514 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



never completed), and after submitting it to the king, published 

 it under a rather misleading title. 1 Notwithstanding the haste 

 shown, the book appeared too late. Peace had been concluded, 

 and the Dutch ambassador complained about it to the king. 

 Charles ordered it to be recalled, but with characteristic artifice 

 he instructed that the copies which were seized publicly to 

 pacify the ambassador should be immediately restored to the 

 printer, by which means the sales at least were much increased. 2 

 About the book itself little need be said. It is an ill-digested 

 and unveracious account of England's claim to the sovereignty 

 of the sea and the fishery, founded on Selden, Boroughs, and 

 less reputable writers. The author computed the arrears of 

 " rent " due by the Dutch, and which he said they had engaged 

 to pay for liberty of fishing, at over 500,000 ; and he falsified 

 the amount of "license -money" received by Northumberland 

 in 1636, although the Earl's journals, and many other docu- 

 ments, were placed at his disposal. The most severe criticism 

 of the work was made by the author himself, in a long and 

 remarkable letter which he sent to Pepys a few years later, 

 in which he repudiated, seriatim, all the "evidences" he 

 had adduced in favour of the English pretension. 3 



Another book of more influence than Evelyn's, because it 

 was for a long time considered the standard work on the 

 maritime law of England, and went through many editions, 

 was published by Molloy two years later; and in it the 

 English pretension received perhaps its most arrogant expres- 

 sion. 4 Notwithstanding the terms of the treaty of 1674, the 

 author declared that the striking of the flag was not a mere 



1 Navigation and Commerce ; their Original and Progress, 1674. 



2 Evelyn's Diary and Correspondence, ii. 90, 91 (ed. 1850). 



3 Evelyn to Pepys, 19th Sept. 1682. "To speake plaine truth," he says, "when 

 I writ that Treatise, rather as a philological exercise, and to gratifie the present 

 circumstances, I could not clearly satisfie myself in sundry of those particulars, nor 

 find realy that euer the Dutch did pay toll or tooke license to fish in Scotland after 

 the contest (with Spain) from any solid proofs. ... I think they neuer payd a 

 peny for it ... nor did I find that any rent (wheroff in my 108 page I calculate 

 the arrears) for permission to fish, was euer fixed by both parties." 



4 De Jure Maritimo et Navali, or a Treatise of Affaires Maritime and of Com- 

 merce, London, 1676. Editions were published in 1682, 1690, 1744, 1769, &c. It 

 is still quoted by writers on international law. Molloy was the author of a work 

 attacking the Dutch during the second Dutch war Holland's Ingratitude, or a 

 Serious Expostulation ivith the Dutch, <L-c., 1666. 



