Vlll PREFACE 



claim to a special sovereignty or dominion over the so-called 

 British Seas was a doctrine of the Stuarts, introduced from 

 Scotland to England with that dynasty, and terminating with 

 it. It was aimed in particular against the Dutch, whose 

 commerce, shipping, wealth, and power were believed to be 

 derived from the fisheries which they carried on along the 

 coasts of this country. Hence a very considerable part of the 

 work refers to the dealings and negotiations with that people 

 as to the liberty of fishing and the homage to the flag. Such 

 pretensions to extensive maritime sovereignty gradually de- 

 cayed and disappeared, but the troubles and disputes as to 

 the rightful jurisdiction of a State in the waters adjacent to 

 its coasts have continued to the present day, and are dealt 

 with in the second section of the book. Scarcely a year passes 

 that does not witness one or more international differences 

 of this kind, notably with respect to fisheries, and in various 

 quarters of the globe it may be now on the coasts of Portugal 

 and Spain, or in the Pacific and South America, or again at 

 the White Sea, each case giving rise to international negotia- 

 tions and discussions as to the common usage and the Law 

 of Nations. 



One great group of such questions, which for long formed 

 a troublesome heritage of the British Foreign Office, concerns 

 the fisheries on the coasts of British North America. Under 

 various treaties, some of them old, France and the United 

 States possess special rights in these fisheries, the true nature 

 of which has occasioned numerous disputes. It is a happy 

 circumstance of recent years that those differences have now 

 been composed. The agreement with France in 1905 settled 

 the question of the fishery rights of that Power at Newfound- 

 land, and the Award of the Permanent Court of International 

 Arbitration at The Hague in the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries 

 Arbitration, which was made last autumn while this work was 

 passing through the press, has in a manner equally satisfactory 

 settled the difficulties with the United States, a fortunate 

 result due in great part to the exceedingly able, lucid, and 



