AVES ISLAND. 341 



if it could not fully and absolutely dispose of the country? And how 

 could it have full and absolute dominion of a spot which it could not 

 command? The control of another, and the rights inherent to it, 

 would deprive the nation of the free disposal of the place. If to this 

 be added the eminent domain which is an integrant of sovereignty, 

 the intimate connection between the dominion of a nation and its 

 control will be better understood. Thus, that which is called the 

 '"'eminent domain" being nothing but the dominion of the body of the 

 nation, or of the sovereign who represents the nation, is ever con- 

 sidered to be inseparable from the domain of the sovereignty. The 

 ''useful domain," or that which is reduced to the rights which may 

 belong to an individual in the State, may be separated from the empire, 

 and there is no obstacle to its belonging to a nation in those places 

 which are not under its obedience. Thus, we find many sovereigns 

 holding fiefs in the land of other princes, and in that case they 

 possess them as private individuals." The same author: 



" From the moment that a State foregoes or abandons a portion of 

 its property, an island, for instance, it ceases to be part of its territory, 

 and hence it belongs to no one — (res nullius.) From that moment it 

 is allowable for any other State to appropriate it to itself, and to bring 

 it under its dominion." (Kliiber, Law of Nations. ) 



"States acquire all that they can acquire, and they acquire it by 

 those means that are appropriate, and peculiar to those moral beings 

 or entities, and in proportion to their conditions of existence considered, 

 whether in relation to other States with which they form a secondary 

 society of a different order, or in relation to the individuals who make 

 up the whole body of each of them. The characteristics of property 

 and its different divisions impart a varied character to acquisition, 

 whilst, according to the nature of the latter, the conditions required 

 for this act of appropriation will be distinct, as will also the conse- 

 quences be. States acquire pari ^mssu, or in competition with other 

 States. States acquire within their own territory in the cases which 

 are determined by the laws." "The former of these two classes of 

 accjuisitions, namely: when a State acquires without its boundaries, 

 presents no important division. Either the acquisition is made of res 

 nullius, of a thing belonging to no one, because it is not possessed by 

 any of the other States, or it is made of property that was occupied by 

 some one, whichsoever, of said States." (Spanish Law Encyclopedia.) 



' ' A company purchased the rights of the original grantee, and other 

 companies succeeded the purchaser of the rights. The king abandoned 

 to them not only the useful domain, but also the empire, the jurisdic- 

 tion, and the military power. He merely reserved to himself the direct 

 domain and the right of appointing a governor, whose power was 

 merely nominal. Even, then, it was the company that had the pre- 

 ferment of the governor whom the king was to appoint, and it had the 

 privilege of removing him." 



" All these possessions were ultimately brought under the domain, 

 and they finally came to be national property in the year 1674." 



"But in all these transfers of ownership, it is invariably supposed, 

 the right of first occupancy had not vested proprietorship in the islands ; 

 that the king's grant was the only title to property. This principle 



