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 high in the history of the literature of the subject in England. We must not urge too strongly the canons of historical evidence against the assiduous attempt to buttress the claim by continuous illustration and estimate of rights of sovereignty over the British seas from the days of the Britons before the coming of the Romans, down through the Roman occupation to the solicitude of Edgar and Canute and other kings for the defence of the seas, 'untill the conquest made by William Duke of Normandie, in whose raign, and for many discents after him, the Soveraigntie of the said Seas was so far from being evicted that it was never so much as questioned by any Nation until the time of Edward the first, about the year 1299 and the six and twentieth of his raigne'. We must not look for