47 



In one of those treatises which show how deeply the mind of the 

 writer was imbncd with the princii)les of general jiuis])rudence, Mr. 

 Burke uses the following admirable expressions: 



If it were permitted to argue with power, might one not ask one 

 of these gentlemen whether it would not be more natural instead of 

 wantonly mooting these questions concerning their property, as if it 

 were an exercise in law, to found it on the solid rock of prescription? 

 The soundest, the most general, the most recognized title between man 

 and man that is known in municipal or public jurisprudence; a title in 

 which not arbitrary institutions, but the eternal order of things gives 

 judgment; a title which is not the creature, but the master of positive 

 law; a title which though not fixed in its term, is rooted in its principles 

 in the law of nature itself , and is indeed the original ground of all 

 known property; for all property in soil will always be traced back to 

 that source, and will rest there. * * * These gentlemen, for they 

 have lawyers amongst them, know as well as I that in England we 

 have always a prescrii)tion or limitation, as all nations have against 

 each other. * * * All titles terminate in prescription; in which 

 (differently from time in the fabulous instances) the son devours the 

 father, and the last prescription eats up all the former. 



These citations from very eminent British authority establish the 

 right of a government by prescription, based on occupancy and claim 

 of title, to any dominion, on land or sea, of anything in the nature of 

 property, whether corporeal, or incorporeal, as firndy as if the right 

 were established by grant or as the result of conquest or cession. 



The true doctrine of the international law is stated in the extract 

 above quoted from Wheaton (Vol. 1 p. 207) that " The general con- 

 sent of mankind has established the principle that long and uninter- 

 rui)ted possession by one nation excludes the claim of every other." 



This rule is fully applicable to the dominion of Kussia over the fur 

 industry and trade in Bering Sea, which was never yielded or trans- 

 ferred to any government until it was sold to the United States. 



Dominion also includes the right of a government to the soil beneath 

 tlie territorial and adjacent waters. The claim of territorial waters 

 over an area of the sea that is clearly demarked by land boundaries, 

 though not entirely inclosed by the land is, a valid exercise of power 

 by the government that owns the land which forms the coasts and 

 islands that define the boundary. It may not be sufficient to destroy 

 the easements that other nations may have in those waters, yet, it is 

 dominion or ownership of the land beneath those waters, and it is clearly 

 sufficient to support the municipal jurisdiction of the government over 

 its own citizens, and, also, to support a claim to any pearl or oyster beds 

 beneath such an area of waters, or any mines that may be found there. 



Such a claim and assertion of ownership may not be sufficient reason 



