AYES ISLAND. 311 



the claimants were, as against Venezuela, lawfully in possession of the 

 island when Venezuela found them, then surely they may rightfully 

 claim full reparation for being driven away by her public force," be- 

 cause neither the fact or its inference has been either rebutted or de- 

 nied, nor yet has there been adduced any law, ordinance, or decree of 

 the republic, with the violation of which they are charged, and that, 

 therefore, the absence of such affirmations must be taken as an ac- 

 knowledgment. 



Even though there were no express law forbidding the entrance, 

 appropriation, and advantages referred to, still no one could suppose 

 them to be lawful, for the following reason : 



"Every State, therefore^ has not only the right of sovereignty, 

 {imperium et potestas publica,) that is, the conjunction of all the sover- 

 eign rights and powers necessary to the ends of the State, but it is 

 capable also of acquiring and holding property. The right of State 

 property {jus in patrimonium reipublicce,') consists in the power of ex- 

 cluding all other States, or foreign individuals, from the use and ap- 

 propriation of the territory and of all things lying therein. The 

 objects of this right are not only, first, the common property of the 

 society of which the State is composed, the public domain or the public 

 property, properly so called {patrimonium reip. publicum) things, 

 the property of which so belongs to the State, that the use of them, 

 like that of private property, is exclusively and immediately destined 

 for the ends of the State ; but also, second, the estates or the property of 

 individuals, (private property, patrimonium privatum,) put under the 

 protection of the State, as things that may and should equally subserve, 

 in case of need, the attainment of a general end ; and lastly, property 

 without an owner, {adespota,) constituting a part of the territory of 

 the State, which is to be considered as unoccupied or abandoned, in 

 reference to that State only and to its subjects, but not in reference to 

 foreign States or individuals." (Kltiber, vol. 1, p. 108.) 



' ' The State property is coextensive with the whole territory of the 

 State, namely, with that portion of the earth,, with its appurtenances, 

 over which the State independently and exclusively exercises the right 

 of sovereignty." 



"Not only the public property and that of individuals, but the 

 property also which has no owner {adespota) and which is found in 

 the territory are at the disposal and in the sovereign power of the 

 State. Now, all things included within the territory being referable 

 to one of these three classes, the general rule obtains that everything 

 which exists in the territory of a State is adjudged to be subject to the 

 sovereignty of said State until proof to the contrary. For this reason, 

 not only the inhabited soil, but imcultivated districts also, and the 

 seas, contained within the boundaries of States, constitute a part of its 

 territory, and all the products, natural or created by human industry, 

 which the territory embraces, belong to the State." 



"By virtue of the right of property the government may, to the 

 exclusion of all strangers, not only possess and use the territory of the 

 State, but also dispose of it at will, and increase it by the right of 

 accession." 



"The right of State property being independent of all foreign in- 



I 



