[189] “All those that pass within our sea jurisdiction (either absolute or respective) and therein commit any notable offence against us may lawfully by our power be taken; and the same offenders may as lawfully and justly be punished, as if on our land territory an offence like, or of like degree of injury, were by them against us committed.” “Absolute” jurisdiction applied to the sea where both coasts belonged to England; “respective” where it terminated half seas over.
[190] In 1597 Dee expressed his grief and surprise that so little had been done or attempted with regard to the sovereignty of the sea, “and so my labours (after a sort) vaynely employed.” MS.
[191] Bullarium Romanum Novissimum, i. 346. “Insulæ novi Orbis à Ferdinando Hispaniarum Rege, et Elisabeth Regina repertæ, et reperiendæ, conceduntur eisdem, propagandæ fidei Christianæ causa ... omnes insulas et terras firmas inventas et inveniendas, detectas ad detegendas versus Occidentem et Meridiem fabricando, et construendo unam lineam à Polo Arctico scilicet Septentrione, ad Polum Antarcticum, scilicet Meridiem, sive terræ firmæ, et insulæ inventæ et inveniendæ sint versus Indiam aut versus aliam quamcumque partem, quæ linea distet à qualibet Insularum, quæ vulgariter nuncupantur de los Azores y cabo vierde, centum læucis versus Occidentem et Meridiem,” &c. Art. 8, “prohibet aliis accessum ad illas insulas pro mercibus habendis absque Regis licentia.”
[192] Harrisse, The Diplomatic History of America, 78.
[193] Selden, Mare Clausum, i. c. xvii.
[194] Selden, loc. cit.
[195] Camden, Annales, 225 (ed. 1635).
[196] Hatfield MSS., ii. 684. “Whether Your Majesty’s Subjects may lawfully trade into the Indies.” Undated, but calendered under the year 1578.
[197] Hautefeuille, Hist. des Origines, des Progrès, et des Variations du Droit maritime international, 15. Hall, A Treatise on International Law, 142.
[198] Rot. Parl., iv. 79b. The petition declared that owing to the fish having deserted the coasts where they used to be taken, the fishermen had been forced to go to Iceland and other places for six or seven years past in order to catch them. English fishermen, however, had frequented Iceland long before that time.