410 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



It was soon apparent to the Council that the task of again 

 attempting formally to vindicate the claims of England to the 

 sovereignty of the seas, while Selden's Mare Clausum was at 

 their disposal, would be like painting the lily. They therefore 

 instructed the Committee for Foreign Affairs "to take order 

 for printing the book called Mare Clausum and Mr Dugard 

 to print it. 1 But simply to reprint Selden's work, with its 

 fulsome dedication to Charles II., and in the Latin tongue, 

 would not have served the purpose in view, and it was then 

 resolved to translate it. This task was assigned to Marcha- 

 'mont Needham, who had deserted the royalist cause and 

 placed his pen at the service of the Commonwealth, writing 

 the Mercurius Politicus, in which he had latterly the assist- 

 ance of Milton. 2 The translation was rapidly made, and the 

 work was published later in the year. 3 And just as the 

 original had been dedicated to the king, so now the trans- 

 lation was dedicated to " the Supreme Authority of the Nation, 

 the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England"; and 

 so pleased were the Council of State with it that they, on 

 8th November, ordered two hundred copies for their own use, 

 and paid Needham 200 for his labours, as the book, they 

 said, " learnedly asserted the rights and interests of the Com- 

 monwealth in the adjacent seas, and would be of good use for 

 these and future times." 4 



The "additional evidences" brought forward by Needham 



shaw, "A transcript of a record in the time of King John touching the striking of 

 sail ; brought in by Mr Ryley, Keeper of the Records in the Tower, by order of 

 the Council of State." It contains the following note by Ryley, referring, presum- 

 ably, to the Black Book of the Admiralty : "The French is in a very ancient and 

 fair MS. book amongst the rest of the maritime laws, and undoubtedly was a 

 record of the Admiralty Court, then in the possession of the registrar of that Court, 

 the names of the Lord Admiral and registrar being written at the beginning of the 

 book, which is now remaining with Mr Selden, and is of no less authority than 

 antiquity." 



1 State Papers, Dom., Interregnum, xxix. 48. 



2 Masson, Life of Milton, iv. 149, 226. 



3 Of the Dominion or Ownership of the Sea, written at first in Latin and entitulcd 

 Mare Clausum seu De Dominio Maris by John Selden, Esqr : translated into Eng- 

 lish and set forth with some Additional Evidences and Discourses by Marchamont 

 Needham. Published by special Command, London, 1652. Another edition, by 

 "J. H. Gent," was published in 1663, "perfected and restored." It is, however, 

 so far as Selden's text is concerned, merely Needham's translation, careful inspec- 

 tion showing that it was printed from the same type. 



4 State Papers, Dom., Interregnum, xxxiv. 31-49; vol. 33, No. 14. The copy 

 belonging to Cromwell, and bearing his autograph, was sold in 1908. 



