AEGUMENT OF ELIHU BOOT. 2029 



treaties, so that the world became accustomed to that arrangement 

 of the rights of trade, and finally it became the universal custom. 



Sir Robert Finlay also instances, as furnishing an analogy upon 

 which we are to assume that the right of regulation existed, rivers 

 and canals ; and he asked who would say when the right to navigate 

 a river or a canal is given, that it is not to be under the rules and 

 regulations of the country in which the river or canal is. What rivers 

 and canals? It is better to answer such a question as that with ref- 

 erence to the rights that are granted. Is there any universal custom 

 under which rights to navigate rivers granted by one nation to 

 another by treaty without any express reservation of the right to 

 regulate the navigation, imply such a reservation ? Is there any gen- 

 eral custom to that effect ? I know of none. Where will my learned 

 friend find the rivers? The rivers of Europe are open to navigation 

 under the provisions of the Congress of Vienna of 1815 that great 

 landmark. And in that treaty there was a special and most elaborate 

 series of provisions for the joint regulation of these rivers, with 

 special reference to the convenience and the rights of the riparian 

 States. 



You will find quite readily in the rivers of Europe the basis for a 

 supposition that the rights of a State navigating a river which passes 

 through the territory of another State are subject to regulations; 

 but it is the regulation specifically provided by treaty and by the 

 commissioners provided for by treaty, as established by the Congress 

 of Vienna. 



In North America are there any such rivers ? We have here in the 

 record a reference to some. In the treaty of 1871, which is in the 

 British Case Appendix, p. 39, in article 26, a provision as to the navi- 

 gation of the River St. Lawrence, and of the rivers Yukon, Porcupine, 

 and Stikine, and those are with express reservations of the laws and 

 regulations of either country within its own territory, not incon- 

 sistent with the privilege of free navigation. In South America does 

 he find any such rivers? I know of none. The Argentine Republic 

 has made treaties under which she has thrown open the Parana and 

 the Uruguay to navigation, but she expressly reserves the right of 

 regulation, and the navigation is subject to the " regulations sanc- 

 tioned or which may hereafter be sanctioned by the national authority 

 of the Confederation." The Amazon is open to traffic not by treaty, 

 but by decree of Brazil and of Peru; and of course those decrees 

 afford unlimited opportunity for amendment, alteration, and repeal 

 by the country in whose territory the river is. Bolivia expressly 

 reserves the right of regulation on her water. The Orinoco is thrown 

 open by decree on the part of Venezuela. Where does my learned 

 friend find the rivers the navigation of which being subject to regu- 



