Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	city_n	great_a	lord_n	2,295	5	3.5103	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33387	His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish seas asserted together with a true account of the Neatherlanders insupportable insolencies and injuries they have committed, and the inestimable benefits they have gained in their fishing on the English seas : as also their prodigious and horrid cruelties in the East and West-Indies, and other places : to which is added an exact mapp, containing the isles of Great Brittain and Ireland, with the several coastings, and the adjacent parts of our neighbours / by an experienced hand.	Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.; Clavell, Robert, d. 1711.	1665 (1665)	Wing C4602; ESTC R3773	67,265	198

Brittish Seas and rather then allow them proper unto Him they have declared them common unto All At the first they begged leave for their Fishing on the English Seas which being granted them by the accustomed Indulgence of our Princes they have so presumed upon their lenity that at the last they have made a Law in their own Country That the English shal Sell no white Herrings nor other Fish there upon penalty of Confiscation They are Fishing on the English Seas from June unto November and seem there to dwel amongst the Fish for 26 weeks together in which time the havock which they make in destroying the Spawn and Fry of Fish that comes into their Netts and otherwise is as remarkable as what they carry away with them The Reverend and Learned Mathematitian Doctor Dee almost one hundred years since speaking of the incredible spoyle of Fry and Spawn which is yearly made on the River of Thames and other Rivers belonging to this Island doth conclude that there are yearly spoyled on those Rivers 2000 Cart-loads of fresh fish which would have so proved to be Market-able if they had not been destroyed in their Nonage I shall give you his Assertion in his own words It is probable saith he that in all England by the manifold disorder used about the destroying of Fry and Spawn there is yearly spoyled or hindred the Brood of 2000 Cart-loads of fresh Fish of middle Marketable-skantlin The value of which 2000 Cart-loads do amount to 90000 Bushels of fresh Fish six Quarters going to a Cart-load which one with another being rated at five shillings a Bushel doth amount in currant English Money to the sum of20500l Which quantity of Fish also would maintain for one day One thousand thousand and eight hundred thousand Men or nine hundred thousand Men two dayes or three hundred thousand Men six dayes or a hundred thousand eighteen dayes or fifty thousand Men thirty six dayes or five and twenty thousand Men six and twenty dayes If by our own Neglect so great a destruction of Fish is made in our own Rivers what may we conceive the disorders to be which are made on the English Seas by those whose business it is to think all is Fish that comes to Net and whose Trade to Plunder The time of our patience hath been long their promises of Redress numerous and the daily Injuries we have received insupportable To give you in this place a more large Account of them were to Anticipate your Understanding I shall therefore for your further Satisfaction refer you to the particulars in the Book it self Farewell An Exact Map Containing the Isles of Great Brittaine and Ireland with the Severall Coastings that Surround the Same As also the adjacent parts of all the other neighbouring Nations Drawne according to the best and latest Discoveries Sold by A. Kembe E. Thomas and R. Clavell by an experienced Hand THE Propriety and Dominion of the KING of Great Brittain on His SEAS Asserted against all Opposers and Confirmed from all Ages to this Present Time FOR the better Understanding of the following Discourse we shall in the first place lay down these Two Propositions First That the Sea by the Law of Nature and Nations is not common to all Men but is capable of Private Dominion as well as the Land The Second Is That the KING ofGREAT BRITTAIN Is LORD of the SEA Flowing about as an Inseparable and Perpetual Appendant of the Brit●●sh Empire Before we shall insist on these Propositions We shall in the first place remove some Objections that may be made against them Some are drawn from the Freedome of Commerce or Traffique which by many are affirmed to be so Naturall that they can no where be abolished by any Law or Custome and that by the Law of Nations it is unjust to Deny Merchants the Benefit of Commerce and Navigation Other Objections are drawn from the Nature of the Sea it self for it is commonly alleaged that the Sea is altered and shifted every Moment and the State thereof through a continued succession of new waters alwayes uncertain and remains so little the same in all things the Channel onely excepted that it is impossible it should ever be retained in the Possession of any One Particular As to the first It is easie to be proved by the Ancient Interpreters of the Mosaical Law That the Sea is altogether as capable of Private Dominion as the Land The Words of GOD in the Book of Numbers are express And let your Borders be the Great Sea that is say the Rabbins the main Ocean and its Isles And it is plainly to be proved that a Private Dominion of the Sea no otherwise then of Land arose from humane Distribution We read that Pompey the Great being Master of a Huge Navy had a Commission given him from the Senate as absolute Lord of the Sea The like had Mark Anthony some few years after him And many of the Roman Historians have called the Sea their Sea because it was wholly subdued to the Roman Power We might here alleage many Examples how long the Lidians the Phygians the Rhodians the Phaenicians and many other Eastern Nations one after another have been Lords of the Sea Thy Borders are in the midst or heart of the Sea saith the Prophet Ezekiel of the Tyrians Quintus Curtius affirmeth that the City of Tyre builded by Agenor made not onely the neighbouring Sea but what Seas soever her ships sayled into to be of her Dominion There was an ancient custome used in the East that when Great Kings had a design to bring any Nation under their Power they commanded Water and Earth the pledges of Empire and Dominion to be delivered unto them conceiving that the Command of the Sea as well as the Land was signified by such a token The like may be affirmed of the West for both Polybeius and Appian affirme that the Carthaginians Enjoyed the Command of the Sea without all Controversy as received from their Ancestors And if we take a view of these late Times as to the Rights and Customes of other Nations which at this present are in high Reputation we shall finde that the Common-Wealth of Venice have enjoyed the Dominion of the Adriatick Sea for many Ages The Tuscans to this day have an Absolute Dominion in the Tyrhene Sea and those of Genoa in the Lygustick the like we may alledge of the Danes the Swedes and the People of Norway And to conclude that the Dominion of the Sea is admitted amongst those things that are lawfull and received into the Customes of Nations is so far from contradiction that nothing at all can be found to controule it in the Custonies of our latter Times unlesse it be by some who being Borderers upon the Sea-Dominions of others do strive to violate the Rights of their Neighbours under the pretense of Civil Community Now as to the Objection concerning the Freedome of Commerce and Passage pretended to

in the like manner as the Land is which is divided betwixt Cities and Governments not by equal parts nor according to their Greatness but as they have been or are able to Rule Govern or Defend them Bern he said was not the greatest City of Switzerland and yet it hath as large a Teritory as all the rest of the twelve Cantons together The City of Norimburg is very great and yet the Dominions and Teritories of it do hardly exceed the wals The City of Venice it self for many years was known to be without any possession at all upon the firm Land Upon the Sea likewise certain other Cities of great Force and Valour have possessed a large quantity of it and other Cities of less force have contented themselves with the next waters Neither are there wanting Examples of such who notwithstanding they do border upon the Sea yet having fertile Lands adjacent to them have satisfied themselves with their Land Possessions without ever attempting to gain any Sea Dominion Others there are who being awod by their more mighty Neighbours have been constrained to for bear any such Attempt for which two causes a City notwithstanding it be Maritine and bordereth upon the Sea may happen to remain without any possession of the Sea He added that God did institute Principalities for the maintenance of Justice to the benefit of Mankind which was necessary to be executed as well by Sea as by Land And St. Paul said that for this cause there were due unto Princes Customes and Contributions that it should be a great Absurdity to praise the well Governing Regulating and Defence of the Land and to condemn that of the Sea And that if the Sea in some parts thereof for the ampleness and extream distance of it from the Land is not possibly to be Governed and Protected it doth proceed from a Disability and Defect in Mankind as in the same consideration there are Desarts or Wildernesses so great upon the Land as it is altogether impossible to protect them witness the many sandy parts of Affrica and the Immense Vastities of the World but lately discovered And as it is a gift of God that a Land by the Laws and publisht Power be Ruled Protected and Governed so the same happeneth to the Sea He said that those were deceived by a gross Equivocation who affirmed that the Land by reason of its Stability and Firmness may be governed but not the Sea for being an unconstant Element it passeth and hath a motion proper to it as well as the Aire And if by the Sea and the Aire all and every part of those fluent Elements be intended it is a most certain thing that they cannot be governed because whilst a man secureth himself with any one part of them the other fliteth out of his power And this also hapeneth unto Rivers which cannot be restrained in their fluent motions But when mention is made to rule over a Sea or River it is not understood of the Element but of the Scite where they are placed The water of the Adriatick Sea doth continually run out of it neither can it at all be kept in and yet it is the same Sea as well as the Thames the Rhine or the Po are the same Rivers now as they were one Thousand years agoe and this is that which is Subject to the Protection of Princes He askt the Germans if their pretence were that tho Sea should be left without Protection Protection so that any one might do therein whatsoever he listed by Robing Spoiling and making it Unnavigable This he said would be so absurd in reason that he durst answer for them that they had no such pretence he therefore concluded that therefore his Majesty of Germany by a necessary Consequence must acknowledge that it ought to be kept Governed and Protected by those unto whom it did appertain by Divine Disposition which if it were so as indeed it is he desired to understand if in their Judgment it seemed to them a Just thing that such should do it with the expence of their own Pains and Treasure or rather that should contribute towards it who equally did enjoy the Benefit And as to this he said he durst answer for them the Doctrine of Saint Paul being clear in this particular that all such who are under Government and Protection are thereby bound to pay Customes and Contribution Much he said might be alleaged in matter of Law to confirm this Truth And thereupon he concluded that if the Common-Wealth of Venice were that Prince to whom it did appertain to Govern and Protect the Adriatick Sea it of necessity must follow that whosoever Traffick and Saileth on their Sea ought to be subject to their Laws in the same manner as such are who travail through a Country upon Land From hence he did proceed to show that this Dominion over the Sea from time out of minde did belong to the Common-Wealth of Venice And to prove this he caused to be read out of an Abstract which he had taken the opinion of Thirty Famous Lawyers who from the Year One Thousand Three Hundred until the present time did speak of the Dominion which the Common-Wealth of Venice had over the Sea as of a thing most known and of which even in their Times the mind of man knew not the Contrary some of them affirming that the Common-Wealth of Venice had no lesse Dominion over the Sea then over the City of Venice Others maintaining that the Adriatick Sea is the Territory and the Demeans of the said City And to render this more evident they do make mention of the lawful Power which the Venetians have to establish Laws over Navigation and to impose Customes upon such as traffique on those Seas And he added that he never read any Lawyer which held forth to the contrary moreover he told the Advocate of the Emperour that if he would not believe those Authors who testified that the Sea belonged to the Venetians whereof they had possession from time out of minde before the age wherein those Authors lived yet ●he could not deny to receive them for the Testimonies of such things which they saw and knew in their times and to hold them as witnesses far above all Exception being all of them Famous men though dead so many years agoe and whose Impartial Pens could no ways be interested in the present Differences And because more then two hundred and fifty years were passed from the time that the Authors whom he alleaged as Witnesses hereof did Write to the time of those whose Names he last of all did mention in that behalf he urged that by their Attestation it was sufficiently proved that for a long time more then so many years the Common-Wealth hath commanded the Sea and therefore he could not deny the assured and certain possession of it to the present Then Addressing himself to the Judges he desired them to consider that notwithstanding

thirdly the decay of many good Marriners both able in body by their diligence labour and continual exercise of Fishing and expert by reason thereof in the knowledge of the Sea-Coasts as well within this Realm as in other parts beyond the Seas It was therefore enacted that no manner of Persons English Denizens or strangers at that time or any time after dwelling in England should buy any Fish of any strangers in the said Ports of Flanders Zealand Picardie France or upon the Sea between shoare and shoare c. This Act by many continuances was continued from Parliament to Parliament until the first of Queen Marie and from thence to the end of the next Parliament and then expired For Conclusion seeing by that which hath formerly been declared it evidently appeareth that the Kings of England by immemorable prescription continual usage and possession the acknowledgment of all our Neighbour-States and the Municipal Laws of the Kingdom have ever held the Sovereign Lordship of the Seas of England and that unto his Majesty by reason of his Sovereignty the supream command and Jurisdiction over the passage and Fishing in the same rightfully apperteineth considering also the natural Scite of those our Seas that interpose themselves between the great Northern Commerce of that of the whole world and that of the East West and Southern Climates and withal the infinite commodities that by Fishing in the same is daily made It cannot be doubted but his Majesty by means of his own excellent Wisdom and Virtue and by the Industry of his faithful Subjects and People may easily without injustice to any Prince or Person whatsoever be made the greatest Monarch for Command and Wealth and his People the most opulent and Flourishing Nation of any other in the world And this the rather for that his Majesty is now absolute Commander of the Brittish Isle and hath also enlarged his Dominions over a great part of the Western Indies by means of which extent of Empire crossing in a manner the whole Ocean the Trade and persons of all Nations removing from one part of the world to the other must of necessity first or last come within compass of his power and jurisdiction And therefore the Sovereignty of our Seas being the most precious Jewel of his Majestie 's Crown and next under God the principal means of our Wealth and Safety all true English hearts and hands are bound by all possible means and diligence to preserve and maintain the same even with the uttermost hazzard of their Lives their Goods and Fortunes Thus you see what wonderous advantages may redound to the Felicity and Glory of this Nation if God give hearts and resolutions to vindicate those rights which are now most impiously and injuriously invaded There is also another Dominion of the Sea belonging to the King of Great Brittain and that of a very large Extent upon the Shore of America as on the Virginian Sea and the Islands of the Barbadoes and Saint Christophers and many other places but how farr our English Colonies Transported into America have Possessed themselves of the Sea there is not exactly as yet discovered A further Assertion that the Sea is under the Laws of Propriety Declared in a full Convention betwixt Ferdinando Emperour of Germany and the Republick of Venice in the Year 1563. AT this Convention the Complaints on both sides were opened And it being required in the Name of his Emperial Majesty that it may be Lawful for his Subjects and others to Traffick freely in the Adriatick Sea It was answered by the Advocate of the Common-Wealth of Venice that Navigation indeed ought to be free yet those things at which his Imperial Majesty found himself agrieved were no ways repugnant to this Freedom for as much as in Countries which are most free Those who have the Dominion thereof receive Custome and do give Bounds and prescribe Order by which way all Merchandize shall pass and therefore none should finde themselves agrieved if the Venetians for their own Respects did use to do so in the Adriatick Seas which is under their Dominion there being nothing more known then that the Common-Wealth of Venice were Lords of the Adriatick Sea and do exercise that Dominion which from time out of minde it had always done as well in receiving of Customes as in assigning of places for the Exaction of it And that according to former Capitulations the Subjects of the Venetians were to have no less liberty in the Lands of the Austrians then the Austrian Subjects in the Sea of Venice And if his Imperial Majesty within his own State upon the Land will not permit that the Subjects of the Common-Wealth of Venice shall go which way they list but doth constrain them to go by such places onely where customs is to be paid he cannot with Justice demand that his Subjects may passe by or through the Sea of the Republick which way they please but must content himself that they passe that way onely which shall best stand with the Advantage of those who have the Dominion over it And if his Majesty cause Custome to be paid upon his Land why may not the Venetians likewise do it upon their Sea He demanded of them if by the Capitulation they would have it that the Emperour should be restrained or hindred from the taking of Custome And if not why would they have the Venetians tyed thereunto by a Capitulation which speaks of both Potentates equally with the same words He proceeded in a Confirmation of the Truth that the Republick had the Dominion of the Sea and although the proposition was true that the Sea is common and free yet it is no otherwise to be understood there in the same sence when usually we say that the high-way are common free by which is meant that they cannot be Usurped by any private Person for his sole proper service but remain to the use of every one Not therefore that they are so free as that they should not be under the Protection and Government of some Prince and that every one might do therein Licenciously whatsoever pleaseth Him either by Right or by Wrong for as much as such Licenciousness or Anarchy both of God Nature as well by Sea as by Land That the true liberty of the Sea excludes it not from the protection and superiority of such as maintain it in Liberty nor from the Subjection to the Laws of such as have Command over it but rather necessarily it includes it That the Sea no less then the Land is Subject to be divided amongst men appropriated to Cities and Potentates which long since was ordained by God from the beginning of man kind as a thing most Natural And this was well understood by Aristotle when he said that unto Maritine Cities the Sea is the Territory because from thence they take their Sustenance and Defence A thing which cannot possibly be unless that part of it be appropriated