possession of the sovereign lordship of the sea of England,'
and had done what was 'needful for the maintenance of peace,
right, and equity between people of all sorts, whether subjects
of another kingdom or not, who pass through those seas.'[53] The
English sovereignty was not exercised as giving authority to
exact toll. All that was demanded in return for keeping the sea
safe for peaceful traffic was a salute, enforced no doubt as a
formal admission of the right which permitted the (on the whole,
at any rate) effective police of the waters to be maintained.
The Dutch in the seventeenth century objected to the demand for
this salute. It was insisted upon. War ensued; but in the end
the Dutch acknowledged by solemn treaties their obligation to
render the salute. The time for exacting it, however, was really
past. S. R. Gardiner[54] maintains that though the 'question of
the flag' was the occasion, it was not the cause of the war.
There was not much, if any, piracy in the English Channel which
the King of England was specially called upon to suppress, and
if there had been the merchant vessels of the age were generally
able to defend themselves, while if they were not their governments
possessed force enough to give them the necessary protection.
We gave up our claim to exact the salute in 1805.

[Footnote 51: W. E. Hall, _Treatise_on_International_Law_,
4th ed. 1895, p. 146.]

[Footnote 52: Hall, pp. 48, 49.]

[Footnote 53: J. K. Laughton, 'Sovereignty of the Sea,' _Fortnightly_
_Review_, August 1866.]