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 range of mind, whose great work, De Iure Belli ac Pacis, was published eight years after the first draft of Mare Clausum had been ready, and ten years before the publication of the completed work in 1635, with a dedication to Charles I. Selden's tribute is an honourable one, coming, as it does, from the author of one of the most learned works written by Englishmen, and coming from him at a critical point in a battle of books, of principles, and of the claims of rival peoples.

No exposition of Mare Clausum is necessary here. The book is not rare. It has been translated into English. Its substance has been presented in convenient compass by more than one writer.

The work of the other English writer of distinction on this subject in the reign of Charles I was finished in 1633—two years before Selden's book appeared; but it was not published till eighteen years later—in 1651, eight years after the author's death. The original version was in Latin; the book published