"
--_Shakespeare._
_King Henry VI, Part III, Act IV, Scene I._
POSTSCRIPT
THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
Landsmen are many while seamen are few. So the world thinks more of
armies than of fleets. Our enemies hate all British sea-power, while
our friends never know the half of what it means. So friend and foe
alike are apt to side against us by making the laws against blockading
fleets very much harder than those against besieging armies.
All we can do is to stand firmly on our perfect rights and show the
world the five good reasons why:--
1. The sea and land have equal rights. Blockading fleets are like
besieging armies. So if besieging armies have the right to stop
supplies from reaching the places they besiege, why should blockading
fleets be told to let supplies go through?
2. All parts of our great Empire are joined together, not by land, but
sea. So if we lose our rights of self-defence at sea we lose the very
breath of life.
3. We claim no rights we will not share with others. When the American
blockade of the South during the Civil War (1861-5) ruined the British
cotton trade we never interfered, though we had by far the stronger
navy.
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