95 



laws for converting tliem iuto property as domestic animals. Tliey ditfer 

 from game laws, which protect wild animals in order to secure a greater 

 supply for the common use. 



All this legislative tendency indicates, in the plainest manner, a con- 

 census of opinion and a common movement in the direction ot' classify- 

 ing fur seals as domestic animals in respect to their protection by posi- 

 tive laws. Why this universal sentiment should only be resisted by 

 Canada for purpose of assisting her people in making selfish gain, is 

 an inquiry that only gives point to the suggestion that the interna- 

 tional law should conform to the general nuinicipal law on this subject. 



The careful examinations and reports of many eminent naturalists, 

 supported by a general and distressing experience as to the extinction 

 of the fur seals, lirst in the southern hemisphere and now in the northern, 

 has set the local lawmakers to work in contriving statutes to stop these 

 destructive practices and to restore the herds to their former status. 

 All these laws are based on the fact that government control of the seals 

 is necessary for their preservation, and that the seals are entitled to the 

 same protection of the law, suited, to their nature, as other domestic animals. 



As this subject is now presented for the first time to an international 

 tribunal, and in a controversy between two great powers, and as the 

 origin of the questions so presented is of a very recent date, and as no 

 direct precedent or discussion exists to guide or control the judgment 

 of this tribunal, a proper occasion is presented for declaring that these 

 animals should have the same classification under the international 

 law that they have under the municipal laws of all countries that fur- 

 nish a resort for the fur seals during their period of compulsory living 

 on land. Such a declaration would not create a new rule of inter- 

 national law; it would only apply the rules that may now be termed 

 universal law, in municipal legislation, to that area of the earth's sur- 

 face in which there is no supreme law, because there is equal sov- 

 ereignty in all nations, and would include in those rules the preserva- 

 tion on the high seas of animals that are so serviceable to man as to 

 deserve to be classed as domestic animals. All useful animals are sub- 

 jected to domestication by the divine decree that gave to man the 

 dominion over the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. 



Laws for the protection of animals are elaborately provided and are 

 made cardinal features of all civil codes and of the moral code of the 

 Pentatench. This benign system has expanded from age to age so as 

 to admit within the circle of domesticated animals, that are i^rotected 



