THE JURIDICAL CONTROVERSIES 351 



indirectly assailed by the general argument of Mare Liberum, 

 and directly in the writings of de Castro and Vasquius, 

 from which Grotius had quoted liberally ; and now at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century they were actively 

 contested by other Powers, and in particular by Spain. Hence 

 quite a number of works defending the claims of Venice 

 appeared at this period, the best of which was that of Pacius, 

 who relied on the opinions of numerous early jurists, as 

 Bartolus, Baldus, and Angelus ; on immemorial possession 

 and prescription, and stated that the rights of the Venetians 

 consisted in jurisdiction, the imposition of taxes, the pro- 

 hibition or regulation of navigation, the protection of subjects, 

 and the suppression of pirates. 1 



But it is probable that Mare Liberum received as much at- 

 tention in England as it did in any other country. Grotius, 

 as we have seen, condemned any interference with the liberty 

 of fishing or the imposition of taxes on foreign fishermen in 

 very severe language, and his book appeared just at the time 

 when King James had resolved on both these courses, and 

 within less than two months of the issue of the famous pro- 

 clamation forbidding unlicensed fishing by foreigners on the 

 British coasts. To be by implication branded as "insanely 

 cupid " by an anonymous Dutch writer, because he had decided 

 to levy the " assize-herring " from Dutch fishermen, must have 

 irritated James ; and the irritation would not be lessened when 

 he found the envoys from the Netherlands in the following 

 year vindicating their right to liberty of fishing by just such 

 arguments as were contained in Mare Liberum. James, in- 

 deed, showed a somewhat bitter feeling towards the great 

 Dutch publicist when the authorship was revealed and the 

 author lay in prison ; and Carleton, the English ambassador 

 at The Hague, in a speech to the States-General, held him up 

 to opprobrium and stated that the disgrace into which he had 

 fallen should deter others from adopting his opinions. 



1 Ivlii Pacii De Dominio Marit Hadriatici Disceptatio, Lvgdvni M.D.C.XIX. 

 Other works were Angelas Mattheacius, De Jure Venetorum et Jurisdictiqnt Murit 

 Adriatic*, Venezia, 1617 ; Cornelio Francipane, Alegazion in J\irc, per il Dominio, 

 della Jtfpublica Veneta, del yuo Golfo, contra aicune Scrittitre di Napolitani, 1618 ; 

 Franciscus de Ingenuis, Epistola de Juritdictione Veneta Reipublicw in Mare 

 Adriaticitm, 1619 ; P. Zambono, Del Dominio del Mare Adriatico overo Oolfo 

 di Venezia, Venice, 1620. 



