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Law of the Sea in South East Asia

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) represents one
of the most successful examples of multilateral treaty making in the modern era.
The ­convention has 168 States parties, and most non-signatory States recognise
nearly all of its key provisions as binding under customary international law,
including the United States. Nevertheless, there remain significant differences in
interpretation and implementation of the LOSC among States as well as calls, on
occasion, for its amendment.
This book analyses the impact, influence and ongoing role of the LOSC
in South East Asia, one of the most dynamic maritime regions in the world.
­Maritime security is a critical issue within the region, and it is separately as-
sessed in light of the LOSC and contemporary challenges such as environmental
­security and climate change. Likewise, navigational rights and freedoms are a
major issue and they are evaluated through the LOSC and regional state practice,
especially in the South China Sea. Special attention is given to the role of navies
and non-state actors. Furthermore, the book looks at regional resource disputes
which have a long history. These disputes have the potential to increase into the
future as economic interests and concerns over food security intensify. Effective
LNG and fisheries resource management is therefore a critical issue for the re-
gion and unless resolved could become the focal point for significant m ­ aritime
disputes. These dynamics within the region all require extensive exploration in
order to gauge the effectiveness of LOSC dispute resolution mechanisms.
The Law of the Sea in South East Asia fills a gap in the existing literature by
bringing together a holistic picture of contemporary maritime issues affecting
the region in a single volume. It will appeal to academic libraries, government
officials, think-tanks and scholars from law, strategic studies and international
relations disciplines.

Donald R. Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU College of

Law, Australia

David Letts is Director of the Military Law Program, and Director of the
­Centre for Military and Security Law at the ANU College of Law, Australia
Law of the Sea in
South East Asia
Environmental, Navigational and
Security Challenges

Edited by
Donald R. Rothwell and
David Letts
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Donald R. Rothwell and
David Letts; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Donald R. Rothwell and David Letts to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Letts, David, editor. | Rothwell, Donald, 1959–, editor.
Title: Law of the Sea in South East Asia : environmental, navigational
and security challenges / edited by David Letts and Donald R. Rothwell.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019016905 (print) | LCCN 2019018284 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429021053 (ebk) | ISBN 9780367075026 (hbk)
Subjects: LCSH: Law of the sea—Southeast Asia.
Classification: LCC KZA1146.A785 (ebook) | LCC KZA1146.A785
L39 2019 (print) | DDC 341.4/50959—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016905

ISBN: 978-0-367-07502-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-02105-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by codeMantra
Contents

List of figures vii

List of tables ix
List of contributors xi
Foreword xvii
Preface xxi
Table of cases xxv
Table of treaties and other international instruments xxix

1 The law of the sea and South East Asia 1

D onald R . R ot h w ell and David L etts

2 Maritime claims in South East Asia 16

D onald R . R ot h w ell

3 An incomplete maritime map: progress and challenges

in the delimitation of maritime boundaries in South
East Asia 33
C live S c hofield

4 Maritime security in South East Asia 63

David L etts

5 Advancing marine environmental security in South

East Asia: challenges and opportunities 80
R obin Warner

6 Climate change and the law of the sea in the Asia Pacific 94
K aren N . S cott

7 The limits of the natural state doctrine: rocks, islands

and artificial intervention in a changing world 118
I mogen S aunders
vi Contents
8 The Law of the Sea, status and message ambiguity 136
R OB M C L AU G H L I N

9 The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

in South East Asia: smooth sailing or stormy seas? 149
T I M ST EPH ENS

10 ‘Do As I Do, Not As I Say’ – navigational freedom and

the Law of the Sea Convention 163
DA L E S T E P H E N S A N D T I M O T H Y QUA DR IO

11 Regimes of navigation and maritime security in South

East Asia 180
HITOSHI NASU

12 Crossing the Rubicon: Singapore’s evolving relations

with China in the context of the 2016 arbitral award 193
SEE SENG TA N

13 Saving the South China Sea fishery 210

M A R INA TSIR BA S

14 Dispute resolution and the law of the sea following the

South China Sea arbitration 223
NATA LIE K LEI N

15 Challenges for the law of the sea in South East Asia:

resolving current controversies and addressing
horizon threats 242
DAV I D L E T T S A N D D ON A L D R . R O T H W E L L

Index 259
List of figures

1.1 South East Asian Maritime Domain 3

3.1 Maritime Delimitation in the Andaman Sea 37
3.2 Maritime Delimitation in the Bay of Bengal 39
3.3 Maritime Delimitation in the Malacca Strait 40
3.4 Maritime Delimitation in the Singapore Strait 42
3.5 Maritime Claims and Boundaries in the South China Sea 45
3.6 Maritime Delimitation in the Gulf of Thailand 49
3.7 Maritime Claims and Boundaries in the East China Sea 52
3.8 Maritime Delimitation in the Sulu and Celebes Seas 55
3.9 Maritime Delimitation in the Timor Sea 57
List of tables

2.1 Maritime Claims in South East Asia 32

9.1 Ratifications by ASEAN Members and Timor-Leste of the
LOSC and Its Implementing Agreements 153
9.2 Ratifications by APEC Members of the LOSC and Its
Implementing Agreements 154
9.3 Submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf by ASEAN Members and Timor-Leste 156
9.4 LOSC Declarations by ASEAN Members and Timor-Leste 157
List of contributors

Editors

David Letts AM, CSM, is an Associate Professor at the ANU College of Law,
where he holds appointments as Director of the Military Law Program and
Director of the Centre for Military and Security Law. Prior to becoming an
academic, David served for more than three decades in the Royal Australian
Navy, retiring as a Commodore (1-star). David teaches in the ANU College
of Law’s military law and international law (especially law of the sea and mar-
itime security law) programmes. His research centres upon the application of
legal regimes to military operations, and he has a particular focus on military
justice, law of the sea, the law of naval warfare, international humanitarian
law and the legal issues that arise on peacekeeping operations. He has been
a member of the teaching faculty at the International Institute of Human-
itarian Law, Sanremo, Italy since 2001 and is the Course Director for the
Institute’s annual Naval Operations Law course; he is also an elected Member
of the Institute. David has regularly provided expert academic support to the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in their regional maritime
programmes.
Dr Donald R. Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU College
of Law, Australian National University, where he has taught since July 2006.
His research has a specific focus on law of the sea, law of the polar regions
and implementation of international law within Australia as reflected in 24
authored, co-authored and edited books, and over 200 articles, book chapters
and notes. Rothwell is also Co-Editor of the Australian Year Book of Interna-
tional Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Brill Research Perspectives in Law of the
Sea, and was Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Com-
mittee on ‘Baselines under the International Law of the Sea’ (2012–2018).
He has taught a range of courses including Law of the Sea, International
Dispute Resolution and Public International Law. Rothwell was previously
Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre
for International and Global Law, University of Sydney (2004–2006), where
xii List of contributors
he had taught since 1988. He has acted as a consultant or been a member of
expert groups for UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, the Australian Government, and
acted as advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). In
2015, he was elected as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of Law.

Authors

Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, AO, CSC, R AN, joined the Royal Australian Navy
in 1976 as a Seaman Officer and later specialised in aviation. He assumed
command of the Royal Australian Navy on 1 July 2014. Vice Admiral Barrett
served at sea as both a mariner and aviator in the Australian Fleet and on
exchange in the United Kingdom with the Royal Navy. Ashore he held sig-
nificant staff appointments in the areas of capability development and person-
nel management. His extensive command experience included Commanding
Officer 817 Helicopter Squadron, Commanding Officer HMAS Albatross,
Commander Australian Navy Aviation Group, Commander Border Pro-
tection Command and Commander Australian Fleet. Vice Admiral Barrett
holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History and a Masters of Defence
Studies, both from the University of New South Wales, and has completed
the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He re-
cently published ‘The Navy and the Nation: Australia’s Maritime Power in the
21st Century’ in which he outlined the extensive opportunities for Navy and
­Australia in implementing the planned investment in naval capability outlined
in the Defence White Paper 2016. Vice Admiral Barrett completed his period
in command of the R AN on 6 July 2018.

Dr Natalie Klein is a Professor at UNSW Sydney’s Faculty of Law, Australia. She

was previously at Macquarie University where she served as Dean of Macquarie
Law School between 2011 and 2017, as well as Acting Head of the Depart-
ment for Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism at Macquarie in 2013–
2014. Professor Klein teaches and researches in different areas of international
law, with a focus on law of the sea and international dispute settlement. She
provides advice, undertakes consultancies and interacts with the media on law
of the sea issues. Professor Klein has been a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht
Centre for International Law at Cambridge University and a MacCormick
­Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently a non-resident Fellow
at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Sri Lanka. Prior to joining Mac-
quarie, Professor Klein worked in the international litigation and arbitration
practice of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, served as counsel to the Government
of Eritrea (1998–2002) and was a consultant in the Office of Legal Affairs at
the United Nations. Her masters and doctorate in law were earned at Yale Law
School and she is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Dr Rob McLaughlin is Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for the
Study of Armed Conflict and Society at UNSW Canberra. He researches,
 List of contributors xiii
publishes and teaches in the areas of Law of Armed Conflict, Law of the Sea,
Maritime Security Law and Maritime Law Enforcement, and Military Law.
He routinely engages in research activities, and course development and de-
livery, with the ICRC, the Australian Red Cross, the International Institute
for Humanitarian Law and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Rob came to
academia after a career in the Royal Australian Navy as a Seaman officer and
a Legal officer. Consequently, his research interests are primarily focussed
around issues of practical operational significance. Rob’s legal roles in the
R AN included Fleet Legal Officer, Strategic Legal Adviser, as a Counsel As-
sisting the HMAS SYDNEY II Commission of Inquiry, Director Operations
and International Law and Director Naval Legal Service.
Dr Hitoshi Nasu is Professor of International Law at the University of Exeter
and publishes widely in the field of public international law, especially as it
relates to various contemporary security issues. He is the author of Inter-
national Law on Peacekeeping (2009), co-author of The Legal Authority of
ASEAN as a Security Institution (2019) and Co-Editor of Human Rights
in the Asia-Pacific Region: Towards Institution Building (2011), Asia-Pacific
Disaster Management (2013), New Technologies and the Law of Armed Con-
flict (2014) and Legal Perspectives on Security Institutions (2015).
Lieutenant Timothy Quadrio R AN is a Legal Officer in the Royal A ­ ustralian
Navy. In his current role, he is responsible for providing legal advice on
­military discipline, administration and operations law to R AN units based
in Northern Australia. In 2017, Timothy deployed to sea in HMAS Adelaide
as the joint task group Legal Officer for Indo-Pacific Endeavour, Australia’s
largest coordinated task group deployment since the early 1980s. Prior to
joining the R AN, Timothy was a commercial lawyer in private practice in
Sydney. In the five years to 2013, Timothy served as a policy adviser and
speechwriter to a minister in the Australian Government. Timothy has hon-
ours degrees in law and politics from Macquarie University.
Dr Imogen Saunders is a Senior Lecturer at the ANU College of Law, where
she teaches international law and international trade law. She completed a
Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Science at the University of Western
­Australia, and competed her PhD at the Australian National University on
Article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Imogen’s
research interests include the application of international law to newly acces-
sible areas (both physical and virtual) and changing environments. She has
examined these concepts in the context of artificial islands, cyberspace and
outer space.
Dr Clive Schofield is Professor and Head of Research at the Global Ocean
Institute, World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden and is a Visiting
Professor with the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security
­(ANCORS), University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. He holds a PhD
in Geography from the University of Durham, UK and also holds an LLM
xiv List of contributors
in international law from the University of British Columbia. His research
interests relate to international boundaries and particularly maritime bound-
ary delimitation and marine jurisdictional issues on which he has published
over 200 scholarly publications. Clive is an International Hydrographic Of-
fice (IHO)-nominated Observer on the Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea
(ABLOS) and is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee
on International Law and Sea Level Rise. He has also been actively involved
in the peaceful settlement of boundary and territory disputes by providing ad-
vice to governments engaged in boundary negotiations and in dispute settle-
ment cases before the International Court of Justice. Additionally, he recently
served as an independent expert witness in the international arbitration case
between the Philippines and China.
Karen N. Scott is a Professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand
having previously taught at the University of Nottingham in the UK. She was
the Head of the School of Law between 2015 and 2018, Vice-President of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) from
2011 to 2016 and the General Editor of the New Zealand Yearbook of Inter-
national Law from 2009 to 2012. She researches and teaches in the areas of
public international law, law of the sea and international environmental law.
Karen has published over 60 journal articles and book chapters in these areas
and is the Co-Editor of Rothwell, Oude Elferink, Scott and Stephens (eds),
Oxford Handbook on the Law of the Sea (2015hb; 2017pb) and of Hemmings,
Rothwell, Scott (eds), Antarctic Security in the Twenty-First Century: Legal
and Policy Perspectives (2012).
Dr Dale Stephens CSM, is a Professor at the University of Adelaide Law
School. He obtained his Law degree (LL.B (Hons.)) from Adelaide Univer-
sity in 1988. In 1989, he was admitted as a legal practitioner to the Supreme
Court of South Australia. That same year, he also joined the Royal Australian
Navy. His operational deployments include East Timor and Iraq. He has been
awarded the Conspicuous Service Medal, the (US) Bronze Star and the (US)
Meritorious Service Medal. He attained the rank of Captain in the Navy. In
2004, Professor Stephens completed an LL.M from Harvard Law School and
taught at the US Naval War College during the 2004–2005 academic year.
In 2014, he was awarded his Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Harvard
Law School. He has published widely in the area of operations law and is
a Board member of the Australian Yearbook of International Law. Profes-
sor Stephens is Director of the Adelaide Research Unit on Military Law and
­Ethics, Chair of the SA Red Cross IHL Committee and Head of the SA/NT
Navy Legal Panel.
Dr Tim Stephens is Professor of International Law and Australian Research
Council Future Fellow at the University of Sydney. He is President of the
Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law. Tim teaches and
researches in public international law, with his published work focussing on
 List of contributors xv
the international law of the sea, international environmental law and interna-
tional dispute settlement. He is the co-author with Donald R. Rothwell of
The International Law of the Sea 2nd (2016).
Dr See Seng Tan is Professor of International Relations at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. He is the author of Multilateral Asian Security Architecture: Non-
ASEAN Stakeholders (2015) and The Making of the Asia Pacific: Knowledge
Brokers and the Politics of Representation (2013).
Marina Tsirbas was the Senior Executive Adviser, Policy Engagement at the
Australian National University’s National Security College (NSC) between
2015 and 2017. Working with the Head of the NSC, Marina established the
Policy Engagement role and a futures cell. She convened policy forums and
helped develop a new line of policy products, contributing to NSC writing
and teaching in the executive and professional development programmes.
Marina convened the inaugural high level Women and National Security
Conference in April 2017, which has become an annual fixture, examining
the nexus between gender and national security and enhancing women’s par-
ticipation in national security. Marina’s career has focussed on foreign, trade
and security policy and international legal issues. She has worked in the De-
partments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Foreign Affairs and Trade.
She served as Australian Deputy Head of Mission in the Netherlands (2000–
2003) and as Charge d’Affaires in East Timor for a period. Marina holds an
LLM (­Cambridge), BA (Jur) and LLB (Hons, 1st) (Adelaide), and has been a
Visiting Fellow, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Cambridge.
Dr Robin Warner, is Professor, Deputy Director and Head of Postgraduate
Studies at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security
(ANCORS), University of Wollongong, Australia. She is a member of the
Advisory Board for the Oceans Coasts and Coral Reefs Specialist Group of
the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Her research interests
include law of the sea, oceans governance, marine environmental law and
climate law. She is the author of more than 80 publications on ocean law and
policy including Protecting the Oceans beyond National Jurisdiction: Strength-
ening the International Law Framework (2009).
Foreword
Law of the Sea Convention in the Asia Pacific
region: threats, challenges and opportunities
Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, AO, CSC, RAN*

The law of the sea provides the very structure and the legal authority for much
of what the Royal Australian Navy does in our region to enhance stability, deter
armed confrontations and facilitate maritime trade; therefore, it is of great im-
portance to me as the Chief of the Navy that conferences of this nature are held
to debate the issues.
I am not a lawyer – although I do seem to attract them. My past experiences
as an operator, particularly as the Commander of Border Protection Command
from 2010 to 2011, has taught me the value of keeping my legal team close at
hand; they have guided my operational decisions.
Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the US Pacific Forces said it best from
the US perspective at a military law conference I attended recently in Brisbane.
He said: ‘I’m gonna tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’.
And the whole truth is that 70-plus years of security and stability in the Indo-­
Asia-Pacific didn’t just happen on its own. It happened because of a fundamental
understanding and commitment among like-minded nations that the law sits
above the military and not the other way around.
So my comments today come from the perspective of a mariner, a military
practitioner and indeed a nascent author about the importance of a rules-based
order for the prosperity of Australia and the region.
Australia has one of the largest maritime domains in the world, and it faces
three oceans, with a coastline of more than 32,000 nautical miles – and yet a
population of only 25 million.
Ten per cent of the world’s sea trade passes through Australian ports. Australia
relies on the sea for 98% of our exports – and for a substantial proportion of our
domestic freight. About 95% of our data is transmitted through undersea cable.
Our $1.6 trillion economy is dependent on shipping being able to freely navi-
gate the oceans and conduct maritime trade especially through the massive eco-
nomic trading artery that runs from the Middle East, across the Indian Ocean,

* Opening Remarks delivered at the conference titled ‘The Law of the Sea in the Asia Pacific Re-
gion: Opportunities, Threats and Challenges’, ANU Centre for Military and Security Law, ANU,
Canberra, 22 August 2017.
xviii Foreword
through the South China Sea, past Japan and on to North America. And it will
only get bigger.
Our reliance on the oceans means that we must constantly have regard to
changes that are occurring in our region. Soon, this region will not only be the
world’s largest producer of goods but also be the largest consumer of them. This
will bring greater political and strategic weight to our region.
In a previous role as the Commander of Border Protection Command several
years ago, we used to identify eight maritime threats to Australia. There are four
worthy of comments here.
First, increasing transnational crime particularly the illegal importation of
illicit substances. Two high-profile examples in the last 12 months include a
former research vessel being intercepted off the Tasmanian coast by HMAS Ad-
elaide and a yacht which was intercepted off the New South Wales coast earlier
this year. Both vessels were carrying cocaine with the total estimated value being
almost $350 million dollars. This trade is increasing and worryingly we do not
know the percentage of the trade that is not being found.
Second, there is growing concern among many nations in our region about
environmental changes; be it an increasing trend in severe weather patterns or
rising sea levels. Both of these threaten stability by changing the availability of
natural resources whether on the seabed, in the subsoil or in the water column,
or through the displacement of affected populations. In the future, our issues
with migration will not be restricted to those escaping conflict.
Third, maritime terrorism is on the rise. Whether it is from small groups of ex-
tremists in South East Asia who board ships and seize sailors for ransom through
to attacks launched from the sea on naval and other port facilities, maritime
terrorism threatens the ability to safely use the sea in our region. Indeed, my cur-
rent concerns range from activity in the Sulu Sea to actions off the Yemeni coast
where our frigates continue to operate as part of the Combined Maritime Force.
Fourth, with the increasingly aggressive actions taken by some nations to as-
sert their claims over disputed maritime boundaries, there is an increased risk
of a regional maritime dispute escalating and the potential for armed confron-
tations at sea. And given the audience, let’s just remind ourselves of the govern-
ment’s position on this.
Australia does not take sides on these territorial disputes and the Navy will
continue to exercise our rights under international law to freedom of navigation
and overflight. We also encourage countries to resolve disputes peacefully in
accordance with international law, including the Law of the Sea Convention.
The Law of the Sea Convention has been fundamental to our region’s growth,
prosperity and security. We remain committed to advancing this internationally
recognised, rules-based order that has been so conducive to ensuring maritime
stability and open and reliable maritime trade. But how do we reconcile this
with the challenges evident in each nation’s interpretation of the Law of the
Sea ­Convention – its ambiguities, its gaps and the inherent tensions that exist
because it seeks to balance a number of competing interests, all exacerbated in
our region because of its complex maritime geography, long-standing historic
 Foreword xix
claims, archipelagos and narrow shipping channels. As a result some regional
countries appear to exploit these challenges in several key regimes so as to ad-
vance their individual interests. Here are three global examples.
First, despite the old adage that ‘good fences make good neighbours’, there
are differences in approach between states as to the use of the straight territorial
sea baselines rules. An approach to maximise the use of straight baselines is
understandable given the Law of the Sea Convention gives coastal states a pow-
erful incentive to do so. Indeed, it enables them to maximise the extent of their
maritime jurisdiction and also limit the activities including the passage of other
nation’s vessels in the claimed areas. We see this in many parts of our region,
particularly in archipelagic waters.
Second, there are differences in approach between states in relation to war-
ships being able to exercise innocent passage. In our region, some take the view
that a foreign state must obtain approval in advance from or give prior notifica-
tion to the coastal state for the passage of its warships through the territorial sea
of the coastal state. Many of these states have this requirement because they see
it as a significant limitation on their sovereignty and a potential threat to their
national security.
Third, differences of view have also emerged in our region over the rights and
duties of coastal states in their Exclusive Economic Zone and the rights and du-
ties of user states. This is particularly an issue with regard to the rights of other
states to conduct certain activities such as military operations, military survey-
ing, intelligence collection and hydrographic surveying without the permission
of the coastal state.
Differences in approach to the interpretation of the Law of the Sea Conven-
tion like the ones I have just outlined can cause misunderstanding or disagree-
ment or lead to a stand-off between warships or breaches of the International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea with consequences for safety or
possibly even armed conflict at sea.
There are also the emerging challenges which were not of such significance
when the Law of the Sea Convention was concluded in 1982. Climate change
will likely have significant consequences for global maritime biodiversity, the
ability to obtain food and other resources from the sea, the ability to access and
utilise the Polar Regions and responsibilities of states for environmental damage
caused beyond their national jurisdiction.
Another emerging challenge is the increased ability to explore and exploit the
resources of the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. These
areas of the world’s oceans may contain deposits of key strategic metals and
minerals such as copper, cobalt, nickel and manganese. Thanks to technological
advances and a stable regulatory regime deep seabed mining is an increasingly
attractive option. This will most likely mean that states and other actors come
into dispute.
But each of the threats and challenges can also provide the opportunity for the
region to work together to build trust and confidence in each other, and the sys-
tems which support our prosperity – trust and confidence that is built on sharing
xx Foreword
the lessons learned, developing collaborative ‘rules of the game’ to resolve chal-
lenges and utilising existing mechanisms under the Law of the Sea Convention
or regional forums to avoid confusion. So, it behoves this conference to run the
critical debate. The Navy needs you to do this.
And I am not naïve enough to think that debate will produce a binary argu-
ment with an easy resolution.
But I’m reminded of what Admiral Harris used to say: ‘We can disagree with-
out being disagreeable’.
That’s an important distinction to make in these uncertain times.
Preface

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) represents
one of the most successful examples of multilateral treaty making in the mod-
ern era. The convention has 168 States parties and most non-signatory States,
including the United States, recognise nearly all of its key provisions as binding
under customary international law. Nevertheless, there remain significant differ-
ences in interpretation and implementation of the LOSC among States as well as
calls, on occasion, for its amendment.
The role of the LOSC in South East Asia was in the spotlight in 2016 fol-
lowing the award of an Annex VII LOSC Arbitral Tribunal in the South China
Sea arbitration between the Philippines and China. That case raised a number
of critical issues with respect to the LOSC and law of the sea more generally,
including the status of maritime claims, the characterisation of islands and rocks
and protection of the marine environment. More broadly the case, and the legal
and political debates which preceded and followed the 2016 award, also high-
lighted a range of other law of the sea issues across South East Asia including
maritime boundaries, navigational rights and freedoms, resource management
and maritime security.
Partly in response to these developments, and to also mark the 35th anniver-
sary of the LOSC, on 22–23 August 2017, the Australian National University
(ANU) College of Law’s Centre for Military and Security Law, in association
with the United Services Institute of the Australian Capital Territory, hosted
a conference titled ‘The Law of the Sea in the Asia Pacific Region: Opportu-
nities, Threats and Challenges’ in Canberra. The Conference was attended by
approximately 80 delegates from Australia and the Asia Pacific, as well as a small
number of delegates from further afield. The Conference explored the legal pres-
sure points that surround the operation of the LOSC by examining a selection
of issues through a series of linked discussions over two days. The focus of this
discussion was on topics that have particular significance in the Asia Pacific, es-
pecially the South China Sea. Subsequently, a number of conference presenters,
and some invited academic colleagues, have worked with us to prepare the chap-
ters that comprise this publication.
Building on that 2017 conference, and reflecting on the critical law of the
sea issues that were identified, the scope of this book has been redefined to
xxii Preface
concentrate on South East Asia, with reference to the wider Indo-Asia-Pacific
included in some chapters where appropriate. In this sense, the chapters do not
merely repeat the material presented at the Conference; rather, each chapter
has a contemporary focus on maritime issues that have continued relevance for
South East Asia. For the purposes of this book, unless otherwise noted, refer-
ence to ‘the region’ encompasses all of the maritime states that comprise the As-
sociation of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) with the focal point being the
South China Sea. The maritime area extends from the northern extremity of
the South China Sea to the far southern reaches of the Indonesian archipelago,
and sweeps from the Pacific edge of the Philippines archipelago to the Anda-
man Sea. States on the margins on the region, such as Timor-Leste, are also in-
cluded. Other states and actors who are geographically proximate such as China,
­Japan, Korea and Taiwan also have interests in the region, whereas others have
long-standing historical interests or are contemporary actors in the region such
as Australia, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The book takes as its foundation the LOSC which all states in South East Asia
adhere to and accept. Assessments in the chapters are undertaken of the impact,
influence and ongoing role of the LOSC for the region, especially in light of
the 2016 South China Sea arbitration. Maritime security is a major issue within
the region and has been separately assessed in light of the LOSC and contem-
porary challenges such as environmental security and climate change. Likewise,
navigational rights and freedoms are critical issues for the region and they have
been assessed through the LOSC and state practice within the region. Special
attention in this regard has been given to the role of navies and non-state actors.
The region already has a history of resource disputes and these have the potential
to increase into the future as economic interests and concerns over food secu-
rity intensify. Effective oil, gas and fisheries resource management is therefore
a critical issue for the region and unless resolved could become the focal point
for significant maritime disputes within the region. These dynamics within the
region point to the necessity of further assessment of the effectiveness of LOSC
dispute resolution mechanisms, and that task has also been undertaken.
Putting together the edited collection of chapters in this book would not have
been possible without the commitment of each of the chapter authors and we
thank them for their assistance and cheerful response to our editorial prompts.
Special mention should also be made of Vice Admiral Tim Barrett R AN, who
kindly agreed to revise and update the opening remarks he made at the Confer-
ence, thereby providing a substantial and contemporary Foreword for this book.
Maps and figures were kindly provided by Professor Clive Schofield and Dr I
Made Andi Arsana. Assisting with our editing task, we have had the benefit of
working with Mia Stone as our research assistant and we are most grateful for
her contribution.
Of course, it would not have been possible to hold the Conference in A ­ ugust
2017, nor would it have been possible to compile this book subsequently, with-
out the generous support of the ANU College of Law for us as researchers.
Working in an environment where research is fostered and encouraged provides
 Preface xxiii
a wonderful incentive to publish scholarly work and we are both most grateful
for the encouragement that we routinely receive when undertaking research and
writing activities at ANU.
We also extend our thanks to Emma Tyce at Routledge who oversaw the ini-
tial phases of the development of this book.
The law in this book is generally stated as at January 2019.

Donald R. Rothwell and David Letts

Canberra, Australia, March 2019
Table of cases

Case Concerning Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions between Qa-

tar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain) [2001] ICJ Rep 40
Case Concerning Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine)
[2009] ICJ Rep 61
Case concerning Sovereignty over Pulau Sipadan and Pulau Ligitan (Indonesia v.
Malaysia) [2002] ICJ Rep 625
Case Concerning the Continental Shelf (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. Malta) [1984]
ICJ Rep 3
Case Concerning the Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicara-
gua (Nicaragua v. United States of America) [1986] ICJ Rep 14
Certain Activities Carried out in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua)
[2017] ICJ Rep 97
Corfu Channel (Merits) (United Kingdom v. Albania) [1949] ICJ Rep 4
Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the
Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh/Myanmar) (2012) 51 ILM 844
Factory at Chorzów (Germany v. Poland) [1928] PCIJ (ser A) No 17
Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso v. Mali) [1986] ICJ Rep 554
Golder v The United Kingdom [1975] 1 EHRR 524
Hirsi Jamaa and Others v Italy (European Court of Human Rights, Grand
Chamber, Application No. 27765/09, 23 February 2012)
In the Matter of an Arbitration before An Arbitral Tribunal Constituted Under
Annex VII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea between
The Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, PCA Case no.
2013-19, Award of 12 July 2016
In the Matter of an Arbitration before An Arbitral Tribunal Constituted under
Annex VII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea between
xxvi Table of cases
The Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, PCA Case no.
2013-19, Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of 29 October 2015
In the Matter of an Arbitration before An Arbitral Tribunal Constituted under
Annex VII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea between
Guyana and Suriname, PCA Case no. 2004-04, Award of 17 September 2007
In the Matter of an Arbitration before an Arbitral Tribunal Constituted under
Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea between
the Italian Republic and the Republic of India concerning the ‘Enrica Lexie’ Inci-
dent, PCA Case no. 2015–28, Order of 29 April 2016
In the Matter of the Bay of Bengal Maritime Boundary Arbitration between the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Republic of India, PCA Case no. 2010–16,
Award of 7 July 2014
In the Matter of the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration before an Arbi-
tral Tribunal Constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, PCA Case no. 2011-03, Award of 18
March 2015
In the Matter of the Maritime Boundary between Timor-Leste and Australia be-
fore a Conciliation Commission Constituted under Annex V of the 1982 United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea between the Democratic Republic of
Timor-­Leste and the Commonwealth of Australia, PCA Case no. 2016-10, ­Report
and Recommendations of the Compulsory Conciliation Commission between
Timor-Leste and Australia on the Timor Sea of 9 May 2018
Island of Palmas (Netherlands v. US) (1928) 2 RIAA 829
Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v.
Nigeria; Equatorial Guinea intervening) [2002] ICJ Rep 303
Land Reclamation by Singapore in and around the Straits of Johor (Malaysia v
Singapore) (Provisional Measures) (2003) 126 ILR 487
Legal Status of Eastern Greenland (Denmark v. Norway) [1933] PCIJ (Ser A/B)
No 53
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (Advisory Opinion) [1996] ICJ
Rep 226
Magallona et al. v Ermita et al. (July 16, 2011) Supreme Court of the Philippines
Medvedyev and Others v France (European Court of Human Rights, Grand
Chamber, Application No. 3394/03, 29 March 2010)
MV Saiga No. 2 (Saint Vincent and The Grenadines v Guinea) (1999) ITLOS
case no. 2
Nevada v. Hall (1970) 440 US 410
 Table of cases xxvii
North Sea Continental Shelf (Germany v. Denmark; Germany v. Netherlands)
[1969] ICJ Rep 3
Request for Interpretation of the Judgement of 15 June 1962 in the Case Concern-
ing the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v Thailand) (Provisional Measures)
[2011] ICJ Rep 537
Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case concerning
the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand) [2013] ICJ Rep 281
Sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge
(Malaysia v. Singapore) [2008] ICJ Rep 12
Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (Indonesia/Malaysia) [2002]
ICJ Rep 625
The ‘ARA Libertad’ Case (Argentina v. Ghana) (Provisional Measures) (ITLOS,
Case no. 20, 15 December 2012) (2014) 156 ILR 186
The I’m Alone (Canada/United States of America) 3 RIAA 1609
The Paquete Habana (1900) 175 US 677
The Red Crusader (1962) 35 ILR 485
The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon (1812) 11 US 116
Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v Japan; New Zealand intervening) [2014]
ICJ Rep 226
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Predominant Principles and Excitements in the Human Mind, On
the, xi. 258.
Prejudice, On, xii. 391, 394, 396.
Press, The—Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and Bentham, xi. 411.
Priestley, The late Dr., xii. 357.
Prose-Style of Poets, On the, vii. 5.
Public Opinion, On, xii. 311.
Pulpit Oratory, Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Irving, xii. 275.
Punishment of Death, On the, xii. 466.

Quarterly Review, The, iii. 192.

Queries and Answers; or the Rule of Contrary, xii. 296.

Racine, vii. 336.

‘Ravens, The,’ xi. 303.
Reading New Books, On, xii. 161.
—— Old Books, On, vii. 220.
Reason and Imagination, vii. 44.
Recruiting Officer, The, viii. 285.
Reform, The New School of, vii. 179.
Regal Character, On the, iii. 305.
Religious Hypocrisy, On, i. 128.
Respectable People, On, vii. 360; xi. 433.
Return from Parnassus, The, v. 274.
Reynolds, Life of Sir Joshua, x. 172.
Reynolds’s Discourses, Introduction to an account of Sir Joshua, xi.
208.
—— —— On Certain Inconsistencies in Sir Joshua, vi. 122, 131.
Richard Cœur de Lion, viii. 195.
—— II., i. 272.
—— III., i. 298; viii. 298.
Richesse de la langue, xii. 496.
Rochefoucault’s Maxims, On, xi. 253.
Romeo and Juliet, i. 248; viii. 300.
Round Table, The, i. 1.
Rousseau, On the Character of, i. 88.
Rowley, v. 192.
Royal Academy, ix. 434.

Salvator, Lady Morgan’s Life of, x. 276.

Schlegel on the Drama, x. 78.
Scholars, The Shyness of, xii. 68.
School for Scandal, The, viii. 250.
Scotch Character, On the, xii. 253.
Scott, Sir Walter, iv. 241.
—— —— Racine and Shakespear, vii. 336.
Sects and Parties, xii. 360.
Select British Poets, Preface and Critical List of Authors from, v. 365.
Self-Love, On, xi. 132.
—— and Benevolence, xii. 95, 104.
Shakespear, vii. 336;
Doubtful Plays of, i. 353;
On the Dramatic Writers contemporary with, Lyly, Marlow,
Heywood, Middleton, and Rowley, v. 192;
Poems and Sonnets, i. 357.
Shakespear’s Plays, Characters of, i. 165;
 Female Characters, xi. 290.
Shakespeare, Historical Illustrations of, xi. 601.
Shakspeare and Ben Jonson, On, viii. 30.
—— and Milton, On, v. 44.
—— [and Posthumous Fame], i. 21.
Shelley’s Posthumous Poems, x. 256.
She Stoops to Conquer, xi. 403.
Sick Chamber, The, xi. 125.
Siddons, Mrs. viii. 312; xi. 381.
Siddons’s Lady Macbeth, Mrs., viii. 373.
Sidney’s Arcadia, Sir P., v. 295.
Single Plays, Poems, etc., The Four P’s, The Return from Parnassus,
Gammer Gurton’s Needle, and Other Works, On, v. 274.
Sismondi’s Literature of the South, x. 44.
Sitting for One’s Picture, On, vii. 107.
Smiles and Tears, viii. 266.
Society, A New View of, iii. 121.
Southey, Mr., iv. 262.
—— Poet-Laureat, iii. 48.
—— Robert.... A Letter to William Smith, iii. 210, 218, 224.
Southey’s New-Year’s Ode, Mr., iii. 49.
Spenser, v. 19.
Spirit of Obligations, vii. 78.
—— of the Age, The, iv. 185.
Spurzheim’s Theory, On Dr., vii. 137.
Spy-System, On the, iii. 232, 234.
Staël’s Account of German Philosophy and Literature, Madame de,
xi. 162, 167, 172, 180.
Stafford’s Gallery, The Marquis of, ix. 27.
Stage, The, xi. 191;
A View of the English, viii. 169.
Standard Novels and Romances, x. 25.
State Prisoners, On the Treatment of, iii. 238.
Statesman’s Manual, The, ... by S. T. Coleridge, Esq., iii. 143.
Success in Life, On the Qualifications necessary to, vii. 195.
Suckling, viii. 49.
Sun-Dial, On a, xii. 51.
Swift, Young, Gray, Collins, etc., On, v. 104.

Table-Talk; or Original Essays on Men and Manners, vi. 1.

Taming of the Shrew, The, i. 341.
—— —— and L’Avare, xi. 377.
Taste, Thoughts on, xi. 450, 454, 459.
Tatler, On the, i. 7.
Taylor, Jeremy, v. 326.
Tempest, The, i. 238; viii. 234.
Tendency of Sects, On the, i. 47.
Theatres, The, and Passion Week, xi. 358.
Theatrical Debuts, viii. 341.
Thomson and Cowper, On, v. 85.
Thought and Action, On, vi. 101.
Three Quarters, etc., The, xi. 384.
Times Newspaper, The, iii. 169.
—— —— Illustration of the, iii. 155, 161.
Timon of Athens, i. 210.
Toad-Eaters and Tyrants, On the connection between, iii. 169.
Tooke, The Late Mr. Horne, iv. 231.
Tooke’s ‘Diversions of Purley,’ On, xi. 119.
Touch-Stone, The, viii. 368.
Trifles Light as Air, xii. 370.
Troilus and Cressida, i. 221.
Tucker’s Light of Nature Pursued, Preface to an Abridgment of, iv.
369.
Twelfth Night; or, What you Will, i. 313.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, The, i. 318.
Two Words, viii. 330.

Unknown Guest, The, viii. 224.

Vanbrugh, viii. 70.

Vandyke, On a Portrait of an English Lady, by, vii. 280.
Vatican, The, ix. 359.
Venice Preserved, xi. 402.
Vetus, iii. 57.
—— Illustrations of, iii. 63, 67, 73, 85, 90.
View of the English Stage, A, viii. 169.
Vulgarity and Affectation, On, vi. 156.

Walpole, Letters of Horace, x. 159.

War and Taxes, On the Effects of, iii. 243.
War, On the Late, iii. 96.
Wat Tyler, iii. 192, 200.
Webster, v. 223.
Wellesley, The Marquis, iii. 47.
Western, Esq., M.P., The Speech of Charles C., iii. 127, 132.
West’s Picture of Death on the Pale Horse, ix. 318.
Where to find a friend, viii. 258.
Wilberforce, Mr. iv. 325.
Wilkie’s Pictures, On Mr., xi. 249.
Williams’s Views in Greece, On, ix. 324.
Will-Making, On, vi. 113.
Wilson’s Landscapes, at the British Institution, xi. 198.
Wilton, Stourhead, etc., Pictures at, ix. 55.
Windsor Castle, The Pictures at, ix. 36.
Winter’s Tale, The, i. 324.
Wit and Humour, viii. 1.
Wit, Definition of, xii. 445.
Wonder, The, viii. 332; xi. 401.
Wordsworth, Mr., iv. 270; xi. 411; xii. 328.
Wordsworth’s poem, The Excursion, Observations on Mr., i. 111, 120.
—— new poem, The Excursion, Character of Mr., xi. 572.
Writing and Speaking, On the difference between, vii. 262.
Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar, On, viii. 70.

Young, v. 104.
Young’s Hamlet, xi. 394.
 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh
University Press

1. Those essays which are now republished for the first time are indicated by
an asterisk.
2. This essay was apparently not published in The Atlas.
3. Scroggins said of the Gas-man, that he thought he was a man of that
courage, that if his hands were cut off, he would still fight on with the stumps—like
that of Widrington,—

——‘In doleful dumps,

Who, when his legs were smitten off
Still fought upon his stumps.’

4. ‘The gentle and free passage of arms at Ashby’ was, we are told, so called by
the Chroniclers of the time, on account of the feats of horsemanship and the
quantity of knightly blood that was shed. This last circumstance was perhaps
necessary to qualify it with the epithet of ‘gentle,’ in the opinion of some of these
historians. I think the reason why the English are the bravest nation on earth is,
that the thought of blood or a delight in cruelty is not the chief excitement with
them. Where it is, there is necessarily a reaction; for though it may add to our
eagerness and savage ferocity in inflicting wounds, it does not enable us to endure
them with greater patience. The English are led to the attack or sustain it equally
well, because they fight as they box, not out of malice, but to show pluck and
manhood. Fair play and old England for ever! This is the only bravery that will
stand the test. There is the same determination and spirit shown in resistance as in
attack; but not the same pleasure in getting a cut with a sabre as in giving one.
There is, therefore, always a certain degree of effeminacy mixed up with any
approach to cruelty, since both have their source in the same principle, viz. an
over-valuing of pain.[67] This was the reason the French (having the best cause and
the best general in the world) ran away at Waterloo, because they were inflamed,
furious, drunk with the blood of their enemies, but when it came to their turn,
wanting the same stimulus, they were panic-struck, and their hearts and their
senses failed them all at once.
5. The English are fond of change of scene; the French of change of posture;
the Italians like to sit still and do nothing.
6. Bells are peculiar to England. They jingle them in Italy during the carnival
as boys do with us at Shrovetide; but they have no notion of ringing them. The
sound of village bells never cheers you in travelling, nor have you the lute or cittern
in their stead. The expression of ‘Merry Bells’ is a favourite and not one of the least
appropriate in our language.
 7. The strict formality of French serious writing is resorted to as a foil to the
natural levity of their character.
8. See Newgate Calendar for 1758.
9. B—— at this time occupied chambers in Mitre court, Fleet Street.
10. Lord Bacon is not included in this list, nor do I know where he should
come in. It is not easy to make room for him and his reputation together. This
great and celebrated man in some of his works recommends it to pour a bottle of
claret into the ground of a morning, and to stand over it, inhaling the perfumes. So
he sometimes enriched the dry and barren soil of speculation with the fine
aromatic spirit of his genius. His ‘Essays’ and his ‘Advancement of Learning’ are
works of vast depth and scope of observation. The last, though it contains no
positive discoveries, is a noble chart of the human intellect, and a guide to all
future inquirers.
11. As when a person asks you ‘whether you do not find a strong resemblance
between Rubens’s pictures and Quarles’s poetry?’—which is owing to the critic’s
having lately been at Antwerp and bought an edition of Quarles’s Emblems. Odd
combinations must take place where a number of ideas are brought together, with
only a thin, hasty partition between them, and without a sufficient quantity of
judgment to discriminate. An Englishman, of some apparent consequence passing
by the St. Peter Martyr of Titian at Venice, observed ‘It was a copy of the same
subject by Domenichino at Bologna.’ This betrayed an absolute ignorance both of
Titian and of Domenichino, and of the whole world of art: yet unless I had also
seen the St. Peter at Bologna, this connoisseur would have had the advantage of
me, two to one, and might have disputed the precedence of the two pictures with
me, but that chronology would have come to my aid. Thus persons who travel from
place to place, and roam from subject to subject, make up by the extent and
discursiveness of their knowledge for the want of truth and refinement in their
conception of the objects of it.
12. There are few things more contemptible than the conversation of mere
men of the town. It is made up of the technicalities and cant of all professions,
without the spirit or knowledge of any. It is flashy and vapid, or is like the rinsings
of different liquors at a night-cellar instead of a bottle of fine old port. It is without
body or clearness, and a heap of affectation. In fact, I am very much of the opinion
of that old Scotch gentleman who owned that ‘he preferred the dullest book he had
ever read to the most brilliant conversation it had ever fallen to his lot to hear!’
13. Is this a verbal fallacy? Or in the close, retired, sheltered scene which I
have imagined to myself, is not the sunflower a natural accompaniment of the sun-
dial?
14.

‘Once more, companion of the lonely hour,

I’ll turn thee up again.’
 Bloomfield’s Poems—The Widow to her Hour-glass.

15. Rousseau has admirably described the effect of bells on the imagination in
a passage in the Confessions, beginning ‘Le son des cloches m’a toujours
singulièrement affecté,’ &c.
16. I have heard it said that carpenters, who do every thing by the square and
line, are honest men, and I am willing to suppose it. Shakspeare, in the
‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ makes Snug the Joiner the moral man of the piece.
17. Mr. Bentham proposes to new-model the penal code, on the principle of a
cool and systematic calculation of consequences. Yet of all philosophers, the
candidates for Panopticons and Penitentiaries are the most short-sighted and
refractory. Punishment has scarcely any effect upon them. Thieves steal under the
scaffold; and if a person’s previous feelings and habits do not prevent his running
the risk of the gallows, assuredly the fear of consequences, or his having already
escaped it, with all the good resolutions he may have made on the occasion, will
not prevent his exposing himself to it a second time. It is true, most people have a
natural aversion to being hanged. The perseverance of culprits in their evil courses
seems a fatality, which is strengthened by the prospect of what is to follow. Mr.
Bentham argues that all ‘men act from calculation, even madmen reason.’ So far it
may be true that the world is not unlike a great Bedlam, or answers to the title of
an old play—‘A Mad World, my masters!’ This is our world, but not his. Life, on
looking back to it, too often resembles a disturbed dream, which does not infer its
having been guided by reason in its progress.
18. [‘Have I not seen a household where love was not?’ says the author of the
‘Betrothed;’ ‘where, although there was worth and good will, and enough of the
means of life, all was embittered by regrets, which were not only vain, but
criminal?’—‘I would take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound,’ or in preference
to that of any man living, though I was told in the streets of Edinburgh, that Dr.
Jamieson, the author of the ‘Dictionary,’ was quite as great a man!]
19. Certes more Whigs become Tories. This may also be accounted for
satisfactorily, though not very rationally.
20. I have said somewhere, that all professions that do not make money breed
are careless and extravagant. This is not true of lawyers, &c. I ought to have said
that this is the case with all those that by the regularity of their returns do not
afford a prospect of realizing an independence by frugality and industry.
21. ‘Il a manqué au plus grand philosophe qu’aient eu les Francais, de vivre
dans quelque solitude des Alpes, dans quelque séjour éloigné, et de lancer delà son
livre dans Paris sans y venir jamais lui-même. Rousseau avait trop de sensibilité et
trop peu de raison, Buffon trop d’hypocrisie à son jardin des plantes, Voltaire trop
d’enfantillage dans la tête, pour pouvoir juger le principe d’Helvétius,’—De
l’Amour, tom. 2. p. 230.
My friend Mr. Beyle here lays too much stress on a borrowed verbal fallacy.
 22. Waverley, vol. iii. p. 201.
23. This lady is not, it is true, at Covent Garden: I wish she were!
24. ‘Mais vois la rapidité de cet astre qui vole et ne s’arrête jamais.’—New
Eloise.
25. The thoughts of a captive can no more get beyond his prison-walls than his
limbs, unless they are busied in planning an escape; as, on the contrary, what
prisoner, after effecting his escape, ever suffered them to return there, or took
common precautions to prevent his own? We indulge our fancy more than we
consult our interest. The sense of personal identity has almost as little influence in
practice as it has foundation in theory.
26. Taylor, of the Opera-House, used to say of Sheridan, that he could not pull
off his hat to him in the street without its costing him fifty pounds; and if he
stopped to speak to him, it was a hundred. No one could be a stronger instance
than he was of what is called living from hand to mouth. He was always in want of
money, though he received vast sums which he must have disbursed; and yet
nobody can tell what became of them, for he paid nobody. He spent his wife’s
fortune (sixteen hundred pounds) in a six weeks’ jaunt to Bath, and returned to
town as poor as a rat. Whenever he and his son were invited out into the country,
they always went in two post-chaises and four; he in one, and his son Tom
following in another. This is the secret of those who live in a round of
extravagance, and are at the same time always in debt and difficulty—they throw
away all the ready money they get upon any newfangled whim or project that
comes in their way, and never think of paying off old scores, which of course
accumulate to a dreadful amount. ‘Such gain the cap of him who makes them fine,
yet keeps his book uncrossed.’ Sheridan once wanted to take Mrs. Sheridan a very
handsome dress down into the country, and went to Barber and Nunn’s to order it,
saying he must have it by such a day, but promising they should have ready money.
Mrs. Barber (I think it was) made answer that the time was short, but that ready
money was a very charming thing, and that he should have it. Accordingly, at the
time appointed she brought the dress, which came to five-and-twenty pounds, and
it was sent in to Mr. Sheridan: who sent out a Mr. Grimm (one of his jackalls) to
say he admired it exceedingly, and that he was sure Mrs. Sheridan would be
delighted with it, but he was sorry to have nothing under a hundred pound bank-
note in the house. She said she had come provided for such an accident, and could
give change for a hundred, two hundred, or five hundred pound note, if it were
necessary. Grimm then went back to his principal for farther instructions: who
made an excuse that he had no stamped receipt by him. For this, Mrs. B. said, she
was also provided; she had brought one in her pocket. At each message, she could
hear them laughing heartily in the next room at the idea of having met with their
match for once; and presently after, Sheridan came out in high good-humour, and
paid her the amount of her bill, in ten, five, and one pounds. Once when a creditor
brought him a bill for payment, which had often been presented before, and the
man complained of its soiled and tattered state, and said he was quite ashamed to
see it, ‘I’ll tell you what I’d advise you to do with it, my friend,’ said Sheridan, ‘take
it home, and write it upon parchment!’ He once mounted a horse which a horse-
dealer was shewing off near a coffee-house at the bottom of St. James’s-street, rode
it to Tattersall’s, and sold it, and walked quietly back to the spot from which he set
out. The owner was furious, swore he would be the death of him; and, in quarter of
an hour afterwards they were seen sitting together over a bottle of wine in the
coffee-house, the horse-jockey with the tears running down his face at Sheridan’s
jokes, and almost ready to hug him as an honest fellow. Sheridan’s house and
lobby were beset with duns every morning, who were told that Mr. Sheridan was
not yet up, and shewn into the several rooms on each side of the entrance. As soon
as he had breakfasted, he asked, ‘Are those doors all shut, John?’ and, being
assured they were, marched out very deliberately between them, to the
astonishment of his self-invited guests, who soon found the bird was flown. I have
heard one of his old City friends declare, that such was the effect of his frank,
cordial manner, and insinuating eloquence, that he was always afraid to go to ask
him for a debt of long standing, lest he should borrow twice as much. A play had
been put off one night, or a favourite actor did not appear, and the audience
demanded to have their money back again: but when they came to the door, they
were told by the check-takers there was none for them, for that Mr. Sheridan had
been in the mean time, and had carried off all the money in the till. He used often
to get the old cobbler who kept a stall under the ruins of Drury Lane to broil a beef-
steak for him, and take their dinner together. On the night that Drury Lane was
burnt down, Sheridan was in the House of Commons, making a speech, though he
could hardly stand without leaning his hands on the table, and it was with some
difficulty he was forced away, urging the plea, ‘What signified the concerns of a
private individual, compared to the good of the state?’ When he got to Covent
Garden, he went into the Piazza Coffee-house, to steady himself with another
bottle, and then strolled out to the end of the Piazza to look at the progress of the
fire. Here he was accosted by Charles Kemble and Fawcett, who complimented him
on the calmness with which he seemed to regard so great a loss. He declined this
praise, and said—‘Gentlemen, there are but three things in human life that in my
opinion ought to disturb a wise man’s patience. The first of these is bodily pain,
and that (whatever the ancient stoics may have said to the contrary) is too much
for any man to bear without flinching: this I have felt severely, and I know it to be
the case. The second is the loss of a friend whom you have dearly loved; that,
gentlemen, is a great evil: this I have also felt, and I know it to be too much for any
man’s fortitude. And the third is the consciousness of having done an unjust
action. That, gentlemen, is a great evil, a very great evil, too much for any man to
endure the reflection of; but that’ (laying his hand upon his heart,) ‘but that, thank
God, I have never felt!’ I have been told that these were nearly the very words,
except that he appealed to the mens conscia recti very emphatically three or four
times over, by an excellent authority, Mr. Mathews the player, who was on the spot
at the time, a gentleman whom the public admire deservedly, but with whose real
talents and nice discrimination of character his friends only are acquainted.
Sheridan’s reply to the watchman who had picked him up in the street, and who
wanted to know who he was, ‘I am Mr. Wilberforce!’—is well known, and shews
that, however frequently he might be at a loss for money, he never wanted wit!
27. In Scotland, it seems, the draught of ale or whiskey with which you
commence the day, is emphatically called ‘taking your morning.’
28. Shylock’s lamentation over the loss of ‘his daughter and his ducats,’ is
another case in point.
29. It is provoking enough, and makes one look like a fool, to receive a printed
notice of a blank in the last lottery, with a postscript hoping for your future
favours.
30. Fawcett’s Art of War, a poem, 1794.
31. Lady Wortley Montague says, in one of her letters, that ‘she would much
rather be a rich effendi, with all his ignorance, than Sir Isaac Newton, with all his
knowledge.’ This was not perhaps an impolitic choice, as she had a better chance of
becoming one than the other, there being many rich effendis to one Sir Isaac
Newton. The wish was not a very intellectual one. The same petulance of rank and
sex breaks out every where in these “Letters.” She is constantly reducing the poets
or philosophers who have the misfortune of her acquaintance, to the figure they
might make at her Ladyship’s levee or toilette, not considering that the public
mind does not sympathize with this process of a fastidious imagination. In the
same spirit, she declares of Pope and Swift, that ‘had it not been for the good-
nature of mankind, these two superior beings were entitled, by their birth and
hereditary fortune, to be only a couple of link-boys.’ Gulliver’s Travels, and the
Rape of the Lock, go for nothing in this critical estimate, and the world raised the
authors to the rank of superior beings, in spite of their disadvantages of birth and
fortune, out of pure good-nature! So, again, she says of Richardson, that he had
never got beyond the servants’ hall, and was utterly unfit to describe the manners
of people of quality; till in the capricious workings of her vanity, she persuades
herself that Clarissa is very like what she was at her age, and that Sir Thomas and
Lady Grandison strongly resembled what she had heard of her mother and
remembered of her father. It is one of the beauties and advantages of literature,
that it is the means of abstracting the mind from the narrowness of local and
personal prejudices, and of enabling us to judge of truth and excellence by their
inherent merits alone. Woe be to the pen that would undo this fine illusion (the
only reality), and teach us to regulate our notions of genius and virtue by the
circumstances in which they happen to be placed! You would not expect a person
whom you saw in a servants’ hall, or behind a counter, to write Clarissa; but after
he had written the work, to prejudge it from the situation of the writer, is an
unpardonable piece of injustice and folly. His merit could only be the greater from
the contrast. If literature is an elegant accomplishment, which none but persons of
birth and fashion should be allowed to excel in, or to exercise with advantage to the
public, let them by all means take upon them the task of enlightening and refining
mankind: if they decline this responsibility as too heavy for their shoulders, let
those who do the drudgery in their stead, however inadequately, for want of their
polite example, receive the meed that is their due, and not be treated as low
pretenders who have encroached on the province of their betters. Suppose
Richardson to have been acquainted with the great man’s steward, or valet, instead
of the great man himself, I will venture to say that there was more difference
between him who lived in an ideal world, and had the genius and felicity to open
that world to others, and his friend the steward, than between the lacquey and the
mere lord, or between those who lived in different rooms of the same house, who
dined on the same luxuries at different tables, who rode outside or inside of the
same coach, and were proud of wearing or of bestowing the same tawdry livery. If
the lord is distinguished from his valet by any thing else, it is by education and
talent, which he has in common with our author. But if the latter shews these in the
highest degree, it is asked what are his pretensions? Not birth or fortune, for
neither of these would enable him to write a Clarissa. One man is born with a title
and estate, another with genius. That is sufficient; and we have no right to question
the genius for want of the gentility, unless the former ran in families, or could be
bequeathed with a fortune, which is not the case. Were it so, the flowers of
literature, like jewels and embroidery, would be confined to the fashionable circles;
and there would be no pretenders to taste or elegance but those whose names were
found in the court list. No one objects to Claude’s Landscapes as the work of a
pastrycook, or withholds from Raphael the epithet of divine, because his parents
were not rich. This impertinence is confined to men of letters; the evidence of the
senses baffles the envy and foppery of mankind. No quarter ought to be given to
this aristocratic tone of criticism whenever it appears. People of quality are not
contented with carrying all the external advantages for their own share, but would
persuade you that all the intellectual ones are packed up in the same bundle. Lord
Byron was a later instance of this double and unwarrantable style of pretension—
monstrum ingens, biforme. He could not endure a lord who was not a wit, nor a
poet who was not a lord. Nobody but himself answered to his own standard of
perfection. Mr. Moore carries a proxy in his pocket from some noble persons to
estimate literary merit by the same rule. Lady Mary calls Fielding names, but she
afterwards makes atonement by doing justice to his frank, free, hearty nature,
where she says ‘his spirits gave him raptures with his cook-maid, and cheerfulness
when he was starving in a garret, and his happy constitution made him forget every
thing when he was placed before a venison pasty or over a flask of champagne.’ She
does not want shrewdness and spirit when her petulance and conceit do not get the
better of her, and she has done ample and merited execution on Lord Bolingbroke.
She is, however, very angry at the freedoms taken with the Great; smells a rat in
this indiscriminate scribbling, and the familiarity of writers with the reading
public; and inspired by her Turkish costume, foretells a French or English
revolution as the consequence of transferring the patronage of letters from the
quality to the mob, and of supposing that ordinary writers or readers can have any
notions in common with their superiors.
32. Is it not this that frequently keeps artists alive so long, viz. the constant
occupation of their minds with vivid images, with little of the wear-and-tear of the
body?
 33. ‘Laws are not like women, the worse for being old.’—The Duke of
Buckingham’s Speech in the House of Lords, in Charles the Second’s time.
34. An expression borrowed from a voluble German scholar, who gave this as
an excuse for not translating the ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ into English. He might
as well have said seriously, that the Rule of Three in German was different from
our’s. Mr. Taylor (the Platonist, as he was called) was a singular instance of a
person in our time believing in the heathen mythology. He had a very beautiful
wife. An impudent Frenchman, who came over to London, and lodged in the same
house, made love to her, by pretending to worship her as Venus, and so thought to
turn the tables on our philosopher. I once spent an evening with this gentleman at
Mr. G. D.’s chambers, in Clifford’s inn, (where there was no exclusion of persons or
opinions), and where we had pipes and tobacco, porter, and bread and cheese for
supper. Mr. Taylor never smoked, never drank porter, and had an aversion to
cheese. I remember he shewed with some triumph two of his fingers, which had
been bent so that he had lost the use of them, in copying out the manuscripts of
Proclus and Plotinus in a fine Greek hand. Such are the trophies of human pride! It
would be well if our deep studies often produced no other crookedness and
deformity! I endeavoured (but in vain) to learn something from the heathen
philosopher as to Plato’s doctrine of abstract ideas being the foundation of
particular ones, which I suspect has more truth in it than we moderns are willing to
admit. Another friend of mine once breakfasted with Mr. D. (the most amiable and
absent of hosts), when there was no butter, no knife to cut the loaf with, and the
tea-pot was without a spout. My friend after a few immaterial ceremonies,
adjourned to Peel’s coffee-house, close by, where he regaled himself on buttered
toast, coffee, and the newspaper of the day (a newspaper possessed some interest
when we were young); and the only interruption to his satisfaction was the fear
that his host might suddenly enter, and be shocked at his imperfect hospitality. He
would probably forget the circumstance altogether. I am afraid this veteran of the
old school has not received many proofs of the archaism of the prevailing taste;
and that the corrections in his History of the University of Cambridge, have cost
him more than the public will ever repay him for.
35. When a certain poet was asked if he thought Lord Byron’s name would live
three years after he was dead, he answered, ‘Not three days, Sir!’ This was
premature: it has lasted above a year. His works have been translated into French,
and there is a Caffé Byron on the Boulevards. Think of a Caffé Wordsworth on the
Boulevards!
36. Is not this partly owing to the disappointment of the public at finding any
defect in their idol?
37. An old friend of mine, when he read the abuse and billingsgate poured out
in certain Tory publications, used to congratulate himself upon it as a favourable
sign of the times, and of the progressive improvement of our manners. Where we
now called names, we formerly burnt each other at a stake; and all the malice of
the heart flew to the tongue and vented itself in scolding, instead of crusades and
auto-da-fés—the nobler revenge of our ancestors for a difference of opinion. An
author now libels a prince; and, if he takes the law of him or throws him into gaol,
it is looked upon as a harsh and ungentlemanly proceeding. He, therefore, gets a
dirty Secretary to employ a dirty bookseller, to hire a set of dirty scribblers, to pelt
him with dirt and cover him with blackguard epithets—till he is hardly in a
condition to walk the streets. This is hard measure, no doubt, and base ingratitude
on the part of the public, according to the imaginary dignity and natural
precedence which authors take of kings; but the latter are men, and will have their
revenge where they can get it. They have no longer their old summary appeal—
their will may still be good—to the dungeon and the dagger. Those who ‘speak evil
of dignities’ may, therefore, think themselves well off in being merely sent to
Coventry; and, besides, if they have pluck, they can make a Parthian retreat, and
shoot poisoned arrows behind them. The good people of Florence lift up their
hands when they are shewn the caricatures in the Queen’s Matrimonial-Ladder,
and ask if they are really a likeness of the King?
38. Properly, daubs.
39. Dr. Johnson has observed, that ‘strong passion deprives the lover of that
easiness of address, which is so great a recommendation to most women.’ Is then
indifference or coldness the surest passport to the female heart? A man who is
much in love has not his wits properly about him: he can think only of her whose
image is engraven on his heart; he can talk only of her; he can only repeat the same
vows, and protestations, and expressions of rapture or despair. He may, by this
means, become importunate and troublesome—but does he deserve to lose his
mistress for the only cause that gives him a title to her—the sincerity of his
passion? We may perhaps answer this question by another—Is a woman to accept
of a madman, merely because he happens to fall in love with her? ‘The lunatic, the
lover and the poet,’ as Shakspeare has said, ‘are of imagination all compact,’ and
must, in most cases, be contented with imagination as their reward. Realities are
out of their reach, as well as beneath their notice.
40. Zoffani, a foreign artist, but who, by long residence in England, had got
our habits of indolence and dilatoriness, was employed by the late King, who was
fond of low comedy, to paint a scene for Reynolds’s Speculation; in which Quick,
Munden, and Miss Wallis were introduced. The King called to see it in its progress;
and at last it was done—‘all but the coat.’ The picture, however, was not sent and
the King repeated his visit to the artist. Zoffani with some embarrassment said, ‘It
was done all but the goat‘—‘Don’t tell me,’ said the impatient monarch; ‘this is
always the way: you said it was done all but the coat the last time I was here.’—‘I
said the goat, and please your Majesty.’—‘Aye’ replied the King, ‘the goat or the
coat, I care not which you call it; I say I will not have the picture,’—and was going
to leave the room, when Zoffani, in an agony, repeated, ‘It is the goat that is not
finished,’—pointing to a picture of a goat that was hung up in a frame as an
ornament to the scene at the theatre. The King laughed heartily at the blunder, and
waited patiently till the goat was finished. Zoffani, like other idle people, was
careless and extravagant. He made a fortune when he first came over here, which
he soon spent: he then went out to India, where he made another, with which he
returned to England, and spent also. He was an excellent theatrical portrait-
painter, and has left delineations of celebrated actors and interesting situations,
which revive the dead, and bring the scene before us.
41. When Lord Byron was cut by the great, on account of his quarrel with his
wife, he stood leaning on a marble slab at the entrance of a room, while troops of
duchesses and countesses passed out. One little, pert, red-haired girl staid a few
paces behind the rest; and, as she passed him, said with a nod, ‘Aye, you should
have married me, and then all this wouldn’t have happened to you!’
42. If it were a show of wild beasts, or a boxing-match, the reasoning might be
somewhat different; though I do not know that it would. No people behave better
than the gods after the play once begins.
43.

‘Of whatsoe’er descent his Godhead be,

Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defence his servants are as bold
As if he had been made of beaten gold.’—Dryden.

44. They would have a king in spite of the devil. The image-worship of the
Papists is a batch of the same leaven. The apishness of man’s nature would not let
even the Christian Religion escape.
45. ‘In fact, the argument drawn from the supposed incapacity of the people
against a representative Government, comes with the worst grace in the world
from the patrons and admirers of hereditary government. Surely, if government
were a thing requiring the utmost stretch of genius, wisdom, and virtue to carry it
on, the office of King would never even have been dreamt of as hereditary, any
more than that of poet, painter, or philosopher. It is easy here ‘for the Son to tread
in the Sire’s steady steps.’ It requires nothing but the will to do it. Extraordinary
talents are not once looked for. Nay, a person, who would never have risen by
natural abilities to the situation of churchwarden or parish beadle, succeeds by
unquestionable right to the possession of a throne, and wields the energies of an
empire, or decides the fate of the world with the smallest possible share of human
understanding. The line of distinction which separates the regal purple from the
slabbering-bib is sometimes fine indeed; as we see in the case of the two
Ferdinands. Any one above the rank of an ideot is supposed capable of exercising
the highest functions of royal state. Yet these are the persons who talk of the people
as a swinish multitude, and taunt them with their want of refinement and
philosophy.’—Yellow Dwarf, p. 84.
46. A lady of quality abroad, in allusion to the gallantries of the reigning
Prince, being told, ‘I suppose it will be your turn next?’ said, ‘No, I hope not; for
you know it is impossible to refuse!’ What a satire on the court and fashionables! If
this be true, female virtue in the blaze of royalty is no more than the moth in the
candle, or ice in the sun’s ray. What will the great themselves say to it, in whom at
this rate,

——‘the same luck holds,

They all are subjects, courtiers, and cuckolds!’

Out upon it! We’ll not believe it. Alas! poor virtue, what is to become of the
very idea of it, if we are to be told that every man within the precincts of a palace is
an hypothetical cuckold, or holds his wife’s virtue in trust for the Prince? We
entertain no doubt that many ladies of quality have resisted the importunities of a
throne, and that many more would do so in private life, if they had the desired
opportunity: nay, we have been assured by several that a king would no more be
able to prevail with them than any other man! If however there is any foundation
for the above insinuation, it throws no small light on the Spirit of Monarchy, which
by the supposition implies in it the virtual surrender of the whole sex at discretion;
and at the same time accounts perhaps for the indifference shown by some
monarchs in availing themselves of so mechanical a privilege.
47. Some persons have asserted that the Scotch have no humour. It is in vain
to set up this plea, since Smollett was a Scotchman.
48. This may be in part the reason of the blunder they have made in laying so
much stress on what they call the Cockney School in Poetry—as if the people in
London were proud of that distinction, and really thought it a particular honour to
get their living in the metropolis, as the Scottish ‘Kernes and Gallowglasses’ think it
a wonderful step in their progress through life to be able to hire a lodging and pay
scot and lot in the good town of Edinburgh.
49. It was not always so. But by knocking on the head the Jacobite loyalty of
the Scotch, their political integrity of principle has been destroyed and dissipated
to all the winds of Heaven.
50. My father was one of those who mistook his talent after all. He used to be
very much dissatisfied that I preferred his Letters to his Sermons. The last were
forced and dry; the first came naturally from him. For ease, half-plays on words,
and a supine, monkish, indolent pleasantry, I have never seen them equalled.
51. He complained in particular of the presumption of attempting to establish
the future immortality of man ‘without’ (as he said) ‘knowing what Death was or
what Life was’—and the tone in which he pronounced these two words seemed to
convey a complete image of both.
52. He had no idea of pictures, of Claude or Raphael, and at this time I had as
little as he. He sometimes gives a striking account at present of the Cartoons at
Pisa, by Buffamalco and others; of one in particular, where Death is seen in the air
brandishing his scythe, and the great and mighty of the earth shudder at his
approach, while the beggars and the wretched kneel to him as their deliverer. He
would of course understand so broad and fine a moral as this at any time.
 53. Some years ago, a periodical paper was published in London, under the
title of the Pic-Nic. It was got up under the auspices of a Mr. Fulke Greville, and
several writers of that day contributed to it, among whom were Mr. Horace Smith,
Mr. Dubois, Mr. Prince Hoare, Mr. Cumberland, and others. On some dispute
arising between the proprietor and the gentlemen-contributors on the subject of an
advance in the remuneration for articles, Mr. Fulke Greville grew heroic, and said,
‘I have got a young fellow just come from Ireland, who will undertake to do the
whole, verse and prose, politics and scandal, for two guineas a week, and if you will
come and sup with me to-morrow night, you shall see him, and judge whether I am
not right in closing with him,’ Accordingly, they met the next evening, and the
WRITER OF ALL WORK was introduced. He began to make a display of his native
ignorance and impudence on all subjects immediately, and no one else had
occasion to say any thing. When he was gone, Mr. Cumberland exclaimed, ‘A
talking potato, by God!’ The talking potato was Mr. Croker, of the Admiralty. Our
adventurer shortly, however, returned to his own country, and passing accidentally
through a town where they were in want of a ministerial candidate at an Election,
the gentleman of modest assurance offered himself, and succeeded. ‘They wanted a
Jack-pudding,’ said the father of the hopeful youth, ‘and so they chose my son.’ The
case of the Duke of York and Mrs. Clarke soon after came on, and Mr. Croker, who
is a dabbler in dirt, and an adept in love-letters, rose from the affair Secretary to
the Admiralty, and the very ‘rose and expectancy of the fair State.’
54. The only friends whom we defend with zeal and obstinacy are our
relations. They seem part of ourselves. We cannot shake them off till they are
hanged, nor then neither! For our other friends we are only answerable, as long as
we countenance them; and we therefore cut the connection as soon as possible. But
who ever willingly gave up the good dispositions of a child, or the honour of a
parent?
55. See Ada Reis.
56. This was necessary in Latin, where no order was observed in the words of a
sentence: in English the juxtaposition generally determines the connection.
57. Quere, Is the vocative ever a case?
58. An identical proposition is not an inference; but all reasoning consists in
inference, or in finding out one thing as implied in another. In comparing any two
objects, I have nothing previously given and cannot predict the result; but having
made the comparison, I have then something determined and fixed to go by; and
what else I discover or imagine must be in conformity with this first knowledge.
This coherence in propositions, or in the mind, is the force of reason, whereby one
idea acts as the ground-work or cause of another. If I apply B as a common
measure to A and C, and find it the same with both, it follows that they are equal to
one another; since otherwise I must suppose the same thing (B) to be equal to
unequal things, which is impossible as long as I retain my senses, or more
properly, my recollection. I have ascertained two lines to be of the length of a third;
that length cannot differ from itself; and therefore having settled what the two
lines are with respect to the third, I cannot conceive them to be different with
respect to one another, without forgetting myself, or what I know of them. If I had
no power of contemplating different propositions together, I could draw no such
conclusion; the conclusion therefore results from this comprehensive power of the
mind; and reason is the end or band that ties the bundle of our separate ideas, or
the logical fasciculus together.
59. This is the reason that low comedians generally come out in tragedy—they
do not perceive the difference between the serious and the burlesque.
60. Berkeley, in his Minute Philosopher, attacks Dr. Halley, who had objected
to faith and mysteries in religion, on this score; and contends that the
mathematician, no less than the theologian, is obliged to presume on certain
postulates, or to resort, before he could establish a single theorem, to a formal
definition of those undefinable and hypothetical existences, points, lines, and
surfaces; and, according to the ingenious and learned Bishop of Cloyne, solids
would fare no better than superficials in this war of words and captious
contradiction.
61. Hobbes is of opinion that men would deny this, if they had any interest in
doing so.
62. The common trick of making an imitation of the human countenance with
a napkin or the ends of the knuckles comes under the head of wit, not humour.
63. A red beard is not uncommon, but it is odious.
64. Some one compared B——, a tall, awkward country lout to Adam, who
came into the world full grown, but without having ever made any use of his limbs.
This was wit, though true; where then is the ingredient of incongruity? In altering
the idea of Adam at pleasure, or from a mere possibility to make it answer a
ludicrous purpose. Adam is generally supposed an active, graceful person: a lad
grown up with large bones and muscles, with no more use of them than an infant,
is a laughable subject, because it deranges or unhinges our customary associations.
The threads of our ideas (so to speak) are strong and tightened by habit and will,
just as we tighten the strings of a fiddle with pegs and screws; and when any of
these are relaxed, snapped asunder, or unstrung by accident or folly, it is in taking
up the odds and ends (like stitches let down) as they hang light and loose, and
twisting them into some motley, ill-assorted pattern, so as to present a fantastic
and glaring contrast to custom (which is plain sense) or the ideal, which
strengthens and harmonizes (and which is poetry)—that the web of wit and
humour consists. The serious is that which is closely cemented together by
experience and prejudice, or by common sense: the ludicrous is the incoherent, or
that which wants the cement of habit and purpose; and wit is employed in finding
out new and opposite combinations of these detached and broken fragments (or
exceptions to established rules) so as to set off the distinction between absurdity
and propriety in the most lively and marked manner possible. Proof is not wanted
here; illustration is enough, and the more extravagant the better; for the cause
being previously condemned in our prosing judgments, we do not stand upon
punctilio, but only wait for a smart, sly excuse to get rid of it; and hence tricking is
fair in wit, as well as in war: where the justice of the cause is not the question, you
have only to fight it out or make the best of the case you can.
65. Even then I should not despair. The Revolution of the Three Days was like
a resurrection from the dead, and showed plainly that liberty too has a spirit of life
in it; and that the hatred of oppression is ‘the unquenchable flame, the worm that
dies not.’
66. ‘In Scotland, at an execution, all appear melancholy, many shed tears, and
some faint away. But executions there are very rare.’—Burgh.
67. Vanity is the same half-witted principle, compared with pride. It leaves
men in the lurch when it is most needed; is mortified at being reduced to stand on
the defensive, and relinquishes the field to its more surly antagonist.