more substantial, more learned and more thorough work of Selden. The book, in its English version, contains only about eleven thousand words, being thus shorter than the Mare Liberum of Grotius, and only about one-eighth of the length of Selden's book.[1] It presents, however, a considerable amount of information in its small space. It gives evidence of considerable and careful research among records, as becomes the Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London. It is written in a clear and pleasing style. It has zeal for the well-being and greatness of England, and is jealous of her honour, When the book was published in 1651 the political setting in England had been profoundly disturbed, but the question of rights and of power at sea against the Dutch, in particular, was urgent and of the highest importance, transcending both in content and in reasoning the technical constructions and the legal and lawyerly lore to which the claim to the dominion of the narrow seas had to make appeal. The claim was not one to be pressed in all circumstances as though it were a right paramount. The instructions issued to Blake in January 1650 had contained the following words:
- ↑ 'Be not startled to see so great a subject handled in so small a Volume. When you have read but a little of this little, you'll thinke the Authour was tender of your trouble but not of his own.'—'To the Reader.'
