Drake, Raleigh and Cavendish to perform those voyages that have given their names so conspicuous a place among the early voyagers of England. Drake, in circumnavigating the world, had sailed through those seas to which Spain laid exclusive claim, and which prompted her to make it a matter of complaint to the English court.* Not content with this remonstrance and prohibiting trade to America, she, in 1600, prohibited all trade to the Indies, and from this date her history for a long period is but a continual repetition of wars upon England and Holland to drive them from those long coveted possessions. If any monarch or any empire was ever capable of enforcing such a restriction, it was the monarch of and the empire of Spain and Portugal, then united under Philip II. He was at that time the richest monarch of Europe, both as regarded his political power and princely possessions. Under him was fitted out that Invincible Armada that was to have triumphantly asserted his claim to the dominion of the sea, but which was scattered by nature itself, as if she was conscious of the violation of her laws which he proposed to commit. By the defeat of this fleet he was obliged to concede to Holland the right to trade to the Indies, and leave England in the peaceable possession of the acquirements she had there made. We see but little for a century from this date which seems worthy of notice as regards the maritime pretensions of Spain; but, as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, she again put in practice her early assumptions. Though, at first, her efforts were directed to the encouragement of the Ostend Company, hoping by the success of this project, to undermine the East India trade of England and Holland, (through the aid of Austrian subjects in the Low Countries); yet, a little later, in a note addressed to the Court of Great Britain, she says, (when attempting to conceal her treaty with Austria, by which she had stipulated to that power aid in carrying out that plan,) "should this treaty be made (i. e. the Ostend part of it) without reserving to itself (Spain) the exclusive right of navigation to the Indies, Holland might complain," &c. Here was the same assumption of dominion as that put forth when she was at the hight of her power, nor was it an idle, unmeaning declaration; for she soon began her seizures of British ships sailing to the American colonies. All vessels sailing within a certain distance of her possessions, were seized by her privateers, or rigorously searched and insolently examined by her cruisers. In 1729 she had taken 130 ships and sloops, valued at £1,300,000. Such outrages as these awakened in England universal_indignation,|| and the result was that by the treaty of Seville she was obliged to renounce the secret treaty with Austria, and again guaranty the same rights to Holland that she had endeavored to destroy; and from that day she commenced her decline from a mighty maritime nation, to a state too insignificant to attract any notice and too weak to awaken any fear. As Portugal was often the ally of her pride, so she is now the partner of her degradation; and the two nations stand as a warning to all others to never assert a principle and war for it, when it is contrary to right reason, the precepts of God, and the law of nations. Elizabeth answered this protest by observing that the sea was common to all, and no one had a right to forbid the navigation of it.-Oriental Commerce. + Discourse on the Present State of Spain. 1601. Biographe Universelle. The position of Spain at this time and the nature of her claims will be found discussed at length, under Enquiry into the Reasons of the Conduct of Great Britain with Relation to the Present state of Foreign Affairs. London: 1727. Answer, Rejoinder, and further remarks. 1729. Also Historical Register, vol. xi., 1724, and xv., 1729, containing the treaty of Seville." From these more southern and polite nations, in whose bosoms had flourished the arts, Commerce, and manufactures, we turn to those northern States, whose hordes desolated Rome, and left upon Italy for centuries the indelible marks of their barbarism. As early as 570 the Danes, by their maritime depredations, had given great trouble to the Roman emperors, and by the eighth century, they carried death, devastation, and destruction, to England, Ireland, and the countries around the Hellespont, and left as the remembrancer of their deeds, their devastations in Germany, the sack of Paris, and the ruthless slaughter of all foes, and handed down to posterity the character of their nation and king, as chronicled in the death-song of Regner Lodbrag.* As rovers and pirates the northern nations were unequaled, yet, like their more refined neighbors, they levied a tax upon all who visited the seas over which they claimed dominion, and exacted from that nation over whose sea they claimed rule, a tribute, to save them from instant destruction and annihilation. But to follow in detail their history, would elicit no new fact as regards the form of their claim, so we close by remarking that from claiming dominion over all the seas adjacent to Scandinavia and Britain, they have dwindled down to a single sound, and modern enterprise bids fair to render that claim worthless.† Such are a few of the many nations that have asserted this claim to property in the seas, and as we turn away from them and their assumption, we come, not to a nation actuated (as we might wish) by liberal views, enlightened ideas, and noble political principle, but to one which, in asserting the dominion of the seas, combined in her claim, the vanity of an Athenian, the pride of a Roman, the insolence of a Spaniard, and the rapaciousness of a Portuguese. For this reason we propose to examine in detail the claim of England to the dominion of the seas, as shown by her acts and the writings of her learned and distinguished men. Though Edgar, and some other kings that succeeded him, properly belong to the Danish marauders, yet, as he was seated on the throne of England, we will commence our history with him, briefly remarking, that in 937 he fitted out a fleet of four hundred sail, for the express purpose of asserting his claim to the dominion of the British seas. Arriving at Chester, eight kings met him, and with their own hands rowed his boat down that river to the sea, and his courtiers argued that this act was an acknowledgement of his sovereignty over the Ocean. Canute, his successor, reasserted his claims, and under circumstances so peculiar, that we cannot help recurring to them:-"Walking by the sea. shore with his courtiers, they told him the seas were his, whereupon he ordered his chair to be brought, and sitting in it said to the sea, As the land is my land, so is the sea my sea;' and from that day he became the assertor of the right."§ Upon the accession of King Arthur, he caused all nations to strike their topsails to his men-of-war, as a sign of his sovereignty over the seas;|| and old King John declared, that he who would not make whole fleets strike their topsails to a single men-of-war, should be deemed an enemy, though he were before a friend. Of these early mon • Blackwood. A company is now being formed and ere this is organized, for the purpose of constructing a railroad that will obviate the necessity of vessels passing the Sound.-London Times. Collection of English History. By Danyls. Camden's Britiana, where a facsimile of one of his coins is given, and explanations on the same, by Walchen. 1 Jacob's Law Dictionary. Sir Lionel Jenkins's note to the mediator at Cologne. archs, we think no one asserted more ostentatiously his claim than Edward. In the language of an early chronicler, "The grand navie of King Edward, 4,000 vessels and 100,000 men, sailed yearly round the Isle of Albion and the lesser isles, and he could not choose, I say, but by such full and peaceable possession, find himself (according to right and his heart's desire) the true and sovereign monarch of all the British ocean.' Another chronicle found in Trinity Church, thus speaks his praise: "But King Edward made a seige royal, And wanne (won) the town; and in especial Of the succeeding monarchs, we deem but few worthy of notice, except to remark of Richard II. that he levied a tax of sixpence on all vessels fishing in the British seas, and his example was imitated by Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII. Thus far the assertion of this right had been made by men of iron nerve and unflinching purpose; but a new era was opening, and a delicate woman gave this claim a form it never before posssesed, and a life and energy never before infused into it. The period in which she came to the throne was pregnant with the fate of empires, and all Europe was rousing from the lethargic slumber of centuries, and seeking, by discoveries, war, conquest, and Papal grants, new additions to their somewhat limited domains. Commerce also began to unfold its latent powers, and manufactures to give new life and vivacity to the dormant energies of nations. Spain, with its possessions in America; Portugal, with its riches of the Indies; Holland, with its then infant mercantile marine, and the Hanseatic towns with their decaying trade, were all struggling for ascendancy and prominence; and the two first powers were hurling defiance at the Virgin Queen, and bidding her keep the limits of her own narrow seas. To recount the deeds of Drake, Cumberland, and Cavendish, would require volumes; suffice it to say, they conquered in every sea, and their mistress, in her turn, claimed the very dominion she once had denied. Upon her coins was the image of a port cullis, signifying her power to shut up the sea; nor was it an idle assumption, for in her wars with Spain, she refused to the king of Denmark and the Hanseatic towns, the liberty of carrying corn to Lisbon, and when they, in defiance of her, attempted it, she destroyed their ships upon the very shores of Spain, giving as her reason for the destruction of them, "that they had presumptuously made use, of her sea without obtaining her royal permission for so doing." All England was wild with delirium at her success, and gloried in the extent of her claims, while the pious ministers of Christ, when eulogizing her character, boastingly said:"She extended her dominion over our own seas, over the ocean, and the Mediterane in." Nor did the claim into which she infused such vigorous life, expire with her, but James, upon his accession, issued his edict forbidding any foreign vessels fishing in the British seas without a license. Yet, if history may be trusted, the edict was merely formal, and for thirty years the Dutch pursued unmolested, their fisheries in the British Channel. But a new phase was to be put upon the aspect of these con Hakluyt's Voyages, Travels, Discoveries, etc. vol. i., 10, 217. + De Jure Maritima et Navalis. Rapin says she destroyed them for having contraband goods, but does not deny the assumption of sovereignty as claimed by her. Vol. ix., book 17. Gilbert's (bishop of Sarum) Essay on Queen Elizabeth. The value of Holland's fisheries at this time, as estimated by Sir Walter Raleigh, was £1,750,000, employing 3,000 ships, and 50,000 men; and these gave employment to 9,000 other ships, and 150,000 persons, by sea and land.-Anderson's Commerce. stant, and, as was asserted, unwarrantable encroachments on England's rights, and though Rapin asserts that it was because Charles wished for a pretence for continuing ship money, that the privilege, after thirty years' forbearance was called in question, still we must candidly admit that we believe it was provoked by the Mare Liberum of Grotius. This famous work of Grotius was answered by the learned Selden in his Mare Claussum, and so extraordinary were the claims that were put forward and attempted to be proved by this book, that we feel we shall be pardoned for briefly referring to it, and show upon what ground that acknowledged expounder of England's assumptions bases his arguments and supports his pretensions. Let us remark in the commencement, that Grotius, in his Mare Liberum, asserted that the fisheries, by the law of nature and nations,* were free, and that upon these grounds only did the Dutch claim the right of fishing. The laws of nations he defined to be those to which most civilized nations had given their assent, or, to use his own language:-"As the laws of each state respect the benefit of that state, there might be, and in fact are, some laws agreed on by common consent, which respect the advantage not of any body in particular, but all in general. And this is what is called the Law of Nations when used in distinction from the Law of Nature." After giving some of Grotius' authorities, that the sea could not be made property, and defining the law of nations in almost the same words as his distinguished rival, Selden commences his labors by citing those nations that had asserted the claim, taking the fabulous, legendary, and historical accounts. of the various nations and states who had arrogated to themselves property in the sea. He begins with the mythological account of Jupiter, giving Pluto the infernal world and Neptune the sea, then takes the legendary tale of Minos, Crete's first king, then the various historic nations, as Egypt, Syria, and nineteen of her States, the Oriental nations, Greece and all of its little powers, and then Rome, the conqueror of them all, together with the claims of the pontiffs, the various States of Italy, Germany, and the Northern nations, and among all others the Jews, whom Josephus asserts§ were not in his time nor never were a commercial and maritime people. He devotes his second book mostly to the claim of England, dating it back even before the birth of Christ, and tracing it downward to his own time. The reader can see by this brief summary, that his research was almost boundless; but to judge of his labors we should read the poets, philosophers, statesmen, lawyers, and historians, of every tongue and clime, whom he liberally quoted, to sustain his assertions and substantiate his facts. Truly if the Law of Nations had rested on the ground upon which Grotius placed it, all must have confessed the truthfulness of Selden's remark, (in his Titles of Honor,)** when speaking of Edgar's title, who styled himself, "By the clemency of the Thunderer God, Imperator and Lord of the British Isle and the seas circumjacent,") that in his "Mare Claussum, wrote about 1630,ff for The king in council, March 26, 1635, ordered Selden's Mare Claussum to kept in the councilchest, Court of Exchequer, and Court of Admiralty, as strong and faithful evidence of the Dominion of the Seas.-History of England. + De Jure Belli ac Pacis. He refers to the true bull of which we have already spoken. Josephus's Letter to Appius. To prove the correctness of his assertion, Selden quotes the writings of the Rabbi Jehudra, and Aben Ezra, both of whom maintained that the sea before the land of Palestine was the property of the Jews, lib. i., cap. 6. Grotius reasserted these principles in the Preliminaries to his De Jure Bellis a Pacis. Janui Seldini Jurisconsulti Opera Omnia. Tam edita quam inedita. London. 1776. Vol. iii. tt It was not printed till 1635, and then only in Latin. the assertion of the marine dominion or empire of the Crown of England, where also that great question touching the sea being capable of dominion, is largely disputed, and the affirmative clearly and fully concluded, especially out of the law or custom of almost all nations known on the earth." But the moment Selden quitted the field of historic research, and attempted to combat the proposition of Grotius and Vasquez, that the sea was free to all, and destined to be so; that it was not, like other property, divided and divisible, he at once showed the weakness of his defense against these selfevident truths, by impugning the veracity of Vasquez, and asserting that the air as well as the sea could be made property and be appropriated by men. The law of nations, as laid down by Grotius, proved the wreck, (in later days) of Selden's whole argument, for by it might have been proved that might made right, and that even piracy was justified by the customs and usages of nations. But the monarch for whom he wrote cared not for the self evident truthfulness of a principle, and in 1636 he attacked with his fleet the fishing busses of the Dutch, who ransomed themselves by paying £30,000. During the few succeeding years this claim seems to have slept; but when Cromwell was firmly seated at the head of the commonwealth, it awakened, strengthened and invigorated by its long repose. The Dutch fleet meeting an English one in the Channel, refused to strike their sail, and from this little affair, and so-deemed affront to England's supremacy of the seas, a war arose, which ended, as all the other wars of the Protector did, in favor of England; and though two centuries have passed since those deeds were performed, that shed a halo of glory round the Commonwealth's name, yet we seem almost to hear Cromwell telling his parlia ment, that Portugal had ceased her insolence, Holland lowered her flag at his bidding, and that Denmark had given the same liberal privileges to English vessels passing the sound, as she had to the Dutch and thus all had conceded to England the dominion of the seas. The treaty thus concluded by the Dutch with England left them the liberty of fishing, nor were they disturbed in this pursuit till the time of Charles II. War at this time breaking out, and the Lord Keeper, as the mouth-piece of the king thus spoke:-"The Dutch, no recompense offered, nor so much as leave asked for the liberty of fishing upon our coast; and yet the right of our sole fishing is so clear, that we find in our ancient rolls of Parliament, in the times of Richard II., a tax laid upon all strangers who fish in our seas, and this not by way of custom when they come into our ports, but by way of tribute for fishing in our seas; and this evidence of his majesty's dominion within his own seas, hath been in all ages downward preserved in some measure until the time of the late usurper, who for private reasons first abandoned it. As to the flag this is the thing shall be done: whole fleets shall strike their sails to single ships, and they shall do it out of his majes Azgunt, a distinguished jurisconsult of Naples, whose writings we have before referred to, says, in speaking of Selden's work, that as it defended the right of property in the sea, it was generally regarded by the jurisconsults of Europe as a weak defense of that principle. Hume thus notices this attack: 1636. The effect of the ship-money began now to appear. A formidable feet of sixty sail, the greatest that England had ever known, was equipped under the Earl of Northumberland, who had orders to attack the herring busses of the Dutch, which fished in what was called the British Sea; the Dutch were content to pay £30,000 for a license that year. They openly denied, however, the claim of dominion of the seas beyond the friths, bays, and shores, and it may be questioned whether the laws of nations warrant any further pretension." + Cromwell's Speech in the Painted Chamber, (Sept. 4, 1654,] took by one who stood very near him, and published to prevent mistakes. London: printed for George Sawbridge at the Bible, Laudgate Hill, 1656." |