1824 NOBTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



is saying only that which common sense suggests and what inter- 

 national law maintained at that time, and particularly in those places. 

 Now, the next authority to whom I wish to refer is G. F. von Mar- 

 tens, 1789. I think my learned friend read this, but perhaps I may 

 be forgiven for going over his ground a little here and there. Sec- 

 tion 5 : 



"A nation may occupy, and extend its dominion, beyond the dis- 

 tance mentioned in the last section " 



That is beyond the 3 leagues 



" either on rivers, lakes, bays, straits, or the ocean ; and such dominion 

 may, if the national security requires it, be maintained by a fleet of 

 armed vessels." 



This, again, I think, is rational and corresponds with the facts of 

 life. 



" The empire of a nation on the seas, may extend as far as it has been 

 acknowledged to extend by the consent of other nations, and beyond 

 the boundary of its property. It remains, then, to be considered, 

 whether or not there are such extended limits on the European seas, 

 acknowledged to be the property, or under the dominion, of such or 

 such particular nation. Among the bays, straits, and gulphs there are 

 some which are generally acknowledged to be free; there are others, 

 which are looked upon as under the dominion, and, in part, even the 

 property of the masters of the coast; and there are others, the prop- 

 erty and dominion of which are still in dispute." 



1103 I venture to submit that these propositions here laid down 

 by von Martens were probably well understood by the diplo- 

 matists of that day. If you want to be acknowledged as the posses- 

 sor of a bay you must claim it, and you must secure the assent of 

 those who are directly concerned. Nobody cared a button what 

 Great Britain claimed in North America except France, and, per- 

 haps, Spain. It was nothing to the other great Powers of Europe. 

 They had enough on their hands without troubling about British 

 North America. So that, the only Powers concerned acknowledged 

 the territorality of those bays, and then, when the parties sat down to 

 make the treaty of 1783, they might very well have said : There are 

 authorities, like von Martens, who think that some bays are terri- 

 torial, and some are not ; we will make that quite clear ; we will make 

 our treaty apply to all bays and that is what they did. In order 

 that there might be no dispute as to whether some of the bays were 

 to be treated as territorial, and some were not, they spoke of bays 

 generally. They did not say " all bays " in the treaty of 1783. but 

 they did say " any bay," which is the same thing as " all bays," in the 

 treaty of 1818. It says, in the treaty of 1818, " within three miles of 

 any of the bays," which is the same thing as saying " within three 

 miles of all bays; " so that, in both 1783 and 1818, they use language 



