226 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



or the laws of Scotland ; special care was to be taken that the 

 natives of Scotland were to be preferred in the choice of the 

 best places for establishing "magazines" for the fishery, and 

 that the places appointed for the English should be such as 

 would not prejudice the "land fishing" of the Scotch; the 

 Scottish members of the association were to have the same 

 privileges and immunities, with power to erect magazines, in 

 England and Ireland ; English members who settled in Scot- 

 land were to be debarred from fishing in the reserved waters, 

 or from buying fish from the natives, except for their own 

 sustenance, as well as from any trade or commerce, unless for 

 the same purpose ; they were to be prohibited from importing 

 or exporting commodities except fishes taken by their own 

 vessels, and they were to pay customs and other duties for the 

 fish they cured in Scotland and exported and many other con- 

 ditions were laid down which showed how little the Parliament 

 had been moved by the personal appeal of the king. 1 



With respect to the fundamental question, the limits of the 

 territorial seas pertaining to Scotland, the demands of the 

 Parliament went much further than any previous claim. The 

 old principle of division by the mid-line, which was held by 

 some lawyers in the reign of Elizabeth, was now put for- 

 ward. The commissioners were instructed to take care that a 

 clause was inserted in the treaty to make it clear, "that the 

 seas foreanent the coasts of this kingdome and about the Yles 

 thairof and all that is interjected betuix thame and that mid- 

 lyne in the seas whilk is equallie distant and divyding frome 

 the opposite land, ar the Scotish Seas properlie belonging to 

 the crowne of Scotland, and that the English hes no right nor 

 libertie to fishe thairin, nor in no part thairof, bot be vertew of 

 the association and not otherwayes." But while these were 

 the Scottish seas ideally regarded, English members of the 



1 Among other things, the commissioners were instructed to represent to the 

 king the prejudice which Scotland sustained by the use of the name " Great 

 Britain " in the royal patents, writs, and records relating to Scotland, for, they 

 reminded him, " there was no union as yet with England " ; and Charles was to be 

 requested to renew his seals under the terms Carolus Dei gratia Scotia. Anglice, 

 Francice, et Hibernice Rex. It must be remembered that at this time the Scottish 

 aristocracy were smarting under the defeat which the king had recently inflicted on 

 them in connection with the Act of Revocation, by which most of the church; 

 property in the hands of laymen was re-annexed to the crown. 



