QUESTION FIVE. 105 



capes of the Delaware, and from the south Cape of Florida to the 

 Mississippi." While Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and other inlets 

 of a like character are still considered as territorial waters, the gen- 

 eral policy of this Government, conforming itself to the opinion of 

 the civilised world, clearly tends towards the curtailment of any 

 unreasonable claim to jurisdiction outside of the marine league. 



ENGLISH WRITERS. 



The English authorities are in agreement with this view. 

 Phillimore" says 



118 Maritime territorial rights extend as a general rule over 



arms of the sea, bays, gulfs, estuaries, which are enclosed but 



not entirely surrounded by lands belonging to one and the same State. 



He disputes the proposition that the extent of sovereignty over 

 bays is subject to any definite limitation, and cites in support of his 

 view the argument of Mr. Dana, Counsel for the United States, de- 

 livered before the Halifax Fishery Commission in 1877. 6 Mr. Dana 

 contended that there was no agreement among jurists as to the bays 

 which might be treated as territorial waters. He said (App., p. 

 266) : 



The difficulties on that subject are inherent, and to my mind they 

 are insuperable. 



CONCEPTION BAY CASE. 



In the case decided by the Privy Council, to which reference has 

 already been made, Lord Blackburn, in giving the reasons of the 

 Committee, deals with the opinions of jurists on this point in the 

 following terms : 



Passing from the common law of England to the general law of 

 nations, as indicated by the text writers n international jurispru- 

 dence, we find an universal agreement that harbours, estuaries, and 

 bays landlocked belonged to the territory of the nation which pos- 

 sesses the shores round them, but no agreement as to what is the rule 

 to determine what is " bay " for this purpose. 



It seems generally agreed that where the configuration and dimen- 

 sions of the bay are such as to show that the nation occupying the 

 adjoining coasts also occupies the bay it is part of the territory; 

 and with this idea most of the writers on the subject refer to de- 

 fensibility from the shore as the test of occupation; some suggest- 

 ing therefore a width of one cannon-shot from shore to shore, or 

 3 miles; some a cannon-shot from each shore, or 6 miles; some an 

 arbitrary distance of 10 miles. All of these are rules which, if 

 adopted, would exclude Conception Bay from the territory of New- 



a International Law (3rd eel), vol. 1, p. 284. 

 6 Halifax Commission, 3877, pp. 1663, 1664. 



"Direct U. S. Cable Co. and Anglo-Am. Tel. Co., 1877, L. R., 2 A. C., pp. 

 419, 420. 



