524 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



1682 (see p. 514), which included a long reasoned argument 

 against the English pretensions. Still more to the point was 

 the appearance of an extremely able work by Sir Philip 

 Meadows in 1689, immediately after the Revolution, in which 

 these pretensions were subjected to the most destructive criti- 

 cism. 1 Meadows had considerable experience of public affairs. 

 As Latin Secretary to Cromwell's Council an office to which 

 he was appointed in 1653 in order to relieve the poet Milton, 

 whose blindness interfered with his duties he was conversant 

 with the negotiations then proceeding with the Dutch ; and 

 later, as ambassador to Denmark and then to Sweden, he had 

 opportunities of acquainting himself with the claims to mari- 

 time sovereignty put forward by those countries. The keynote 

 of Meadows' work was, that as the dominion of the seas was 

 apt to become a specious pretence to a war between England 

 and Holland, while the real causes of such a war were hidden 

 and remote, nothing would conduce more effectually to preserve 

 a lasting peace than a true knowledge and right understanding 

 of the matter. If the claim of England as expounded by 

 Selden was to be considered the proper standard of right and 

 wrong between us and other nations, " if what was well written 

 must be fought for too, not being to be gained but by a longer 

 tool than a pen," then the King of England would be cast upon 

 this hard dilemma either of being involved in endless and 

 dangerous quarrels with all his neighbours abroad, or of having 

 his honour and reputation prostituted at home, as tamely 

 suffering "the best jewel of his crown to be ravished from it." 

 The English pretension, he pointed out, differed from that of 

 Venice, inasmuch as it related not to a bay or gulf, but to a 

 sea open on both sides which formed the passage of communi- 



1 Observations concerning the Dominion and Sovereignty of the Seas : being an 

 Abstract of the Marine Affairs of England. In his preface the author says the 

 work was presented in manuscript to Charles II., "and well accepted by him." In 

 a letter from W. Bridgeman to Sir J. Williamson, dated from Whitehall, 13th May 

 1673, there was enclosed "a paper drawne up as I remember about the beginning 

 of this Warre by S r Philip Meadowes, which I find amongst other papers, and 

 showing it to My Lord he directed mee to send it to you." The enclosure is 

 endorsed, " Soveraignity and Fishery by Sr Phil. Meadowes, 1674," the proper date 

 being probably 1672. It is evidently a draft of the later work, essentially the same 

 in substance and tone. (State Papers, Dom., Chas. II., vol. 335, Part II., No. 168.) 

 Later he sent a copy to Pepys, dated January 2, 1686. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 

 30,221, ff. 13-43. 



