connected with the important duty of repressing piracy; and the ceremony of striking the flag and lowering the topsail,[1] which was intended as a symbol of acknowledgement of a sovereign power and jurisdiction, and is the mark by which the claim to dominion is best known to the general reader of English history, gave rise to critical passages in writings, in diplomacy and in the conduct of war. The controversy was also, however, a 'Battle of Books',[2] and, in spite of the fact that the future was in fact and result to be with Grotius in respect of the leading issues at stake, there can be no doubt that the honours of learning lay with Selden. But Selden's book—Mare Clausum seu de Dominio Maris Libri Duo—must not be viewed merely as an answer to Grotius. Mare Liberum is a short work when compared with Mare Clausum. The work of Grotius was written to sustain a definite case, although it must be conceded that its sweep was wide in principles, in citation of authorities, and in illustrations, for its purpose. The text of Mare Liberum contains about 14,000 words. The text of Mare Clausum contains about 90,000 words. The whole of the first book,[3] consisting of twenty-six chapters, is given
- ↑ 'Vaile Bonnet in acknowlegement of this Superioritie.'—Boroughs, p. 62.
- ↑ The term is that of M. Nys.
- ↑ 'Libro Primo, Mare, ex Iure Naturae seu Gentium, omnium hominum
Ship-money by Charles I. Examples are found for 1633 in Strafford's Letters and Dispatches (1740), e.g. i. 106–7 (with Wentworth's statement of the King’s rights in St. George's Channel). For the first writ of ship-money and the plea of piracy, see Rushworth's Collections, ii. 257, and for a general call to the dominion of the sea, ii. 297–8—Coventry, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, in delivering his charge, June 17, 1635. The dominion of the sea is at the very heart of Ship-money Case, from the King's standpoint. See Rushworth, ii. 322; 545, 552 (the Attorney-General's citation of 'that Learned Book of Mr. Selden'), and extracts from the speeches in Ship-money Case given by Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution.
