GROTIUS AND SELDEN 109 



open rupture with the Dutch for the purpose 

 of testing by force of arms the claim to the 

 sovereignty of the " Four Seas." 



The treatise, dedicated to the King, was by 

 his command, deHvered personally in open 

 court to the barons of the Exchequer by Sir 

 William Beecher, one of the clerks of the Privy 

 Council, and placed among the Exchequer 

 records, where it still remains. Selden's reason- 

 ing was based on records and precedents of the 

 titles and claims of the Saxon and Norman 

 kings of England. But it is only fair to remem- 

 ber that in early times there was little or no 

 maritime trade or naval power in existence, 

 except in the Mediterranean, so that the cases 

 adduced offered no real parallel to the condi- 

 tions of Selden's day, when all the nations 

 whose territory bordered on the northern and 

 western seas of Europe transacted a large 

 volume of trade by sea, and in many cases 

 maintained naval forces to protect it. Nor is 

 it surprising that the claim of one of these 

 powers to the dominion of the seas should 

 attract the hostility of other nations. 

 Charles I. at all events was determined to 

 compel the Dutch to acknowledge this 

 dominion, and as a preliminary built the largest 

 ship of war that had ever been seen in England, 

 The Sovereign, of 96 guns and 1,740 tons 

 1^ burthen. A large fleet was also necessary, and 

 I Lord Chancellor Coventry was ordered to issue 

 H writs to the sheriffs of the several counties 



