AKGUMENT OF CHARLES B. WAKREN. 1087 



" The distance between the headlands at the mouth of Buzzard's 

 Bay, viz. at Westport in the county of Bristol on the one side, and the 

 island of Cuttyhunk. the most southerly of the chain of islands lying 

 to the eastward of Buzzard's Bay, and known as the Elizabeth 

 Islands, in the county of Dukes County, on the other side, was more 

 than one and less than two marine leagues; and that the distance 

 across said bay at the point where the acts of the defendant were done 

 is more than two marine leagues, and the opposite points are in dif- 

 ferent counties." 



The decision, at p. 240, commented on the Conception Bay Case 

 the Newfoundland Case: 



" Apparently he was of opinion that, by most of the text writers 

 on international law, Conception Bay would be excluded from the 

 territory of Newfoundland, and the part of the Bristol Channel 

 which in Regina v. Cunningham was decided to be in the county of 

 Glamorgan would be excluded from the territory of Great Britain; 

 but he decides that Conception Bay is a part of the territory of New- 

 foundland, because the British Government has exercised exclusive 

 dominion over it, with the acquiescence of other nations, and it has 

 been declared by act of Parliament ' to be part of the British terri- 

 tory, and part of the country made subject to the Legislature of 

 Newfoundland.' " 



I shall not pause to take up the discussion of the Conception Bay 

 Case, because, when the authorities on the law applicable to Question 

 5 are taken up, the Conception Bay Case will be commented upon 

 and the position of the United States as to that Case will be stated. 

 This may, however, be said, that the United States never acquiesced 

 in the assertion of exclusive jurisdiction over Conception Bay by 

 Great Britain. Then the opinion continues at p. 240 : 



655 "We regard it as established that, as between nations, the 

 minimum limit of the territorial jurisdiction of a nation over 

 tide waters is a marine league from its coast, and that bays wholly 

 within its territory not exceeding two marine leagues in width at the 

 mouth are within this limit, and that included in this territorial juris- 

 diction is the right of control over fisheries, whether the fish be 

 migratory, free-swimming fish, or free-moving fish like lobsters, or 

 fish attached to or imbedded in the soil." 



I refer next to an Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts for the 

 purpose of showing the nature of the laws passed by the various 

 States of the United States. It was to Acts of this nature that Mr. 

 Jefferson referred. The statute is found on p. 640 of the Acts and 

 Resolves of the State of Massachusetts, Extra Session 1859 : 



" The territorial limits of this Commonwealth extend one marine 

 league from its seashore at low-water mark. When an inlet or arm 

 of the sea does not exceed two marine leagues in width between its 

 headlands, a straight line from one headland to the other is declared 

 to be equivalent to the shore line. The boundaries of counties bor- 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 10 13 



