294 ORAL ARGUMENT OP FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 



tbe aiitliority of Kussia was removed and that of the United States 

 relaxed, or not yet in force, 240,000 seals were slain in one single year; 

 and yet this industry was in its infancy; what would have become of 

 it in the next year and the next? 



From such a slangLter the United States is not bound to refrain, if the only object 

 is to preserve the animals long enough to enable them to be exterminated by for- 

 eigners at sea. If that is to be the result, it would be i'or the interest of the Gov- 

 ernment and plainly within its right and powers, to avail itself at once of such 

 present value as its property possesses, if the future jiroduct of it can not be pre- 

 served. Can there be more conclusive proof than this of such lawful possession and 

 control as constitutes property, and alone produces and continues the existence of 

 the subject of it? 



That is to say, if the decision of this high tribunal should be that 

 indiscriminate pursuit and indiscriminate Icilling are to be tolerated 

 and encouraged, then the United States has the right — whether it 

 would exercise it or not I cannot tell — of availing itself of and using* 

 for its own purposes and benefit the animals within its reach and under 

 its control, rather than to allow them to become the prey under the 

 most cruel and inhuman circumstances, of those who cease to respect 

 what the United States has hitherto considered to be its rights. 



The Minister of the United States to Great Britain used the expres- 

 sion, which was the subject of some discussion, that this i)ursuit of the 

 seal under the circumstances stated and explained, was contra honos 

 mores. I submit to the court that he did not exaggerate; that if any- 

 thing is against good morals, it is a practice by its nature calculated to 

 undermine sound principles of humanity and to contract their growth. 

 This pursuit directed almost exclusively against that class of animals, 

 that are the favored children of the law in every civilized country, 

 must be against good morals. It is not possible that a i)ursnit which 

 is likely, nay, which is certain, to exterminate a useful race, can be per- 

 missible. Some remedy must be found. This high court will find it, 

 and must find it; as it is conceded by all that this is a useful race, as it 

 is conceded by all that it is being diminished and ruined and destroyed, 

 surely the result must follow and some remedy must be applied. There- 

 fore it is said in this brief: 



The method of pursuit employed by the Canadian vessels, and against which the 

 United States Government protests, not only tends to the rapid extermination of the 

 seal, but is in itself barbarous, inhuman, and wasteful. 



Can there be any question about that? If there is now, there will 

 not be when this high Tribunal has heard the evidence read. 



So far as the legislation of the United States is concerned the kill- 

 ing of female seals at any time is made criminal by the statutes of the 

 United States. 



The destruction during the breeding season of wild animals of any kind which are 

 in any respect useful to man, is prohibited, not only by all the instincts of humanity, 

 but by the laws of every civilized country, and esi)ecially by the laws of the United 

 States and of Great Britain. 



We have to start, in trying to ascertain what law may be applied at 

 this point, the common consent of both nations that this practice is 

 wrong and criminal. 1 read from page 139: 



The depredations in question, dignified in the Report of the British Commission- 

 ers by the name of an "industry," are the work of iudiTiduals who fit out vessels 

 for this purpose. Their number, though increasing, is not great. The business is 

 speculative, and as a whole not remunerative, though it has instances of large gains 

 which stimulate the enterprise of those concerned, and make the j)rospect attract- 

 ive, like all occupations which have a touch of adventure, an element of gambling, 

 and a taste of cruelty. 



