being called into question in discussions with the Dutch, some men of rank about the royal person who had formerly heard of the work, persuaded his Majesty to command its publication. The manuscript was therefore corrected and revised by the author, and having been inspected by the King and some of the council, was sent to the press in that year. The preceding account is given at large by Selden in his Vindiciae Maris Clausi, by way of refutation of what he considered as a gross calumny advanced by Theodore Graswinckel, in his "Maris Liberi Vindiciæ adversus Petrum Baptistum Burgum, Ligustici maritimi Dominii Assertorem." That writer, after quoting from Burgos the information that "Selden has lately published an entire work on the Dominion of the British Sea," added, Non mirum: virorum enim ille inter seculi nostri primicerios numerandus, et meliore fortuna dignus, fati sui infelicitate, carceris se non digni colonus erat. Hinc ut exiret, seque libertati amissæ redonandum sperare daretur, animum ad scribendum ap pulit, et Id sibi negotii credidit solum dari Domino ut placerent quas fecis set fabulas. Neque talia agitantem successus destituit." (No wonder: for that person, who may be numbered among the first characters of our age, and was worthy a better fortune, through the rigour of his fate became the inhabitant of an unmerited prison. That he might be released from this confinement, and hope to recover his lost liberty, he applied himself to writing, VOL. LIV. and "Thought it his sole business to invent fables which might be pleasing to his master"-nor did his efforts fail of success.) By this narrative, therefore, and that of his different imprisonments, he makes it clear that the composition of this work was anterior to his first confinement, and its pub lication posterior to his final enlargement, with which it had no concern. Whether or not in its revision he made additions to favour the purposes of the court at that time, could only be known from a comparison of the two manuscripts. The work bears the following title: Mare Clausum, seu de Do-. minio Maris, Libri duo. Primo, Mare, e Jure Naturæ seu Genti um, omnium hominum non esse commune, sed dominii privati seu proprietatis capa, pariter ac Tellurem, demonstratur. Secundo, serinissimum Magne Britannice regem Maris circumflui ut individue atque perpetua Imperii Britannici appendicis, dominum esse, asseritur. (The Closed Sea; or, on the Dominion of the Sea, two Books. In the first, it is demonstrated that the Sea, from the Law of Nature or of Nations, is not common to all men, but is the subject of property equally with the land. In the second, the King of Great Britain is asserted to be Lord of the circumfluent Sea, as an inseparable and perpetual appendage of the British empire.) It is dedicated to King Charles; and the preface is dated from the Inner Temple, Nov. 4, 1635. In the first part, Selden lays his foundation deep in disquisitions on the nature of right and dominion; 2 L and and then proceeds to give examples of maritime dominion asserted and exercised by different na. tions in ancient and modern his tory. In several of these, however, he will probably appear to have confounded naval power with maritime dousinion, especially in the instances of the Greek states which are said Jaλacoongarew, which word, as he acknowledges, often means no more than to possess a superiority by sea. And in point of fact, the dominion of the sea, historically considered, will perhaps be found to import no more than the 'power alternately possessed by different states, of ruling in the portions of sea adjacent to their own coasts, and dictating to their neighbours such conditions of navigating them as they thought expedient. In this view, there are abundant instances of the assertion of such a dominion, which has been acquiesced in only so long as it was supported by a powerful navy. The second part, in which British maritime dominion is attempted to be established, begius with a quad ipartite division of the British seas according to the four cardinal points; and proceeds to show the right of sovereignty exercised in all these at different periods. A dominion over these parts of the Surrounding ocean is traced from hand to hand in the Roman, Saxon, and Norman times, as accompanying the several changes in territorial power. The office and jurisdiction of Admiral of England are deduced from ancient diplomas; and arguments are brought to prove, that the admirals of the opposite coast of France did not pre tend to the same authority in the Channel with those of England. The permission of transit and of fishery granted by the English kings at different periods to strangers, is adduced as a cogent proof of the British sovereignty in these seas; which is confirmed by the rules and limits assigned in them to foreigners at war with each. other, but mutually in amity with England. The assumption or incidental mention of this maritime dominion of our kings in their charters and public records, and its recognition in our law books, are adverted to as additional testimonies of the existence of such a claim; and the same is regarded as acquiesced in by foreign nations in the ancient and established custom of striking sail to English ships of war in the surrounding waters. After the production of further proofs of a similar kind, the book concludes with a distinct consideration of the dominion of the King of Great Britain in the Irish and Scottish seas; and the author sums up the whole in the following passage. After quoting some very apposite lines of Grotius's complimentary address to King James on his accession to the crown of England (in which the flattery of the poet seems to have got the better of the prudence of the politician,, ending with Finis hic est, qui fine caret. Quæ meta Britannis harbours of the neighbouring transmarine princes are the southern and eastern bounds of the British maritime empire; but that in the vast and open northern and western ocean they are to be fixed beyond those wide-spreading seas which are occupied by England, Scotland, and Ireland." Such are the general contents of a book which afforded an additional proof of the learning and deep research of the author, as well as of his attachment to the honour of his country; and was considered, on this side of the water, as fully establishing the British claim to maritime dominion. So important was it deemed in this view, that it received a public sanction from the King and council, who adopted it as a most valuable record and declaration of the national rights. The following entry was made in the minutes of the privy. council, dated March 26, 1636: "His Majesty this day in council taking into consideration a book lately published by John Selden, Esq. intituled Mare Clausum seu de Dominio Maris, written by the King's command, which he hath done with great industry, learning, and judgment, and hath asserted the right of the crown of England to the dominion of the British seas; the King requires one of the said books to be kept in the council chest, another in the court of Exchequer, and a third in the court of Admiralty, as faithful and strong evidence to the dominion of the British seas.". ". Speak asserted; and accordingly it has been held in Holland and other countries on the continent, that Selden by no means refuted the principles of the "Mare Liberum," and that he was fully answered by posterior writers. In such a controversy, the philosopher will perhaps find that precedents have been made to serve instead of principles, and that acts of power have been represented as assertions of right; the jurist will be unwilling to admit into the code of national law any article that militates against the fundamental principle of equality and reciprocity between nations; while the politician will be inclined to smile at the importance attached to argumentative justifications of claims, which can never be made good in practice but by such a preponderance of force as would give them effect without any argument. It is certain, that the more able Great Britain has become to assert her maritime empire by force of arms, the less solicitous she has been to avail herself of supposed rights derived from remote antiquity, which, if disputed, could not be established without compuls sory means. A passage relative to this work, derogatory to Selden's character as a patriot, in Bishop Nicolson's "Historical Library," has been properly noticed and refuted hy Dr. Wilkins. That writer says, ""Tis very plain that when the author penn'd this book, he was not such an inveterate enemy to the preroga ...tive doctrine of ship-money as afterwards: for he professedly asserts that, in defence of their sovereignty at sea, our kings constantly prac tised, the levying great sums on their subjects, without the concur2 L 2 It was not, however, to be expected that arguments in support of the exclusive claims of one nation should be readily acquiesced in by those against whom they were rence rence of their parliaments." It is in the fifteenth chapter of his second book that Selden treats on this matter, in which he adduces, as a further evidence of the dominion of the sea exercised by England, the tributes and taxes accustomed to be levied for the custody of it from the time of the Norman conquest. He begins with the Saxon tax of Danegelt, which he finds to have been occasionally levied by the Norman kings; once, particularly, by William Rufus, "with consent of his barons, but not by sanction of a law." And that this was regarded as a grievance, appears from King Stephen's promise, among other popular measures, entirely to àbolish Danegelt. In fact, this tax was not paid later than the reign of Henry II. and parliamentary grants for the purpose of guarding the seas, after its cessation, are cited by Selden under Edward I. Richard II. and Henry VI. He goes on to say, "Why do I quote these instances, when in the printed parliamentary records it frequently occurs, by way of preamble to a statute, that the kings of England from time immemorial have received by authority of parliament great sums of money under the title of a subsidy, or a tax upon goods imported or exported, for the defence of the realm, and the keeping and safeguard of the seas?" It is most extraordinary that Nicolson, with this passage full in his view, could represent Selden as countenancing by his authority the unconstitutional imposition of ship-money without the intervention of parliament. The Mare Clausum was translated inso English in 1652, at the time of the breach between the English commonwealth and the states of Holland, by Marchmont Needham, who took the liberty of suppressing the dedication to Charles, and substituting one to the republic. He also added an Appendix, containing some documents contributed by president Bradshaw. Another and an improved transla tion was made after the Restoration by J. H. (probably James Howel), and published in 1663; whence may be judged how flattering its doctrine was to the feelings of Englishmen. DESCRIPTION OF TEHERAN. (From Morier's Tour in Persia.) "Teheran, the present capital of Persia, is situated, as I ascertained by a meridional observation, in lat. 35° 40. It is in circumference between four and a half and five miles, if we might judge from the length of our ride round the walls, which indeed occupied an hour and a half; but from this we must deduct something for the deviations necessary from the intervention of the gardens, and the slaughter-houses. There are six gates, inlaid with coloured bricks and with figures of tigers and other beasts in rude mosaic: their entrance is lofty and domed; and they are certainly better than those that we had then seen in any of the fortified places of Persia. To the N. W: are separate towers. We saw two pieces of artillery, one apparently a mortar, the other a long gun. The ditch in some parts had fallen in, and was there supported by brick work. The town itself is about the size of of Shiraz; but it has not so many public edifices; and, as it is built of bricks baked in the sun, the whole has a mud-like appearance. Of the mosques, the principal is the Mesjid Shab, a structure not yet finished. There are six others, Sinall and insignificant; and three or four medressés or colleges. There are said to be one hundred and fifty caravanserais, and one hundred and fifty hummums or baths. There are two maidans; one in the town, the other within the ark, a square fortified palace, which contains all the establishments of the king, is surrounded by a wall and ditch, and is entered by two gates. The Harem is most numerous, and contains a female establishment as extensive as the public household. All the officers of the king's court are there represented by females. There are women feroshes, and there is a woman ferosh bashee; women chatters, and a woman chatter bashee; there is a woman arz beggee, and a woman ish agassi; in short, there is a female duplicate for every male officer; and the king's service in the interior of the harem is carried on with the same etiquette and regularity, as the exterior economy of his state. The women of the harem, who are educated to administer to the pleasures of the king by singing and dancing, are instructed by the best masters that the country can supply. An Armenian at Shiraz was unfortunately renowned for performing excellently on the kamouncha. The fame of his skill reached the king's ears, and he was immediately ordered up to court on the charge of being the best kamouncha player in his majesty's dominions. The poor man, who had a wife and family and commercial concerns at Shiraz, was during our stay detained at Teheran expressly to teach the king's women the art of playing on the kamouncha. The king's family consists of 65 sons. As they make no account of females, it is not known how many daughters he may have; although he is said to have an equal number of both sexes. It some times happens, that many of his women are delivered on the same night, and (if we might give credit to a Persian) one of these happy coincidences occurred during our abode in the capital, when in one night six of his women were brought to bed, four of sons and two of daughters. The Ameened-Doulah had one, indeed, of the babes at his house; and a présent was sent for it from Ispahan, composed of four mules laden with all sorts of rich clothes. The Tabkt-a-Cadjar is a pleasure house built by the present king, about two miles to the N. E. of Teheran. At a distance it presents a grand elevation, apparently of several stories; but these, on a nearer view, are the fronts of successive terraces. The entrance is through an indifferent gate, at the top of which is a summer-house. It leads into a spacious enclosure; in the middle is the principal walk, bounded on each side by some young cypress and poplar trees, and intersected at right angles in the centre by a stone channel, which conducts a stream at several intervals to small cascades. The building which stands on the first terrace is in form octagonal, crowned by a small flat roofed elevation. It |