574 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



interested in the navigation of the coast, to fix on the distance 

 to which they might ultimately insist on the right of protec- 

 tion." It was stated that the greatest distance to which any 

 "respectable assent" among nations had ever been given was 

 the range of vision, which was estimated at upwards of twenty 

 miles, and the smallest distance claimed by any nation was 

 " the utmost range of a cannon-ball, usually stated at one sea 

 league." l Besides the extent of sea referred to, the bays and 

 rivers were held by usage and the law of nations to be terri- 

 torial, with immunity from belligerent operations. This was 

 well shown in the same year, when the United States claimed 

 that the whole of Delaware Bay and New Jersey, an arm of 

 the sea about fifty English miles in length and a little over 

 eleven miles wide at the entrance, was under their territorial 

 jurisdiction, and ordered the restitution of a British vessel, the 

 Grange, which had been captured there by a French frigate, 

 L' Ambuscade ; and this was done notwithstanding the protest 

 of the French Minister that Delaware Bay was open sea and 

 not under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States. The 

 American Government rested its action on the law of nations, 

 and declared that they were entitled to attach to their coasts 

 an extent of sea beyond the reach of cannon-shot a claim 

 which showed that the three-mile limit had not been adopted 

 as an inflexible rule. 2 



Next year the United States Congress passed a law author- 

 ising the district courts to take cognisance of all captures 

 made within one marine league of the American shores; 3 

 but in the treaty concluded between Great Britain and the 

 United States in the same year, it is interesting to observe 

 that the less precise limit of gunshot was adopted, in the 

 same words as in the treaty of 1786 between Great Britain 



1 Wheaton, Elements, 723 ; President's Proclamation of Neutrality, April 22, 

 1793 ; Mr Jefferson, Secretary of State, to M. Genet, 8th Nov. 1793 ; Wharton's 

 Digest of the International Law of the United States, i. c. 2, s. 32. 



2 Opinion of Attorney -General, 14th May 1793 ; Letter of Sec. of State to the 

 French Minister, 15th May 1793 ; Kent's Commentaries, i. 30. Delaware Bay, it 

 may be said, has always been, and still is, claimed as territorial water by the 

 United States. Vide reply of Government of United States to Observations of 

 British Government on Draft Treaty, 1887. Correspondence relative to the 

 Fisheries Question, 1887-1888. Parl. Papers (Canada], 1888, p. 70. 



3 Act of Congress, 5th June 1794, c. 50. Kent's Commentaries, 30. 



