540 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 



Climiccllor Kent was dealing]: witli the riglit of a nation to make 

 municipal laws Avlii(!li slionld have an operation beyond the three miles, 

 and never referred to the executive acts of a nation to be justitied upon 

 the principles to which you, Senator Morgan, referred me a moment 

 aj?o; that he had not in his mind, and was not at that time in any way 

 discussing or considering, those executive acts, the responsibility of 

 which a nation will take upon itself, whether they be right or wrong, 

 according to iuternational law. He was discussing the legal question, 

 and the legal question only, to what extent might a claim be fairly 

 made to an extension of the three mile limit ? I am going to point out, 

 sir — I had it in my mind to mention it the other day — that this passage 

 shows that similar ideas as have been ex]^ressed this morning by Mr. 

 Gram, were really in the mind of Chancellor Kent when he was referring 

 in the following words to the character of the waters over which such 

 maritime jurisdiction should be extended: 



It would not appear unreasonable, as I apprcLend, to assume, for domestic pur- 

 poses conuected witli our safety and welfare, the control of the waters ou our coasts, 

 though included within lines stretchint;- from quite distant headlands, as for instance 

 from Cape Ann to Cape Cod and from Nantnc]\et to Montauk Point, and from tliat 

 Point, to the Cajies of the Delaware, and from the South Cape of Florida to the 

 Mississippi. 



Now, sir, Mr. Chancellor Kent may have been right or may have 

 been wrong in the views that he was expressing with regard to claims, 

 but the point of my present observation is, that, so far from that cita- 

 tion being any authority for the contention of Mr. Phelps, that the 

 statute might be construed, and was to be construed, as being an 

 executive act, to be put in force at the discretion of the Government, 

 it is the contrary. A contrary inference is to be drawn, a contrary 

 conclusion to be arrived at; because he is referring to the right of a 

 nation to extend its maritime jurisdiction and to make its laws for fiscal 

 and- other defensive purposes. 



I am led a little, perhaps, out of the line of thought I was pursuing, 

 but still it will not be inconvenient if I at once call the attention of the 

 Tribunal to some cases which lay down this principle distinctly. 



Sir, in those authorities of which we have given the Tribunal and my 

 friends prints, there is a judgment of the great Judge, Mr. Justice 

 Story, in the case of the " Apollon", reported in 9th Wheaton, which I 

 crave leave to read to the Tribunal, because it expresses the argument 

 against the contention of Mr. Phelps, that these statutes might be 

 regarded as defensive regulations to be put in force when and as a 

 nation likes upon the high seas or anywhere else. For, be it observed 

 that the necessity of my learned friend's argument compels him to 

 contend that this right would extend to going even into other people's 

 territory, if necessary, as a matter of right. 



I do not know whether it would be troubling the Tribunal too much 

 to ask them if they would kindly look at the report of the " Apollon." 

 It is in the printed authorities handed in by the Attorney General. It 

 is the third case, and begins at page five. The paper is headed 

 "Behring Sea: — Authorities on Search, Seizure and Self-defence'': 



The laws of no nation can justly extend beyond its own territories, except so far 

 as regards its own citizens. Tliey cau have no force to control the sovereignty or 

 rights of any other nation within its own jurisdiction. And, however general and 

 comjirehensive the phrases used in our municipal laws may be, 



That is the American municipal laws — 



they must always be restricted in construction to places and persons upon whom the 

 Legislature have authority and .jurisdiction. In the present case, Spain had an 

 ■equal authority with the United iStates over the river St. Mary's. The attempt to 



