nions on the continent of Europe; from the Norman
territory which William the conqueror brought with him, and held in
conjunction with the English throne; and from Anjou, and it's
appendages, which fell to Henry the second by hereditary descent. They
had seen the nation engaged for near four hundred years together in
ruinous wars for defence of these foreign dominions; till, happily for
this country, they were lost under the reign of Henry the sixth. They
observed that from that time the maritime interests of England were
better understood and more closely pursued: that, in consequence of
this attention, the nation, as soon as she had rested from her civil
wars, began at this period to flourish all at once; and became much
more considerable in Europe than when her princes were possessed of a
larger territory, and her counsels distracted by foreign interests.
This experience and these considerations gave birth to a conditional
clause in the act[e] of settlement, which vested the crown in his
present majesty's illustrious house, "That in case the crown and
imperial dignity of this realm shall hereafter come to any person not
being a native of this kingdom of England, this nation shall not be
obliged to engage in any war for the defence of any dominions or
territories which do not belong to the crown of England, without
consent of parliament."

[Footnote e: Stat. 12 & 13 W. III. c. 3.]

WE come now to consider the kingdom of England in particular, the
direct and immediate subject of those laws, concerning which we are to
treat in the ensuing commentaries. And this comprehends not only
Wales, of which enough has been already said, but also part of the
sea. The main or high seas are part of the realm of England, for
thereon our courts of admiralty have jurisdiction, as will be shewn
hereafter; but they are not subject to the common law[f]. This main
sea begins at the low-water-mark. But between the high-water-mark, and
the low-water-mark, where the sea ebbs and flows, the common law and
the admiralty have _divisum imperium_, an alternate jurisdiction; one
upon the water, when it is full sea; the other upon the land, when it
is an ebb[g].

[Footnote f: Co. Litt. 260.]

[Footnote g: Finch. L. 78.]

THE territory of England is liable to two divisions; the one
ecclesiastical, the other civil.

1. THE ecclesiastical division is, primarily, into two provinces,
those of Canterbury and York. A province is the circuit of an