156 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



political considerations. They said the United Provinces had 

 always been in peaceful possession of free fishing, and that from 

 time immemorial they had enjoyed complete liberty to fish over 

 the whole sea, both as a matter of usage and of right. To dis- 

 turb them by force in the enjoyment of that right would be 

 unjust. Besides, by the Law of Nations the boundless and 

 rolling sea was as common to all people as the air, " which no 

 prince could prohibit." No prince, they said, could " challenge 



Fig. 7. Facsimile of Minute of the Declaration of the Dutch Envoys 

 as to the range of guns. 



further into the sea than he can command with a cannon, 

 except gulfs within their land from one point to another," the 

 first occasion on which this principle for delimiting terri- 

 torial waters, afterwards so celebrated, appears to have been 

 advanced. 1 



1 State Papers, Dom., xlvii. 111. "2. For that it is by the La we of nacions, 

 no prince can Challenge further into the Sea then he can Coffiand wth a Cannon 

 except Gulfes wthin their Land from one point to an other. 3. For that the 

 boundlesse and rowlinge Seas are as Cotnon to all people as the ayre wch no prince 

 can prohibite." The paper is endorsed "Reasons vsed by the Hollanders for the 

 Continuance of Fishing Contrarie to the proclamation made in May 1609 forbid- 

 ding of strangers to fish," and there is a note, apparently in Caesar's writing, 

 saying, "This note was sent by Etnanuell Demetrius who was present att the 

 discourse." It is misdated "Aug. 1609." The endorsements appear to have 

 been made after 1612, because at the end it is said, " It was answered by the 

 late Lord Treasr. Salisburie att a hearing," &c. A list is given of those present 

 at the conference viz., the Earls of Salisbury. Northampton, Nottingham, Suffolk, 

 Shrewsbury, and Worcester, Mr Secretary Herbert and Sir Julius Caesar, the 

 " Standers by " being Sir T. Edmondes, Sir Daniel Dunn, Sir Christopher Perkins, 

 Sir William Wade, and Mr Levinus Emanuell Demetrius, probably the Levinus 

 Muncke of the Dutch and other records. It is to be noted that the argument as 

 to the limitation of the territorial sea by the range of guns was not contained 

 in the instructions to the Dutch, as printed by Aitzema (Saken van Staet en Oorlogh; 

 ii. 406) and Vreede ( Vrijheid van Haringvaart, 6 ; compare Muller, Mare Clausum, 



