THE JURIDICAL CONTROVERSIES 371 



modern, showed that the sea was capable of private dominion, 

 and that such dominion or appropriation was therefore not 

 contrary either to the law of nature or the law of nations. 

 In support of his argument Selden drew freely upon the 

 vast stores of his erudition. He began, like Welwood, by 

 quoting Scriptures to show that the divine law (jus divinum) 

 allowed private dominion in the sea, and that according to 

 the opinion of those learned in the Jewish law, a great 

 part of the sea washing the west coast of the Holy Land 

 had been annexed to the land of Israel by the appointment 

 of God. Among almost all the nations of antiquity, he 

 said, it was the custom to admit private dominion in the 

 sea, and many of them exercised maritime sovereignty. 1 

 Among modern nations, sovereignty was exercised by the 

 Venetians in the Adriatic, by the Genoese in the Ligurian 

 Sea, by the Tuscans and Pisans in the Tyrrhenian Sea, 

 and by the Pope over a part of the sea called Mare Ecclesice. 

 Then the sovereignty claimed by the Spaniards and Portuguese, 

 and the maritime dominion of the Danes and Norwegians, 

 were notorious. Even the Poles and the Turks possessed 

 sovereignty in the Baltic and the Black Sea respectively. 



How then could it be denied, with all these examples, 

 ancient and modern, that the sea could not be appropriated ? 

 Selden indeed agreed with Grotius in repudiating the 

 sovereignty claimed by Spain and Portugal in the great 

 oceans, not, however, because it was opposed to reason and 

 nature, but because it was founded on no legitimate title, 

 and these nations had not a sufficient naval force to assert 

 and maintain it. 2 



As to the free use of the sea, Selden admits that to 

 prohibit innocent navigation would be contrary to the 

 dictates of humanity ; 3 but he held that the permitting of 

 such innocent navigation does not derogate from the dominion 



1 Besides the Romans and the Carthaginians, he mentions as among these the 

 Cretans, Lydiaus, Thracians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Lacedemonians, and a great 

 many more ; but in most cases the evidence adduced shows merely that naval 

 power was exercised. 



2 Lib. i. cap. xvii. 



3 Lib. i. cap. xx. " Quod ad genus primum attinet (commerce, travelling, navi- 

 gation) ; humanitatis quidem officia exigunt, ut hospitio excipiantur peregrini 

 etiam ut innoxius non negetur transitus." . . 



