APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 471 



its profits diiniuislied by this rivalslii]). In fine, it took a violent part, 

 and at length obtained by its solicitations the Ukase of the 4th (10th) 

 September, 1821. 



In speaking of this measure, we shall make it our business to say 

 nothing but what api)ears strictly necessary to set it in its true light, 

 convinced, as we are, that the euliglitened Government from whence it 

 emanates will listen with good-will to observations conceived with the 

 intention of obtaining nothing but what is jnst in itself, and useful to 

 all interested. 



Tlie Ukase, by its first three Articles, under the form of a grant to a 

 ])rivate Association, presu})poses tlie exist^i'nce of exclusive territorial 

 rights (a pretension uidvuown till now) on a great extent of continent, 

 witli the intervening islands and seas, and it forbids all foreign nations 

 fnim ap])roaching nearer them than 100 Italian miles to these coasts. 

 The Ukase even goes to the shuttings up of a strait which has never 

 been till now shut up, and which is at i)resent the principal object of 

 discoveries interesting and useful to the sciences. 



The very terms of tlie Ukase bear that this pretension has now been 

 nmde known for the first time. 



The following s(M*tions relate to the sci/nie of vessels, and to the pro- 

 ceedings before tlie Tribunals against those who infringe the Regula- 

 tion, and might furnish remaiks worthy of attention as to the right of 

 visit against ships in times of i^eace, permitted even to mercliant- 

 vessels, as well as ui)on other points. l>ut it is thought better to pass 

 over these nnitlers, as simply accessories to the jtrincipal ])oint. Noth- 

 ing is intended but first to know if the vast territory contained in the 

 limits marked out by the Ukase is, in fact, incorporated with the 

 Emi)ire of Itussia. upon admissible priiu-iples. 



All jurists ar(i agreed upon the principle that real occupation only 

 can give the rights to the proi)erty and to the sovereignty of an unoccu- 

 pied country newly discov<'red. 



With all the resjx'ct which we owe to the declared intention and to 

 the determination indicated by the Ukase, it is necessary to examine 

 the two points of fact: 



1. If the country to the south and east of l>ehring Strait, as far as 

 the .list degree of north latitude, is found strictly unoccupied'? 



2. If there has been, latterly, a real oc(;u]>ation of this vast territory? 



We have already seen, in the snmnuiry of the dispute between Eng- 

 land and Spain, what was the decision of Kussia upon the first point. 

 It cannot be necessary for us to repeat it. 



As to what regards the real occu])ation, one may be convinced, on 

 having recourse to the Charts officially published by the Russian Gov- 

 ernment, that the only establishment on this side of the 00th degree 

 is that which is found on the Island of Sitka, situated under .57° 30' of 

 latitude, and consecpiently more than degrees from the southern limit 

 fixed by the Ukase. 



The conclusion which must necessarily result from these facts does 

 not appear to establish that the territory in question has been legiti- 

 mately incorporated with the Russian Empire. 



The extension of territorial rights to the distance of 100 miles from 

 the coasts upon two opposite continents, and the prohibition of ap- 

 proaching to the same distance from these coasts, or from those of 

 all the intervening islands, are innovations in the law of nations and 

 measures unexampled. It must thus be imagined that this prohibi- 

 tion, bearing the pains of confiscation, ajiplies to a long line of coasts, 

 with the intermediate islands, situated in vast seas, where the naviga- 



