commoda in terram exscensio fieri potest. (Bodinus de Rep. 1. i. c. ult. Baldi fide asserit: jure quodammodo principum omnium maris accolarum communi receptum esse, ut sexaginta milliaribus a littore Princeps legem ad littus accedentibus

distributed amongst them, upon the same principle as it would be among the several proprietors of the banks of a river: "eorum imperia, pro latitudine terrarum, ad medium "usque ejusdem pertinere intelligentur."

The exclusive right of the British Crown to the Bristol Channel, to the channel between Ireland and Great Britain (Mare Hibernicum, Canal de Saint-George), and to the channel between Scotland and Ireland, is uncontested. Pretty much in the same category were the three straits, forming the entrance to the Baltic, the Great and the Little Belt, and the Sound, so long as the two shores belonged to the Crown of Denmark (b); the straits of Messina (il Faro di Messina, fretum Siculum), once belonging to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies the straits leading to the Black Sea, the Dardanelles and Hellespont; the Thracian Bosphorus, belonging to the Turkish Empire (c). To narrow seas which flow between. separate portions of the same kingdom, like the Danish and Turkish straits, or to other seas common to all nations, like

:

dicere possit.) Sinus quoque maris regulariter pertinere ad eum populum, cujus terris iste ambitur; neque minus freta. Quod si autem diversi populi fretum, aut sinum accolant, eorum imperia pro latitudine terrarum ad medium usque ejusdem pertinere intelligentur; nisi vel per conventionem indivisim id imperium contra exteros exercere, ipsos autem promiscue inter se isto æquore uti placuerit; vel alicui soli in totum istum sinum aut fretum sit dominium quæsitum ex pacto, reliquorum concessione tacita, jure victoriæ, aut quia is prior ad id mare sedes fixerat, idque statim totum occupaverat, et contra adversi littoris accolam actus imperii exercuerat. Quo casu tamen nihilominus reliqui sinus aut freti accolæ suorum quisque portuum, tractusque littoralis domini esse intelligentur."-Puffendorf, de Jure Nat. et Gent. 1. iv. c. v. s. 8.

(b) Schlegel, Staatsrecht Dänemarks, p. 359. Vide supra, § clxxix. (c) Martens, 1. ii. c. i. s. 41, Des Mers adjacentes.

Grotius, l. ii. c. iii. s. 13, 2: "Videtur autem imperium in maris portionem eadem ratione acquiri qua imperia alia, id est, ut supra diximus, ratione personarum et ratione territorii. Ratione personarum, ut si classis, qui maritimus est exercitus, aliquo in loco maris se habeat: ratione territorii quatenus ex terra cogi possunt qui in proxima maris parte versantur, nec minus quam si in ipsa terra reperirentur."

Wheaton's Hist. pp. 577, 583, 585, 587. The peculiar law and history of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus will be found discussed later in connection with the Black Sea, § ccva.