X. from the Conquest, to the Death of A. Mary L

Sea is capable of Private Dominion, oran exclusive Propriety. This Disputegave Birth to two remarkable Treatises,written with great Learning, on this Sub-ject : The one by our Country-man, thegreat Mr. Selden, entitled Mare CI au-'s urn , begun in the Reign of KingJames I. but finiffi'd and published inthe Reign of his Successor, ,and theother by that noted Netherlander, Hu-go Grot ius, which he called Mare Li-berurn. The Cafe on the AffirmativeSide of the Question was cleared upwith much Perspicuity, and made evi-dent from the Divine, Natural andCivil Law. It is, in Reality, in itselflo clear, that some have thought itlelf-evident, or that it needed not anygreat Pains to illustrate it. And, in-deed, Grotius himself, as much as heendeavours to prove the contrary, inhis aforementioned Treatise, does notscruple to allow it in another Place.In his Treatise de Pace & Bello, L. II.Cap. iii. Sect. ii. speaking of the Sea,he says; " No Nation can pretend to" a sufficient Right or Title to the" Sea adjoining, merely because they" are in Possession of the Shoar it wa-" ters: Nor is it a Ground sufficient to" raise a Claim upon, for a Prince first“ to please himself with the Imagi-“ nation, and then to stile himself" Lord of the Sea ; unless he can de-" monstrate himself to be so by some" actual external Act.” " By which(says the Author of the General 'Treatiseof the Dominion of the Sea ) he certainly" means, that it is not from a bare“ Occupation or Possession of theNeigh-" bouring Land , but from an actualand peculiar Use and Enjoyment of" the Sea itself, and exerting all the" Functions of a Sovereign upon it;" such as prescribing Rules of Navi-" gation to those that frequent it, pu-" niffiing Delinquents, protecting o-thers, and receiving from it all the“ Profits and Emoluments due to everyLawful Sovereign, that sufficient Ar-guments can be derived for provinga Lawful Dominion to it.” At leasthe hereby allows, contrary to his Ar-guments, in his Mare Liberum , thatthere may be such a Dominion, whichis enough for my present Purpose. Andthat our Kings have, in all Ages, per-formed such Functions, and exercisedluch External Acts* I shall prove below:And have already given some Instances°f it in the foregoing Reigns.

III. The Right our Kings have everpretended to this Sovereignty, or Do-minion of the British Seas, with an ex-clusive Propriety, both as to the Pas-sage thro' and fishing within the same,is grounded on as many ample and in-contestable Proofs, as will more thanamount to a lawful Evidence, or are re-quisite, to support and convey anyRight of Inheritance, or other Right,whatsoever, either pnblick or private.These Proofs are deductible, (i.) FromPrescription. (2.) From the CommonLaw of this Realm. (3.) From anci-ent Records thereof. (4.) From au-thentick History. (5.) From Treatiesand Acknowledgments of other Princes.(6.) From continued Possession andDisposition: And, (7.) From the Ex-ample of other Kingdoms and States.The first of these Arguments being,properly speaking, Historical, and, assuch, the fittest to be discussed here,I shall lay the chief Stress upon that,and for the other casually, and withoutOrder, make some proper Observations,referring the Reader, for the Rest, tothe abovementioned Treatise of Mr.Selden s, in which they are all discus-sed with great Learning and Judg-ment.

Th e Prescription by which theKingsof England, have claimed this Sove-reignty over the Britifo Ocean is fromTime immemorial.

" This Claim (fays the Author of" the General Treatije of the Dominion" of the Seal) is no new Thing: It has" the Sanction of seventeen or eighteen" Centuries; And so long ago as Cæsar '’s" Time did the Britains assert and" maintain this Dominion, as may be" seen in his Commentaries, de Bello" Gallico, L. IV. where he fays, that" before his firs Descent into Britain,

having summoned the Merchants, and" other Seafaring Gauls together, and<c made a diligent Enquiry concerning the" Situation of the British Shoar and Ports," he found that none durst cross the Seasce to go into Britain without Permission," but Merchants ; and that they too were" so ignorant of those Shoars (as being" deprived of a free Use of the Sea)“ that he was obliged to Volusimus," in a long Ship, to found the British" Coasts. From whence it may be rea-" sonably inferred, that since the an-" cient Britons excluded the Gauls, and

" others,