HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA 557 



of the particular state. It was the rule, in England at 

 least, that "the sea should salute the land," and the range 

 of guns determined the limit within which the salute ought 

 to be rendered. Beyond the reach of cannon no salute was 

 expected; within it usage, international courtesy, or the law, 

 required it. No foreign ship with its flag aloft could come 

 within range of an English fort or castle without exposing 

 itself to the risk of a shot. It is indeed a curious circum- 

 stance, that it was largely through the action of England 

 with regard to the salute that the acceptance of the cannon- 

 range limit was facilitated. The relation of the ceremony 

 to the sovereignty of a state was forced by her prominently 

 into international politics. Before the time of Selden and 

 Charles I. jurists paid little attention to the matter, but 

 afterwards they dealt with it as a department of international 

 law : Loccenius and Bynkershoek, for example, each devotes 

 a chapter to it. Even when the English were most actively 

 asserting "the honour of the flag," they recognised the rights 

 of foreign states within the actual range of guns on their 

 shore. In 1636 the Earl of Northumberland was instructed 

 by the Admiralty not to enforce the salute within the command 

 of the guns of forts on foreign coasts, an order which was 

 repeated by the Parliament in 1647, 1 and became the rule in 

 the service. Molloy, a vehement supporter of the most extreme 

 claims of England to the sovereignty of the seas, stated in 

 1676 that English men-of-war entering a foreign harbour, or 

 "the road within shot of cannon of some fort or castle," 

 were to pay such respect as was usually there expected. 2 

 The gunshot limit had been long established in connection 

 with another international relationship namely, the right of 

 visitation of neutral vessels in the open sea. Many treaties 

 had been made which stipulated that the visiting ship was 

 not to approach nearer than within cannon-shot, and was 

 then to send one of its boats with a few men to conduct the 

 examination necessary. It is, moreover, extremely probable 

 that with respect to what was in those times the principal 

 attribute of the territorial waters viz., the rights and obliga- 

 tions of neutrals the gunshot limit, at the least, was recognised 

 where guns were actually in position. In view of the general 



1 See p. 381. 2 De Jure Maritimo, p. 150. 



