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A59088 Of the dominion or ownership of the sea two books : in the first is shew'd that the sea, by the lavv of nature or nations, is not common to all men, but capable of private dominion or proprietie, as well as the land : in the second is proved that the dominion of the British sea, or that which incompasseth the isle of Great Britain is, and ever hath been, a part or appendant of the empire of that island writen at first in Latin, and entituled, Mare clausum, seu, De dominio maris, by John Selden, Esquire ; translated into English and set forth with som additional evidences and discourses, by Marchamont Nedham.; Mare clausum. English Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678. 1652 (1652) Wing S2432; ESTC R15125 334,213 600

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had without leav of the Lord or Possessor There was also a very antient Custom used in the Fast that when great Kings having designs to bring any Nations under their power commanded the pledges of Empire and Dominion to bee deliver'd to them they were wont to demand Water and Earth together That is to say there quired them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring earth and water and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prepare Earth and Water They conceived that their Dominion of the Sea as well as the Land was signified by such a kinde of pledg or token Thus Darius demanded Earth and Water from Indathyrsus King of the Scythians Thus Xerxes from the Lacedemonians and thus both of them from the People of Coos which is witnessed by the Coans themselvs in a publick Decree or Epistle in answer to Artaxerxes his most imperious demand that Hippocrates should bee rendred up to him wherein the Coans slighting the threats of that great King decreed that what hazzard soêver they might seem to run Hippocrates should by no means bee rendred They added also to that Decree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How that when his Predecessors Darius and Xerxes had by their Letters demanded Earth and Water the people of Coos did in no wise yield it forasmuch as they were satisfied that those who had sent unto them were mortal as well as other men And in the Greek Copies of the Historie of Judith Nabuchodonosor beeing about to denounce War against the neighbor-Nations saith expresly the form of submission which hee expected was that they should provide for him Earth and Water Unless they conceiv themselvs to bee Lords of the Waters as well as the Land I do not well see wherefore they should demand Earth and Water as tokens of universal Dominion Moreover also Achmes Ben Seirim an Arabian writing of the Sea saith that according to the Doctrine of the Indians Persians and Egyptians in expounding of dreams If any one in a dream seem to himself to bee made Lord of the Sea hee shall bee heir of the whole Kingdom and shall reign Add hereunto that Oracle of Delos concerning the Sea-Dominion of the Athenians The men of Athens offering sacrifice in Delos a Boy that drew water to wash their hands poured Fish out of the pot together with the water Hereupon this Oracle was delivered by the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they should becom Lords of the Sea The Autor is one Semus an antient Writer in Athenaeus where Phylarchus also relate's how that when Patroclus a Captain of Ptolomie the son of Lagus had sent fish and fresh figs together unto King Antigonus and those that stood by were in doubt what was meant by that present Antigonus said hee himself very well apprehended what might bee the meaning of Patroclus For saith hee either Patroclus mean's That wee must get the Soveraignty or Dominion of the Sea or els gnaw figs. Or that hee must seem slothful and effeminate or becom Lord of the Sea Therefore hee made no doubt touching private Dominion of the Sea And there also the Glutton in Antiphanes the Comedian saith it is neither profitable for life nor to bee endured That som of you should claim the Sea as peculiar to themselvs and spend much monie upon it but no victual for Navigation not so much as a bit Add also that of Theocritus touching the Dominion of Ptolomeus Philadelphus King of Egypt over the Sea as well as the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee is Lord of much Land and also of much Sea And a little after hee speak's of the Pamphilian Lycian and the inner part of the remaining Sea that the whole Sea and Land and Rivers were subject to King Ptolomie Also Philo Judeus saith let not Princes glory in that they have conquer'd many Nations or that they have brought all the rivers and Seas so exceeding vast both in Number and magnitude under their power Moreover though Isocrates in his Oration concerning Peace seem's to hint that the Sea-Dominion and Soveraignty which the Athenians endevored to maintain brought many mischiefs upon them and also that it somtimes occasioned them to use Tyrannie against the Neighbor-Cities of Greece yet hee dispute's it as a thing that may com into examination under the account of profitable and unprofitable and by accident of unjust but hee doth not in anie wise endeavor to prove it unjust from the nature of the thing it self Yea in another place hee sufficiently commend's that Dominion though not all things in preserving it And the same Autor saith expresly of both Cities the Lacedemonian and Athenian It hapned that both Cities did enjoy a Command of the Sea which when either of them held they had most of the other Cities obedient thereto Wee read also a dispute in Aristotle concerning a Communion or common enjoyment of the Sea to wit whether it may bee convenient or not for a well order'd City whether it were better it should remain common to all men so that no man might in any wise bee denied passage traffick merchandise and fishing Or that the use of it may bee so restrained that it might bee received into the Dominion of any Citie so as to exclude forreiners Hee dispute's this point whether it bee profitable or unprofitable but question 's it not at all as unjust having been abundantly instructed out of the Customs of the Nations round about touching a propriety of the Sea as well as the Land Also his Scholar Alexander the Macedonian beeing victorious in the East prepared for an expedition against Europe that Hee might becom Lord of the whole Land and Sea as saith the Emperor Julian And truly among the People of Greece especialy such as border'd upon the Sea and others of that nature in the East to hold supreme power and Soveraigntie above others and to enjoy a Soveraigntie of the Sea were acoounted almost one and the same thing Nor did they conceiv that could bee obteined without this From whence arose that Council of Themistocles which Pompey the great also followed at Rome Qui mare teneat eum necesse esse rerum potiri c. Hee which can possess the Sea must need 's have Command of all So also saith Jsaac Casaubon upon Polybius To have Dominion of the Sea which is expressed by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wholly and ever hath been a great strengthning and as it were a pledg of extraordinarie power Therefore the old writers of Chronicles among the Grecians seeing before the institution of the Olympiads there was no Sovereign power of any People of Greece in beeing upon whose actions a knowledg of times might bee grounded therefore among the other times that they made use of for the computing of times they omitted not that particular but carefully kept an accompt of those People who had once enjoyed a Dominion of the Sea and
XXII THe Objection touching the defect of Limits and and Bounds follow 's next And truly where Dominions are distinguished nothing can bee more desirable then known and certain Bounds in every place Nor was it without caus that Terminus the God of Bounds was received heretofore among the Romanes for the God of Justice But the nature of Bounds is to bee consider'd either upon the Shores or in the open Sea And why Shores should not bee called and reputed lawful Bounds whereon to ground a distinction of Dominion in the Sea as well as Ditches Hedges Meers rows of Trees Mounds and other things used by Surveyors in the bounding of Lands I cannot fully understand Nor is Sylvanus any whit more a Guardian of Bounds then Neptune But yet a very learned man saith there is a Reason in nature why the Sea under the aforesaid consideration cannot bee possessed or made appropriate becaus possession is of no force unless it bee in a thing that is bounded So that Thucydides call s a Land unpossessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbounded and Isocrates the Land possessed by the Athenians a Land bounded with Limits But liquid things becaus of themselvs they are not bounded cannot bee possessed save onely as they are conteined in som other thing after which manner Lakes and Ponds are possessed and Rivers also becaus they are conteined within Banks But the Sea is not conteined by the Earth it beeing of equal bigness or bigger then the Earth so that the Antients have affirmed the Earth to bee conteined by the Sea And then hee bring 's divers Testimonies of the Antients whereby it is affirmed more then once that the Sea is the girdle or Bond of this Globe of Earth and that fetching a compass it incloseth all the Parts thereof together and it is very often said by the Antients that the Land is conteined and bounded by the water or Sea as if the whole Earth made as it were one Island beeing surrounded by the Sea But admit it were to bee granted which I suppose neither that learned man nor any other will grant yet I do not well see why the thing conteining should not in truth bee bounded by the thing conteined as well as this by that May not a lesser bodie that is spherical or of any other form beeing conteined by a greater which is every way contiguous to it bee said to bound and limit the Concave of the greater Bodie as well as this to limit the Convex of the lesser But Julius Scaliger saith very well of the Sea and Land That the one is not so conteined by the other but that it may also contein Nor are they so disjoyned from each other but that they may both encroach upon each other and retire by Turns The Sea and Land mutually imbrace one another with crooked windings and turnings this with Peninsula's and Promontories butting forth and Creeks bending inward that working up its waves about all the Passages of its vast Bodie Thus it is evident that the one indifferently set's Bounds to the other no otherwise than Banks and Lakes or Rivers which also appear's more evident in the Caspian Sea that is encompassed with Land And in like manner in the Mediterranean before that Hercules or as the Arabians say Alexander the great did by cutting the Mountains let in the Atlantick Ocean through the streights of Cadiz And thereby it is made up one single Globe wherein divers Seas are bounded as well as the Isles or main Land as it is more clearly proved out of holy Scripture There the waters are gathered together and limited by their Places and Bounds And saith the Lord himself of the Sea I encompassed it with my Bounds and set Bars and Doors and said hitherto shalt thou com but no farther And in another place Hee gave unto the Sea his Bounds his Decree unto the waters that they should not pass their Bounds So that it cannot bee doubted every Sea hath its Bounds on the Shore as the Land it self Nor had I made mention of this Particular had I not found it impugned by so eminent a person And truly there is but a very little more difficultie to finde out Limits and Bounds in the main Sea for distinguishing of private Dominions Wee have high Rocks Shelvs Promontories opposite to each other and Islands dispersed up and down from whence as well direct Lines as crooked windings and turnings and angles may bee made use of for the bounding of a Territorie in the Sea Mille jacent mediae diffusa per aequora terrae Innumeri surgunt Scopuli montésque per altum A thousand Lands within the main do lie Rocks numberless and Mountains rise on high Throughout the deep The antient Cosmographers also reckon up the Seas of the world no otherwise then Towns Rivers Islands and Mountains as beeing no less distinguished from each other by their respective Bounds AEthicus saith Every Globe of Land hath XXX Seas CCCLXX Towns LXXII Islands LVII Rivers and XL Mountains c. After this also hee reckon's the Seas of the Eastern Western Northen and Southern Ocean one after another after the same manner as hee doth the Provinces and their Isles How truly I dispute not but in the mean time hee made no question but that the Seas are sufficiently distinguished by their Names and Bounds Add hereunto that useful invention of the sea-man's Compass and the help of Celestial degrees either of Longitude or Latitude together with the doctrine of Triangles arising therefrom Also in those Plantations that in our time have been carried out of Europe into America the degrees of Latitude and Longitude do serv the Proprietors in stead of Bounds which with as little difficultie are found in the Sea In like manner som would have had the Tropick of Cancer and the Equinoctial Line to have been the Bounds in the Sea for the limiting of that Agreement which was to have been made in the year MDCVIII between the States of the United Provinces and the Hous of Austria And in the late Agreement betwixt the Kings of Great Britain and Spain the Equinoctial Line is the bound appointed in the Sea Other Instances there are of the same nature Eor Sarpedon and Calycadnus two Promontories of Cilicia were designed as Bounds for distinguishing the Dominion of the Sea in that League made betwixt the Romanes and Antiochus King of Syria Also by Decree of the Emperor Leo of which wee have alreadie spoken the Fishing Epoches or Fish-pens that were by men placed in the Sea lying over against their Lands were limited to certain number of Cubits The case was the same likewise touching the Cyanean and Chelidonian Islands in the League made by the Athenians with the King of Persia which hath been mentioned also before Moreover Pope Alexander VI and his Cardinals or the King of Spain's Agents made no scruple touching Bounds of this
much of the same tenderness was expressed afterward by King James becaus as in the former Reign so in his it was counted Reason of State to permit them to thrive but they turning that favorable Permission into a Licentious Encroaching beyond due Limits put the King to a world of Trouble and Charge by Ambassies and otherwise to assert his own interest and dispute them into a reasonable submission to those Rights which had been received before as indisputable by all the world For the truth whereof I am bold to refer your Honors to the Memorials of several Transactions in those daies which I have added at the end of this Book and for which I stand indebted as I am also for many other Favors to a Right honorable Member of your own great Assembly By the same also it will appear how this People perceiving that King to bee of a temper disposed to use no other arguments but words held him in play with words again and while they trifled out his Reign in Debates and Treaties carried on their design still to such a height by a collusion of Agencies and Ventilations to and agen and a daily intrusion upon the Territorie by Sea that in time they durst plead and print Mare Liberum and after his Son Charls came to the Crown they in effect made it so For though hee were not ignorant of his own Right as appear's by his esteem of this Book his Preparations and Proclamation for Restraint of Fishing without Licence c. Yet hee never made any farther use of them than to milk away the Subjects monie under pretence of building Ships to maintein his Autoritie by Sea which end of his beeing served hee immediately let fall the prosecution of what hee pretended So that through the over-much easiness and indulgence of preceding Princes they in a short time arrived to so loftie a Presumption as to seem to forget and question and now at length by most perfidious actings to defie the Dominion of England over the Sea These things beeing consider'd it was supposed this Translation it beeing a noble Plea asserting that Dominion would bee a very seasonable Service which how poorly soëver it bee apparel'd in our English dress is bold to lay Claim unto your Honors as its proper Patrons conceiving it ought to bee no less under your Protection than the Sea it self And therefore let mee have leav here without Flatterie or Vanitie to say though in other things I may injure the eminent Autor yet in this hee will bee a Gainer that his Book is now faln under a more noble Patronage in the tuition of such heroïck Patriots who observing the errors and defects of former Rulers are resolved to see our Sea-Territorie as bravely mainteined by the Sword as it is by his Learned Pen. It is a gallant sight to see the Sword and Pen in victorious Equipage together For this subdue's the souls of men by Reason that onely their bodies by force The Pen it is which manifest's the Right of Things and when that is once cleared it give 's spurs to resolution becaus men are never raised to so high a pitch of action as when they are perswaded that they engage in a righteous caus according to that old Versicle Frangit attollit vires in Milite causa Wherefore seeing you Right Honorable have had so frequent experience of the truth of this in our late Wars wherein the Pen Militant hath had as many sharp rancounters as the Sword and born away as many Trophies from home-bred Enemies in prosecution of your most righteous caus by Land certainly you will yield it no less necessarie for the Instruction of this generous and ingenious people in vindicating your just Rights by Sea against the vain Pretences and Projects of encroaching Neighbors For what true English heart will not swell when it shall bee made clear and evident as in this Book that the Soveraigntie of the Seas flowing about this Island hath in all times whereof there remain's any written Testimonie both before the old Roman Invasion and since under every Revolution down to the present Age been held and acknowledged by all the world as an inseparable appendant of the British Empire And that by virtue thereof the Kings of England successively have had the Soveraign Guard of the Seas That they have imposed Taxes and Tributes upon all ships passing and fishing therein That they have obstructed and open'd the passage thereof to strangers at their own pleasure and don all other things that may testifie an absolute Sea-Dominion VVhat English heart I say can consider these things together with the late Actings of the Netherlanders set forth in your publick Declaration and not bee inflamed with an indignation answerable to their Insolence That these People raised out of the dust at first into a state of Libertie and at length to an high degree of Power and Felicitie by the Arms and Benevolence of England or that they who in times past durst never enter our Seas to touch a Herring without Licence first obteined by Petition from the Governor of Scarborough-Castle should now presume to invade them with armed Fleets and by a most unjust war bid defiance to the United Powers of these three Nations Had they dared to do this in the daies of our Kings I suppose they even the worst of thē would have checkt and chastised them with a Resolution suitable to their monstrous Ingratitude For however som of them were wholly busied in vexing and undermining the people's Liberties at home yet they were all very jealous of the Rights and Interests of the Nation at Sea and good reason they had for it since without the maintenance of a Soveraigntie there the Island it self had been but a great Prison and themselvs and the Natives but so many Captives and Vassals to their Neighbors round about not so much secluded as excluded from all the world beside Upon this ground it was that Kings ever conceived and mainteined themselvs as much Monarchs by Sea as by Land and the same you will finde here was received by all other States and Princes the Land and Water that surround's it making one entire Bodie and Territorie Moreover our own Municipal Constitutions every where declare the same as may bee seen by the several Presidents and Proceedings thereunto relating which manifestly shew that by the Cōmon Law of the Land our Kings were Proprietarie Lords of our Seas That the Seas of Engl. were ever under the Legiance of our Kings and they soveraign Conservators of the peace as well upon the Sea as Land Now therefore Right honorable when I look upon you and behold you more highly intrusted than Kings and far more nobly adorned upon a better Ground than they were with all the Rights Interests and Privileges of the People when I consider how God hath wrested the Sword out of their hands and placed it in yours for our Protection with the Conservation of our Peace and