Graffiti were not unknown in Restoration times. It is alleged that the Earl of Rochester, temporarily disillusioned with his sovereign, King Charles II, scrawled on the bedchamber of His Majesty the following:
Here lies our sovereign Lord the King,
Whose promise none relies on;
He never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.
And wise old Charles is said to have responded when he saw it:
"This is very true, for my words are my own, but all my actions are my ministers'."
Broken promises and silly deeds, however, no matter who the perpetrator, do not just simply cease to be, but end up on the moon. There is a legend that the moon is a repository of all our worldly folly - that it contains a treasure-house of wasted effort, misspent wealth and talents misapplied, of fruitless tears and unfulfilled desires. As Alexander Pope describes it:
There broken vows and death bed alms are found
And lovers' hearts with ends of ribband bound;
The courtier's promises and sick man's prayers,
The smiles of harlots and the tears of heirs.
And if anyone should promise you the moon itself, do not believe them. It is not theirs to give, by virtue of an important international protocol entitled An Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and other Celestial Bodies.
The Moon Treaty, as it is popularly called, decrees that the moon and other heavenly bodies shall never be subject to national appropriation by any country, whether by claim of sovereignty, by occupation, or by any other means. And it has some interesting provisions concerning whatever valuable resources our nearest neighbour may contain.
Anyone who happens to discover minerals or other commercially valuable commodities on, or underneath, the surface of the moon may remove them from where they are at present, and then claim them as their property. But one is not allowed to stake a claim to any promising area of the moon; property rights can only be established by removing the prospected material entirely from the planet.
But there is one snag about these entirely admirable and fair arrangements. The Moon Treaty was opened for signature nearly 20 years ago on December 18th, 1979, and entered into force in 1984. But so far only nine countries have ratified the protocol: Australia, Austria, Chile, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines and Uruguay.
All those nations with the capability, or perhaps ambitions, actually to own a little of the moon have so far failed to give the undertakings that the treaty asks.