Possession and the Law
Lord Ellenborough’s decision established that the two principles of Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish are fundamentals of all human jurisprudence. Possession is often half the law, and sometimes the whole of it. The chapter extends this principle metaphorically to social and economic relations: serfs, slaves, widows’ mites, marble mansions, ruinous discounts, church incomes, and territorial holdings all function as Fast-Fish where possession determines ownership.
Loose-Fish in Society
The doctrine of Loose-Fish applies even more widely than Fast-Fish, internationally and universally. Historical and contemporary examples demonstrate this principle: America in 1492 (a Loose-Fish Columbus struck for Spain), Poland to the Czar, Greece to the Turk, India to England, and future implications for Mexico to the United States. Rights of Man, liberties of the world, opinions, religious beliefs, and even the great globe itself are all Loose-Fish. The chapter concludes by asking what the reader is but both a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish too.
第九十章 Heads or Tails.
CHAPTER 90. Heads or Tails. This chapter examines the ancient English law granting the monarch the head of any whale captured on English shores and the queen the tail. The opening Latin quote from Bracton establishes this royal division, which persists under modified form to Melville’s time. The narrator dedicates a full chapter to this “strange anomaly” in the law of Fast and Loose-Fish, comparing the arrangement to a courteous railway compartment reserved for royalty.
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