370 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



disposing his material and arguments to the best advanta^ 

 In learning at least he far surpassed Grotius, and he was nc 

 inferior to his illustrious contemporary in ingenuity of reasoi 

 ing. It was Selden's misfortune that the cause he champione 

 was moribund, and opposed to the growing spirit of freedor 

 throughout the world. At the same time it must be said that 

 apart from its extreme doctrines as to the sovereignty 

 England in the seas, it more correctly represented what ai 

 now the admitted principles as to the appropriation of the 

 adjacent sea than did most of the works written on the othei 

 side, not excepting even those of Grotius. 



But in relation to the cause for which it was written, the 

 merit of Mare Clausum lay not merely in the enunciation of 

 the theoretical and legal aspects of the claim to maritime 

 sovereignty, but also in the imposing array of historical facts 

 and arguments by which the right of England was sought to 

 be established. The defects of the work are scarcely less 

 apparent. There is no ground to suppose that Selden was 

 guilty of the offence attributed to him by some of his foreign 

 critics, of inventing part of the evidence he cites. But the 

 interpretation he placed upon much of it was strained 

 erroneous. Great conclusions were drawn from things whic 

 had in reality no connection with his case; laws and event 

 which referred solely to English subjects were improperly 

 extended to include foreigners ; the bearing of many recoi 

 was misrepresented, others were passed over in silence, or, 

 with the " Burgundy " treaties, referred to in such a way as 

 distort their plain meaning. 



In the first book the author endeavours to prove th 

 the sea is not everywhere common, but is capable 

 appropriation, and has been in fact in numerous 

 appropriated. The objections to that opinion are classifi* 

 in three groups : first, that it is contrary to the law 

 nature and the law of nations to forbid free commeix 

 and navigation; second, that the physical nature of tl 

 sea, its fluidity and fluxion, renders it incapable of occi 

 pation; third, the opinions of certain learned men. Ht 

 argued that the ancient law as to the community of thin| 

 had become modified in certain particulars, and that tl 

 received practice and custom of many nations, ancient 



