Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/155

 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. 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:

'And whereas the dominion of these seas hath anciently and time out of mind undoubtedly belonged to this nation, and that the ships of all other nations in acknowledgment of that dominion have used to take down their flags upon sight of the admiral of England, and not to bear it in his presence; you are, as much as in you lyeth, and as you find yourself and the fleet of strength and ability, to do your endeavours to preserve the dominion of the sea, and to cause the ships of all other nations to strike their flags, and not to bear them up in your presence, and to compel such as are refractory therein, by seizing their ships, and sending them in, to be punished according to the laws