censetur, et ex duplici defectu praescriptio corruit.[126a] Tertia vero, quia res haec est merae facultatis, quae non praescribitur, ut infra demonstrabimus.
Sed nullus est finis argutiarum. Inventi sunt qui in hoc argumento a praescriptione consuetudinem distinguerent, ut illa scilicet exclusi, ad hanc confugerent. Discrimen autem quod hic statuunt sane ridiculum est: ex praescriptione aiunt ius unius quod ab eo aufertur alteri applicari;[127a] sed cum aliquod ius ita alicui applicatur ut alteri non auferatur, tum dici consuetudinem; quasi vero cum ius navigandi quod communiter ad omnes pertinet, exclusis aliis ab uno usurpatur, non necesse sit omnibus perire quantum uni accedit. Errori huic ansam dederunt Pauli verba non recte accepta, qui cum de iure proprio maris ad aliquem pertinente loqueretur,[128a] fieri hoc posse dixit Accursius per privilegium aut consuetudinem: quod additamentum ad Iurisconsulti textum nullo modo accedens mali potius coniectoris esse videtur quam boni interpretis. Mens Pauli supra explicata est. Ceterum illi si vel sola Vlpiani verba,[129a] quae paulo ante praecedunt, satis considerassent, longe aliud dicturi erant. Fatetur enim ut quis ante aedes meas piscari prohibeatur, esse quidem
double defect.[126] Also a third reason is that we have under consideration a merely facultative right which is not prescriptible, as we shall show below.*
* [See chapter XI.]
But there is no end to their subtilties. There are jurists who in this case would distinguish custom from prescription, so that if they are debarred from the one, they may fall back upon the other. But the distinction which they set up is most absurd. They say that the right of one person which is taken away from him is given to another by prescription;[127] but that when any right is given to any one in such a way that it is not taken away from any one else, then it is called custom. As if indeed the right of navigation, which is common to all, upon being usurped by some one to the exclusion of all others, would not necessarily when it became the property of one be lost to all!
This error receives support from misinterpretation of what Paulus has to say about a private right of possession on the sea.[128] Accursius†said that such a right could be acquired by privilege or custom. But this addition which in no way agrees with the text of the jurist seems to be rather the interpretation of a mischievous guesser than of a faithful interpreter. The real meaning of the words of Paulus has been already explained. Besides, if more careful consideration had been given to the words of Ulpian[129] which almost immediately precede those of Paulus, a very different assertion would have been made. For Ulpian acknowledges that if any one is prohibited from fishing in front of