190 



iiials, is in the exercise of a right secured or protected, by tlie law of 

 nations, would shock the moral sense of mankind. But, in principle, 

 there can be no difference between the destruction from mere wantonness 

 of these useful animals, and their destruction, for temporary gain, by 

 methods that are inhuman and barbarous, and which will surely result 

 in the speedy extermination of the entire race, thereby defeating the 

 beneficent purposes for which they have been bestowed by the Creator 

 upon man. 



If it be said tliat these animals are given to mankind for their use, and 

 that the taking of them in the high seas is only one mode of utilizing 

 them, the answer is, that the obligations arising from the relations which 

 men and states must sustain to each other forbid any mode of taking 

 them that is plainly incompatible with tlie existence of the race, and, 

 therefore, destructive of such use. Paley says that from reason or reve- 

 lation, or from both together, " it appears to be God Almighty's intention 

 that the productions of the earth should be applied to the sustentation ot 

 human life;" and, "consequently, all waste and misapplication of these 

 productions is contrary to the divine intention and Avill, and therefore 

 wrong, for the same reasons that any other crime is so." Among the 

 illustrations given by the author of such wrongs or crimes is the "dimin- 

 ishing the breed of animals by wanton or improvident consumption of 

 the young, as of the spawn of shellfish or the fry of salmon, by the use 

 of unlawful nets or at improper seasons." Paleifs Moral Philosophy^ 

 c. XI. Ahrens, in his Course of Il^atural Law, states, as the result of 

 rational principles to which the right of ])roperty and its exercise are 

 subjected, "that property exists for a rational purpose and for a rational 

 use; it is destined to satisfy the various needs of human life; conse- 

 quently all arbitrary abuse, all arbitrary destruction, are contrary to 

 right. " Vol. 2, ed. 1876, Blc. J, div. 1, 61; ed. 1860, p. 356. Schouler, in his 

 Treatise on the Law of Personal Property, says: " Nature teaches the 

 lesson, doubly enforced by revelation, that the right of the human race 

 to own and exercise dominion over the things of this earth in successive 

 generations carries with it a corresponding moral obligation to use, 

 enjoy, and transmit in due course for the benefit of the whole human 

 race, not for ourselves only, or for those who preceded us, but for all 

 who are yet to come besides, that the grand purpose of the Creator 

 and Giver may be accomplished." 



Thiers, in his Treatise on Projierty, says that experience demonstrates 

 the absolute necessity of the institution of proi^erty, its appropriateness, 



