ARGUMENT OF STB. WTLLJA.M EOBSON. 1823 



however any public treatise in which that distance is determined in a 

 fixed manner : " 



So that here, Galiani, writing in 1782, the year before the treaty 

 we are construing, does not find that even on the open coast there is 

 anything by which the distance is fixed or determined. There is no 

 3 -mile limit yet. 



" and it would be difficult to say whether the jurisdiction over the 

 border of the seas should be rated among the favourable or unfavour- 

 able things and therefore be restricted or be enlarged." 



And now he comes to the suggestion of the 3 miles : 



" It seems to me reasonable however that without waiting to see 

 whether in point of fact the sovereign of the territory has constructed 

 such a tower or battery and of what calibre are the cannons he has set 

 up, the distance of three miles from shore should be fixed and given 

 once and for all as that which is surely the greatest that a ball or 

 bomb can be driven with the force of the powder so far discovered." 



Now, we have got the 3 miles. Does that 3 miles apply to the 

 coast of a bay? 



Here is what he says : 



" But in places where the land curves and opens into a bay or gulf, it 

 is accepted among the most civilized nations to imagine a line drawn 

 from point to point of that mainland or from the islands which pro- 

 ject beyond the promontories of the mainland and to regard as ter- 

 ritory all that gulf of the sea, even if the distances from the middle of 

 this to the surrounding coast should be on every side more than three 

 miles." 



Well, now, what does that mean ? There you have got in the year 

 you may almost call it the year of the treaty because the treaty, 

 though signed in 1783, was really settled in 1782 in the very year of 

 the treaty you have your latest international writer, following all 

 preceding international writers, saying you must not take for your 

 bay the same limit as you take for your coast. He puts it in clearer 

 language than anybody else does. He says: On your straight coast 

 you may take the distance of the strength of your cannon from your 

 shore or your fortress, but the moment the coast begins to curve new 

 considerations apply; and there he is in accord not only with all 

 those who precede him, but those who for many years follow him. 

 New considerations apply ; the 3-mile rule will not do. All I have to 

 do is to distinguish between the coast line, with its 3-mile limit, and 

 bays, seeing that they are put in a separate category, and I then get 

 one step further in my answer to the point to which my attention was 

 directed by Dr. Lohman. That is the essential point before we get 

 to 1783, and when we are at 1783. I do not remember that anybody 

 has mentioned the 3-mile limit before. Galiani translates cannon- 

 shot into 3-mile limit, but he says that does not apply to bays, and he 



