CONCURRENT REGULATIONS. 211 



we can perceive no other ground upon which their action may be made 

 consistent with good faith. 



(0) But what are their avowed reasons, if any, for forming this ideal 

 of an exclusive adoption of pelagic sealing as a proper scheme of regula- 

 tions for preserving the seals'? We can gather from the pages of their 

 report. these three: 



(a) That pelagic sealing is a national or common right, which can not 

 be taken away. 



(b) That pelagic sealing has a "self-regulating tendency." 1 



(c) That sealing on the breeding places is destructive, because of the 

 excessive slaughter of young males, which, as they allege, is and will 

 be indulged in, although it need not be. 



The first of these reasons is not relevant here, nor should it have 

 had any place in the consideration of these Commissioners. It was a 

 matter committed to the determination of other parties, and is else- 

 where discussed by us. It may, however, be here observed that if it 

 be a natural right of citizens of Great Britain, it must be held, as all 

 other rights are, in subordination to the power of governments to enact 

 legislation to preserve the useful races of animals, and Great Britain 

 may certainly, if she pleases, prohibit her citizens from exercising it, 

 as the United States do. And if it be the subject of governmental 

 restriction, as the commissioners themselves propose to make it, it may 

 be also prohibited by governmental regulation. 



The third ground we have already considered. Unfounded in fact, 

 repugnant to reason, absolutely contradicted by the experience of 

 nearly a century on the Pribilof Islands, and, as the Commissioners 

 themselves admit, by that on the Commander Islands for a similar 

 period, 2 we dismiss it without further notice. 



The second ground, the alleged " self-regulative tendency," may be 

 briefly noticed. What is this asserted u self -regulating tendencyV We 

 must describe it in the language of the Commissioners themselves. 

 They say: 



"In sealing at sea the conditions are categorically different, for it is 

 evident that by reason of the very method of hunting, the profits must 

 decrease, other things being equal, in a ratio much greater than that 



> Report of Br. Com., p. 20, sec. 121. * Report of Br. Corn., p. 15, sec. 92. 



