OPINIONS OF RECENT PUBLICISTS 681 



moreover, for this process to be continued and extended, as 

 is shown by the recent treaty between Great Britain and 

 Denmark concerning the ocean around Iceland and the 

 Faroes, and the action of the British Government respecting 

 the six-mile limit on the coasts of Spain and Portugal. It 

 is possible, and indeed likely, that the Spanish and Portuguese 

 Governments have protested against the infringement of what 

 they regard as their just rights ; but if they are unable or 

 unwilling to maintain them, and the three-mile limit comes 

 to be the only one observed on their coasts, the usage will 

 settle the matter in the course of time. Up to the present, 

 however, Norway and Sweden have very justly resisted all 

 attempts to impose on them the ordinary limit and bring 

 them into line with other Powers, and they have successfully 

 caused their wider bounds to be respected. The diversity 

 in practice between the Iberian and Scandinavian states and 

 the other states of Europe may be traced to the modes by 

 which the limits were evolved. In the former case, the 

 boundaries were fixed in the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, without special reference to the range of the guns 

 of the time. The three-mile zone, on the other hand, was 

 developed early in last century from the doctrine of Bynkers- 

 hoek, three miles being then looked upon as approximately 

 the range of cannon. 



The general adoption of this limit, as previously said, was 

 due in great measure to the preponderating influence of 

 Great Britain and America in maritime affairs, the lesser 

 states following their example, willingly or with reluctance. 

 It is not too much to say, indeed, that the three-mile 

 boundary in its origin and development is an Anglo-American 

 doctrine, its authors being Washington and Lord Stowell. 

 It is thus of interest to consider the opinions of modern 

 writers on international law on the question, and to see 

 how far they agree with or differ from their predecessors, 

 whose opinions have been previously passed under review. 

 It will be found that, considering the extent to which the 

 three-mile limit has been actually applied in practice, the 

 writers who accept it as the established rule in international 

 law are singularly few, and are for the most part English 

 or American. It will be also noticed how extremely loose 



