JAMES II. AND AFTER 525 



cation for the northern and southern nations of Europe. Per- 

 sistence in the pretension would therefore result in war between 

 the island and the Continent, as to whether the island should 

 have the sea to herself, or whether the Continent should have 

 a share of it with her. No nation had ever acknowledged the 

 claim of England, which, moreover, was not enforced, because 

 if one foreigner did violence to another, outside the King's 

 Chambers, but in the Channel or any part of the so-called 

 British sea, he did not come under the jurisdiction of the King 

 of England but under that of his own state. 



While strenuously opposing the pretensions to the sovereignty 

 of the sea, Meadows agreed with all other authors in holding 

 that every country had an exclusive right to certain parts of 

 the sea adjoining its coasts : the difficulty was to fix the 

 bounds. " If there is no certain standard in nature," he says, 

 " whereby to ascertain the precise boundaries of that peculiar 

 Marine Territory I am now speaking to, which belongs to 

 every prince in right of his land, yet, by treaty and agreement, 

 they may easily be reduced to certainty. For, as to the judg- 

 ment and opinion of private persons, we cannot fetch from 

 thence any true measure ; for though they all agree unani- 

 mously that there is something due of right, yet they vary in 

 the quantum, or how much. Therefore the surest way is to 

 prescribe the limits of fishing betwixt neighbouring nations by 

 contract, and not by the less certain measure of territory. For, 

 if no bounds be fixed, how many inconveniencies, and what a 

 licentious extravagance, may such a liberty run into ? " The 

 Dutch, he said, unless boundaries were fixed, might dredge for 

 oysters on the coast of Essex, as they did formerly; or fish 

 within the mouth of the Thames, or in our creeks, havens, and 

 rivers ; and it was unreasonable not to draw a distinction as to 

 fishing between natives and aliens. Meadows therefore, fore- 

 shadowing modern practice, urged that the boundaries of ex- 

 clusive fishing should be determined by treaty, and he prepared 

 a draft article for the consideration of those concerned. 1 



1 Op. cit., pp. 44-46. The draft article was as follows : "To maintain a due dis- 

 tinction betwixt natives and foreigners fishing upon the coasts of their respective 

 sovereigns ; and to prevent the manifold inconveniences which occasionally arise 

 by a promiscuous and unlimited fishing ; 'Tis mutually covenanted, concluded, and 

 agreed, That the people and subjects of the United Netherlands shall henceforth 



