AYES ISLAND. 313 



''The country inhabited by a nation constituted into a political society 

 belongs to that nation by virtue of its right to exclude all the other 

 nations. Two essential elements are included in this right — the do- 

 main, by which alone the nation can use the country for its wants and 

 dispose of it for every necessary object, and the empire, or right of 

 sovereignty and command, by which it ordains and controls at will all 

 the transactions of the land." (Olmeda y Lem, Elements of Public 

 Law of Peace and War, vol. 1.) 



''A State, independently of the exercise of sovereignty over its terri- 

 tory, has the right of acquiring and possessing property." 



"The right of property includes the right of excluding all foreign 

 States or individuals from the use and disposal of the territory, and of 

 all things therein lying, or of prescribing laws and conditions for those 

 to whom the State may grant such uses." (Diplomatic Treatise by a 

 Former Minister, vol. 2) 



"The effects of domain consist in vesting a nation with the exclusive 

 right of enjoying its forests, mines, fisheries, and of generally appro- 

 priating to itself all the products of its lands and waters, whether 

 ordinary, extraordinary, or accidental ; the right of permitting passage 

 or navigation through them, or allow it under determined conditions, 

 saving always the rights of necessity and of innocent use as well as 

 those defined by treaties or usage; the right of imposing taxes on 

 travelers or navigators for the use of roads, bridges, causeways, canals, 

 2)orts, wharves, &c. ; the right of exercising jurisdiction over all sorts 

 of persons within its territory ; |and the right of requiring entering or 

 passing vessels to pay the accustomed honors in recognition of its 

 sovereignty." (Bello^ PrinciiDles of International Law.) 



' ' The exclusive right of every independent State to its territory and 

 other property rests in the original title acquired by occupation, con- 

 quest^ or cession, and subsequently confirmed by the presumption re- 

 sulting from the lapse of time, or by treaties or other compacts with 

 foreign States." 



"This exclusive right includes the public property or the domain of 

 the State, and things belonging to individuals or corporations within 

 its territorial limits." 



"The right of the State to its public property or domain is absolute, 

 and it excludes that of its own subjects as well as that of other nations. 

 The right of national property with respect to things belonging to 

 j)rivate individuals or to corporations within its territorial limits is 

 absolute, inasmuch as it excludes that of other nations, but with respect 

 to the members of the State it is merely superior, and constitutes what 

 is defined as the eminent domain." (Wheaton's Elements.) 



' ' When a nation takes possession of a territory which belongs to no 

 one it is deemed to occupy empire, sovereignty, and mastery over that 

 territory at one and the same time, because, admitting that it is free 

 and independent, it cannot be its intention at the time of establishing 

 itself in that territory to leave to the other nations the right to com- 

 mand, or any of the prerogatives whatsoever which constitute sover- 

 eignty. The whole of the circuit to which a nation extends its dominion 

 constitutes the limits of its jurisdiction, and is called its territory," 

 (Lectures on Natural and International Law, de Felice.) 



