uncontested principle of modern international law that the sea,
as a general rule, cannot be subjected to appropriation.'[51]
This, however, is quite modern. We ourselves did not admit the
principle till 1805; the Russians did not admit it till 1824;
and the Americans, and then only tacitly, not till 1894. Most
European nations at some time or other have claimed and have
exercised rights over some part of the sea, though far outside
the now well-recognised 'three miles' limit.' Venice claimed
the Adriatic, and exacted a heavy toll from vessels navigating
its northern waters. Genoa and France each claimed portions of
the western Mediterranean. Denmark and Sweden claimed to share
the Baltic between them. Spain claimed dominion over the Pacific
and the Gulf of Mexico, and Portugal over the Indian Ocean and
all the Atlantic south of Morocco.[52] The claim which has made
the greatest noise in the world is that once maintained by the
kings of England to the seas surrounding the British Isles. Like
other institutions, the English sovereignty of the sea was, and
was admitted to be, beneficent for a long period. Then came the
time when it ought to have been abandoned as obsolete; but it was
not, and so it led to war. The general conviction of the maritime
nations was that the Lord of the Sea would provide for the police
of the waters over which he exercised dominion. In rude ages when
men, like the ancients, readily 'turned themselves to piracy,'
this was of immense importance to trade; and, far from the right
of dominion being disputed by foreigners, it was insisted upon by
them and declared to carry with it certain duties. In 1299, not
only English merchants, but also 'the maritime people of Genoa,
Catalonia, Spain, Germany, Zealand, Holland, Frisia, Denmark,
Norway, and several other places of the empire' declared that the
kings of England had from time immemorial been in 'peaceable