346 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



because no one has power to grant a privilege adverse to 

 mankind in general. 



Grotius places navigation and fishing in the sea on the 

 same footing, or rather he looked upon interference with 

 the freedom of fishing as a greater offence than interference 

 with navigation. With regard to imposing tribute on 

 fishermen, he said that such as are reckoned among the 

 Regalia are imposed not on the thing, that is the sea and 

 the fishing, but on the person ; and while it may be levied by 

 a prince on his own subjects, it is not to be levied on foreigners, 

 for the right of fishing everywhere should be free to foreigners, 

 lest a servitude be imposed on the sea which it cannot bear. 

 An action of this kind would be worse than the prohibition of 

 navigation ; it would be barbarous and inhuman. If any one, 

 says Grotius, claimed jurisdiction and sovereignty on the 

 great seas for himself alone against promiscuous use, he would 

 be looked upon as one who was aiming at extravagant 

 dominion ; if any one was to keep others from fishing, he 

 would not escape the brand of insane cupidity. 1 



It is hardly possible to escape the suspicion, which was 

 apparently shared by King James, as it was by many others, 

 that Grotius in these sentences was aiming obliquely at 

 England. Such strength of language about the right of free 

 fishing in the sea was scarcely pertinent to his theme, for 

 neither the Portuguese nor the Spaniards contested that 

 right, and the Dutch did not fish in waters under their 

 control. It would, on the other hand, be explicable if 

 Grotius had got a hint of James's intention with regard to 

 the "assize-herring" (see p. 152), and we know that as early as 

 the beginning of 1606 proposals were made for the formation 

 of an English fishery society, with taxation of foreign 



1 Cap. v. " Siiniliter reditus qui in piscationes maritimas constituti Regalium 

 numero censenter, non rem, hoc est mare, aut piscationem, sed personas non 

 obligant. Quare subditi, in quos legem ferendi potestas Reipublicac aut Principi 

 ex consensu competit, ad ouera ista compelli forte poterunt : sed exteris jus pis- 

 candi ubique immune esse debet, ne servitus imponatur mari quod servire non 

 potest. . . . Quod in aliis difficile videtur, in hac omnino fieri non potest : quod 

 in aliis iniquum judicamus, in hac summe barbarum est, atque inhumanum. . . . 

 In tanto mari si quis usu promiscuo solum sibi imperium et ditionem exciperet, 

 tamen immodicse dominationis affectator haberetur : si quis piscatu arceret alios, 

 insanse cupiditatis no tarn non effugeret." 



