Note 31 — CANTO I. OURSELF!
Reading edition
And if Britannia interferes.
That Great Britain, not content with domineering on the surface, contemplates the colonizing of the depths of the ocean, is evident from the following lines, by Dr Darwin:
“Then shall Britannia rule the wealthy realms, Which ocean’s wide insatiate wave o’erwhelms; Confine in netted bowers his scaly flocks, Part his blue plains, and people all his rocks. Deep in warm waves, beneath the line that roll, Beneath the shadowy ice-isles of the pole, Onward, through bright meandering vales afar, Obedient sharks[A] shall trail her sceptred car, With harness’d necks the pearly flood disturb, Stretch the silk rein, and champ the silver curb.”
But be it known by these presents to Britannia’s ladyship, that all that part of the ocean, which lies between the centre of gravity and six feet of the surface, including whatsoever salt water touches or rests upon, belongs to Doctor Caustic, by the rights of discovery and pre-occupation.