2 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



its truth was by no means confined to rulers and statesmen. 

 The people at large have always been as convinced and as 

 resolved that the supremacy or dominion on the sea should be 

 maintained as were those in whose hands was placed the 

 guidance of the affairs of the state. Again and again, when 

 owing to mismanagement of the national resources, the poverty 

 of the exchequer, or from some other cause, the supremacy at 

 sea was endangered or temporarily lost, one will find the 

 people clamouring for steps to be taken to maintain it. On 

 the other hand, such was the deep and abiding sentiment with 

 respect to the sovereignty of the sea, when this king or tha 

 wished to embark upon a policy or engage in a war for an object 

 that was secret or unpopular, there was no better method of 

 deceiving the people than by declaring that the dominion of 

 the sea was in danger. Thrice in the compass of a single 

 generation the nation was plunged into war with the object of 

 maintaining it. 



One thus finds in English history a great deal which refers 

 to the sovereignty of the sea, although the words were not 

 always used to signify the same thing. Most commonly per- 

 haps they meant a mastery or supremacy by force of arms, 

 what is now so much spoken of as sea-power. In times of 

 peace, the strength of the navy should be such as to safeguard 

 the commerce that came to the realm and went from it, thus 

 enabling merchants and traders to carry on their traffic in 

 security. In time of war, the fleets should be strong enough 

 to sweep the seas, so that, as it has been described, the 

 bounds of the empire should then be the coasts of the 

 enemy. But, more strictly, the sovereignty of the sea was a 

 political sovereignty that existed as a matter of right, and 

 was duly recognised as such, apart from an actual predomin- 

 ance of naval power at the time, just as the sovereignty of a 

 state exists on land, though in both cases its maintenance 

 may depend upon the sword. In this sense, the sovereignty 

 of the sea signified the same sole power of jurisdiction and 

 rule as obtained on land, and also, in its extreme form, an 

 exclusive property in the sea as part of the territory of the 

 realm, very much indeed like the rights that are now admitted 

 by the law of nations to appertain to the so-called territorial 

 waters of a state. Many things and many interests were thus 



