370 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



disposing his material and arguments to the best advantage. 

 In learning at least he far surpassed Grotius, and he was not 

 inferior to his illustrious contemporary in ingenuity of reason- 

 ing. It was Selden's misfortune that the cause he championed 

 was moribund, and opposed to the growing spirit of freedom 

 throughout the world. At the same time it must be said that, 

 apart from its extreme doctrines as to the sovereignty of 

 England in the seas, it more correctly represented what are 

 now the admitted principles as to the appropriation of the 

 adjacent sea than did most of the works written on the other 

 side, not excepting even those of Grotius. 



But in relation to the cause for which it was written, the 

 merit of Mare Clausum lay not merely in the enunciation of 

 the theoretical and legal aspects of the claim to maritime 

 sovereignty, but also in the imposing array of historical facts 

 and arguments by which the right of England was sought to 

 be established. The defects of the work are scarcely less 

 apparent. There is no ground to suppose that Selden was 

 guilty of the offence attributed to him by some of his foreign 

 critics, of inventing part of the evidence he cites. But the 

 interpretation he placed upon much of it was strained or 

 erroneous. Great conclusions were drawn from things which 

 had in reality no connection with his case ; laws and events 

 which referred solely to English subjects were improperly 

 extended to include foreigners ; the bearing of many records 

 was misrepresented, others were passed over in silence, or, as 

 with the " Burgundy " treaties, referred to in such a way as to 

 distort their plain meaning. 



In the first book the author endeavours to prove that 

 the sea is not everywhere common, but is capable of 

 appropriation, and has been in fact in numerous cases- 

 appropriated. The objections to that opinion are classified 

 in three groups : first, that it is contrary to the law of 

 nature and the law of nations to forbid free commerce 

 and navigation ; second, that the physical nature of the 

 sea, its fluidity and fluxion, renders it incapable of occu- 

 pation ; third, the opinions of certain learned men. He 

 argued that the ancient law as to the community of things 

 had become modified in certain particulars, and that the 

 received practice and custom of many nations, ancient and 



