MISCELLANIES. 



.'313 



Wing called into question in dis- 

 cussions with the Dutch, some men 

 of rank about the royal person who 

 had formerly heard of the work, 

 persuaded his Majesty to command 

 its publication. The manuscript 

 was therefore corrected and revised 

 by the author, and having been in- 

 spected by the King and some of 

 the council, was sent to the press 

 in that year. 



The preceding account is given 

 atlarge by Selden in his Vindicice 

 Maris Claiisi, by way of refutation 

 of what he considered as a gross 

 calumny advanced by Theodore 

 Graswinckel, in his " i\Iaris Liberi 

 Vindiciae adversus Petrum Baptis- 

 tum Burgum, Ligustici maritimi 

 Doininii Assertorem." That writer, 

 after quoting from Burgos the in- 

 formation that " Selden has lately 

 published au entire work on tlie 

 Dominion of the British Sea," 

 added, " Non mirum : virorum 

 enim ille inter seculi nostri pri- 

 micerios numerandus, et meliore 

 fortuna dignus, fati sui infelicitate, 

 carceris se non digni colonus erat. 

 Hinc ut exiret, seque libertati 

 amissa; redonandum sperare dare- 

 tur, animum ad scribendum ap- 

 pulit, et 

 Id sibi negotii credidit solum dari 

 Domino ut placerent quas fecis- 

 set fabulas. 

 Neque talia agitantem successus 

 destituit." (No wonder : for that 

 person, who may be numbered 

 among the first characters of our 

 age, and was worthy a better for- 

 tune, through the rigour of his 

 fate became the inhabitant of au 

 unmerited prison. That he might 

 be released from this confinement, 

 and hope to recover his lost liber- 

 ty, he applied himself to writing, 

 VoL.LIV. ' 



and " Thought it his sole business 

 to invent fables which might be 

 pleasing to his master"— nor did 

 his efforts fail of success.) 



By this narrative, therefore, and 

 that of hfis different imprisonments, 

 he makes it clear that the compo- 

 sition of this work was anterior to 

 his first confinement, and its pub- 

 lication posterior to his final en- 

 largement, with which it had n» 

 concern. Whether or not in it« 

 revision he made additions to fa- 

 vour the purposes of the court at 

 that time, could only be known 

 from a comparison of the two 

 manuscripts. 



The work bears the following 

 title: Mare Clausum, sen de Do- 

 minio Maris, Libri duo. Prima, 

 Mure, e Jure Naturce seu Genti- 

 um, omnium hominum non esse com- 

 mune, sed dominii privuti seu prn- 

 prietatis capax, pariter ac Tellti- 

 rem, demonslratur. Secuvdo, seri- 

 nissimum Mugnee Britannice regent 

 Maris circumjiui ut individu(e al- 

 que perpeluce Imperii Britannici 

 uppendicis,dominum esse, usseritur, 

 (The Closed Sea ; or, on the Domi- 

 nion of the Sea, two Books. In the 

 first, it is demonstrated that the 

 Sea, fiom the Law of Nature or of 

 Nations, is not common to all men, 

 but is the subject of property 

 equally with the land. In the se- 

 cond, the King of Great Britain is 

 asserted to be Lord of the circum- 

 fluent Sea, as an inseparable and 

 perpetual appendage of the British 

 empire.) It is de<licated to King- 

 Charles ; and the preface is dated 

 from the Inner Temple, Nov. 4, 



in the first part, Selden lays his 

 foundation deep in disquisitions on 

 the nature of right and dominion ; 



2 L and 



