[s. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 469 



recently between England and the United States ; not because of any- 

 thing in dispute between them, but on account of a petty territory 

 claimed by a third government, and in assertion of a speculative pro- 

 position in international law of recent invention and doubtful author- 

 ship. 



The case for Venezuela was based primiarily on the Bull of Pope 

 Alexander and upon discovery. Without entering into the controversy 

 it may be observed, that the 'argument proves too much ; for the whole 

 of the present United States fell within the Spanish demarcation and, 

 from where Cabot's voyage .ended, the whole coast of the Atlantic was 

 first discovered, and ceremonial possession was taken, for Spain. The 

 British take their title in Guiana from the Dutch, and the United 

 States take their title from the British ; so that it is not easy to build 

 an argument on discovery and upon the Bull of 1493 without involving 

 seme considerable portions of the United States. 



While these questions may however be considered as settled it will 

 interest the student to recall the fact that, in these northern seas, the 

 line of demarcation was supposed to cut our coast and that Nova Scotia 

 and Newfoimdland fell to Portugal. This has been incidentally referred 

 to in previous papers ; but, inasmuch as the papal Bulls of 1493 and 

 the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 are within the scope of our history, 

 it is not lost labour to inquire what these documents were and what was 

 their meaning. 



Nothing is more trite than to insist upon the importance of treat- 

 ing each period of history from its own point of view ; but nothing is 

 more difficult. In recent controversies on early American history it 

 has been often forgotten that Western Europe was Eoman Catholic 

 when America was discovered, and that, although the secular head of 

 the Holy Roman Empire had lost his relative importance, the authority 

 of its spiritual head was still unchallenged. Latin was, in effect, a 

 living language — the living language of the services of the Church and 

 a living language for all educated men throughout Europe. The 

 Romance languages themselves had not diverged so widely as now, either 

 from each other or from their common source ; 'and the barriers of 

 nationality were not raised nearly so high then as they are at the present 

 day. Those who gibbet Sebastian Cabot as a scoundrel and traitor for 

 changing his service, forget that the great sailors of his day changed 

 masters without reproach and that soldiers and statesmen frequently 

 did the same. No one blames Philippe de Comines, who was bom a 

 Burgundian subject and served in the council of Charles the Bold, 

 for passing over into equally confidential and important employments 



