The sea useful for navigation and fishing.

came audacious pirates, and adventurous navigators.(9)

4. In whatever way the inhabitants of the earth became familiarised with this terrible element, it is certain, that from that time, the high sea presented two great advantages, navigation and fishing, while its coasts afforded various productions and different modes of industry, for the supply of their wants, and a secure asylum in the voyages undertaken on its restless surface.

5. Every nation situated on the borders of the sea, must have soon perceived that it had an equal right to navigation and fishing, and to a common participation of the advantages, which might result from these pursuits. At that period, no limits would be assigned to the exercise of this right, but such as resulted from their situation, their wants, or their industry, or were fixed by nature.

6. The use of the sea is innocent in itself, and injurious to no one; because, it is sufficient for the wants of all, and nature has not given to men the right of appropriating things inexhaustible by

(9) Quintilian, lib. 19, ch. 2. considering rafts as first made use of for navigation, says, "If those who came after the ancients, had done nothing more than to imitate them, we should still navigate on rafts: Si nemo plus efficiet eo quem sequebatur, adhuc ratibus navigaremus."

The use of the sea is common to all mankind.

use, of perpetual duration, and sufficient for all. As each one may find, in a common participation, enough to satisfy his wants, to seize on such things, and exclude others from their use, would be to deprive them, without reason, of the benefits conferred upon all mankind, by the great author of nature.

7. So fertile in resources, so abundant in pretexts, are avarice and ambition, when supported by armed power, that this fundamental truth, on which rests the plan of creation, has not been sufficient to fix the opinions of men, to lead their minds to favourable conclusions, and to such as are agreeable to the institution of the Creator. This truth acquires additional. force, from the consideration of the impossibility of taking possession of the high seas. Indeed, from the moment a thing becomes so abundant, that whatever quantity may be taken from it by one, others may still have as much as they desire, it necessarily results that, as each may appropriate to himself the quantity he wants, all the rest may do the same, without injury, and without infringing the rights of any other person.(10)

(10) Hinc factum ut statim quisque hominum ad suos usus arripere posset quod vellet, et quæ consumi poterant consumere; ac talis usus universalis juris erat tunc vice proprietatis. Nam quod quisque sic arripuerat, id ei eripere alter nisi per injustitiam non poterat. Grotius de jure belli ac pacis, lib. 2, ch. 2, §2. In this sense, we are to understand the words of Cicero, de finibus. 3. Theatrum cum commune sit recte tamen dici potest ejus esse eum locum quem quisque occuparit. The same principle is to be found in Seneca, de Benes

Property in the sea distinguished from that in land.

8. The reasons on which the right of property in land is founded, are not applicable to property in the sea. As the earth, without cultivation, no longer furnished all the productions necessary or useful to the human race, it became requisite to introduce the right of property, that each individual might apply with greater assiduity and success, to the cultivation of the part which had fallen to his share, and to multiply by his labour, the various productions essential to life, and useful to the great body of society. For this reason, natural law, directed by civil laws, has sanctioned those rights of domain and property, which have put an end to the primitive community of goods.

9. The sea was of itself, navigable, anterior to any labour or industry of man. It requires no greater force of wind to carry forward on the ocean all the fleets in the world, than what is sufficient to propel a single vessel. When one ship has passed, the way remains unbroken and not less convenient for those which follow after; so that any number of vessels may set sail at the same time, without impeding the course of each other.*

ficiis, lib. 7, c. 12. Equestria omnium Romanorum sunt; in illis tamen locus meus fit quem occupavi.

* Puffendorf de jure naturæ et Gentium, lib. 4, cap. 5, §9. Ut is navigationi sit idoneus nulla quantum ad ipsum mari hominum opera et industria opus est. Eodem labore venti quicquid est ubique navium prodeunt iter. Non deterius patet tibi incontinentem alterum iter, licet cæteri eandem viam usurpent. The whole of the fifth chapter of Puffendorf, on this subject, deserves to be read......T.

No nation has an exclusive right to the use of the sea.

10. If, at the present day, a perfect democracy were possible, the sea alone could become the theatre of its existence. Every nation has an equal right to launch it fleets on that element; there, every man has a right to navigate, to transport the productions of his soil or the fruits of his industry, and to plough the surface of the deep,from pole to pole. Absolute democracy, or, to speak more correctly, a perfect equality of rights on the sea, is the natural state of maritime nations. Whoever seeks to gain an exclusive power there, attempts to erect an absolute monarchy, an organised tyranny, an odious despotism.(11) Maritime navigation, being the free and permanent exercise of the natural and imprescriptible right of the nations of the world, must be common to all. Every maritime power ought to be pacific from principle, and tranquil from necessity. All those powers who have claimed the exclusive empire of the sea, have been warriors from necessity, jealous from pride, tyrannical from system, grasping from interest, and restless from avarice. Europe enjoyed tranquillity, when navigation, protected by the law of nations, was peaceably carried on by all. It has been put into commotion, and inundated with blood, since the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Venitians, Charles V. Holland, and England, have aspired to the empire of the sea.*

(11) See an excellent work of M. Barrere on this subject, entitled, La Liberté des Mers.

*The intelligent reader will ask, at what period has navigation enjoyed this undisturbed tranquillity? And has not the ambition of VOL. I.

C

The exclusive empire of the sea belongs to no nation.

11. A despotic power over the sea, which belongs equally to every nation, would fetter commerce, and restrain the liberty of all mankind. It would interdict nations from the means of communicating with each other. To subject the winds and waves to the dominion of an exclusive flag, would be committing adultery with, rather than espousing the sea; it would be seeking an absurd end, by means not less devoid of reason; in a word, it would be the delirium of a nation, mad with ambition, whom it would be necessary to enchain. The different possessors in the same tract of country, have an equal right to the maintenance of order, for the purpose of securing the free exercise of their respective rights within such territory. If that territory is common and indivisible, the right of each individual is founded on the common right. The sea, by its extent and real indivisibility, is intended by Providence to be common to the different nations of the world, to contribute to the wants, the commerce, the well-being, and the prosperity of all who have the means of navigating its surface. With what right, then, will any one pretend to give laws to the sea, and to fetter the commerce of nations?

France, of Austria, of Prussia, also disturbed the repose of Europe, and inundated the fairest portions of that continent with blood? The dire effects of ambition are the same, whether the ocean or the land be the theatre of its influence......T.

*Ce serait adulterer les mers. See article, Venice, post......T.