by M. P. Shiel
XXIX
PRIORITY OF CLAIM
A gentleman--a Permanent Under-secretary--stood one noon, his back to afireplace in a bright-carpeted room at the Foreign Office, letting hiseyes move over some opened letters submitted to him, and presently cameupon the following document, its crest a flag, containing in blue theletters "R. F.":
"17 LEADENHALL STR., E.G.
"To the Most Hon.,
"The Marquis of Hallam, K.G.,
"Foreign Office,
"Westminster, S.W.
"MY LORD MARQUIS:
"I have the honour hereby to make formal announcement to Your Lordshipthat I am on the point of setting up in the midst of the world a newPower, whose relations with the King's Government will, I trust, berelations of friendliness.
"It is my desire that Your Lordship forthwith convey to the King'sMost Excellent Majesty the announcement which is the subject of thisMemorandum.
"My purposes and policy in the establishment of the new Power willhereafter appear; and my properly accredited Ministers will, in duecourse, present themselves at the Chancelleries of the world.
"Hitherto a British subject, it is my will to acquire diplomaticrecognition--as soon as such shall comport with the dignity of the GreatPowers--as an Independent Sovereign, under the title of: 'Lord of theSea'. (Address: 'Your Lordship's Majesty', or 'My Lord King'.)
"The domain of my Power will be the sea: and to the sea I hereby set upclaim as far as such points of latitude as have been attained by Man,and over all degrees of longitude. Provided only: that nothing in thisclaim shall be held to infringe upon the prior claim of any nation toa 'three-mile limit' round its coasts, nor to any national fisherieswhatsoever, nor to any claim of the Kingdom of Denmark with respect tothe Sound.
"The validity of my title to the sea must be considered to rest on thesame basis as the title of any private owner to any area of the earth'scrust: namely, Priority of Claim. If one is valid, so, necessarily,is the other, this title to land, based on _Priority of Claim_, beingadmitted in the Law of all civilized Nations.
"This my claim will come into operation on this day three years hence.
"I have the honour to subscribe myself
"Your Lordship's
"Obdt. Servant,
"RICHARD HOGARTH ".
The Under-secretary, a pale, distinguished man, read this letter with alittle lift of one eyebrow, then let it drop from him into a waste-paperbasket.
At the German, the Turkish, capitals it met much the same reception.Nowhere did it reach the eye of a Departmental Head. It went to Siam, tothe Prince of Monaco, to Ecuador, and was tossed to cumber a basket, ormoulder on a file.
But Hogarth, who knew that it would be instantly forgotten, had writtenit so as to be able to say that he had written it.
At that time he was lodging in a top room in Bloomsbury, and had anunderground den in Leadenhall Street, on its doors the words: "R. Beech& Co." Thither in a brougham he drove daily, lying very low, but holdingin that den interviews with all sorts and conditions of men, and feelinghis way toward operations of dimensions so immense, that their mereproject had a modifying influence upon industry.