1900 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



over all bays and arms of the sea, from the river St. Croix to the Dela- 

 ware Bay. 



Again, in the report of the committee of Congress (November 17, 

 1807) on the affair of the Little Belt, it was maintained that the British 

 squadron had anchored within the capes of Chesapeake Bay and icithin 

 the acknowledged jurisdiction of the United States, whilst it seems that the 

 alleged violation of territory had taken place at a distance of three leagues 

 from Cape Henry, the southern headland of the Bay of Chesapeake. 



This assertion of jurisdiction was in accordance with the instructions 

 sent May 17, 1806, from Mr. Madison to Messrs. Monroe and Pinckuey, 

 according to which it was to be insisted that the extent of the neutral 

 immunity should correspond with the claims maintained by Great Brit- 

 ain around her own territory ; and that no belligerent right should be 

 exercised within the chambers formed by headlands, or anywhere at sea, 

 within the distance of four leagues, or from a right line from one headland 

 to another. 



What those claims were, as maintained by Great Britain, may be 

 gathered from the doctrine laid down by Sir Leoline Jenkins in his 

 report to His Majesty in Council December 5, 1665 (Life of Sir Leoline 

 Jenkins, vol, ii, p. 726), in the case of an Ostend vessel having been cap- 

 tured by a Portuguese privateer about four leagues west of Dover, and 

 two Dutch leagues from the English shore, in which case a question 

 arose whether the vessel had been taken within one of the King of En- 

 gland's chambers, i. e., within the line (a straight one having been drawn) 

 from the South Foreland to Dungeness Point, on which supposition she 

 would have been under the protection and safeguard of the English 

 Crown. 



The same eminent judge, in another report to the King in Council 

 (vol. ii, p. 732), speaks of one of those recesses commonly called "Your 

 Majesty's chambers," being bounded by a straight line drawn from 

 Dunemore, in the Isle of Wight, to Portland (according to the account 

 given of it to the admiralty in 1664). He says, "It grows very narrow 

 westward, and is scarce in any place four leaguevS broad, I mean from 

 any point of this imaginary line to the opposite English shore." 



And in a third report, October 11, 1675 (vol. ii, p. 780), he gives his 

 opinion that a Hamburg vessel captured by a French privateer should 

 be set free, upon a full and clear proof that she was within one of " Your 

 Majesty's chambers at the time of seizure, which the Hamburger in 

 his first memorial sets forth as being eight leagues at sea over against 

 Harwich." 



This doctrine is fully in accordance with the text-books. Thus Azuni 

 writes in his Droit Maritime de V Europe, chap, ii, art. 3, 3: "Les obli- 

 gations relatives aux ports sont e~galernent applicables aux baies et aux 

 golfes, attendu qu'ils font aussi partie de la souverainete" du gouverne- 

 uient dans la domination et le territoire duquel ils sont place's, et qui les 

 tient 6galernent sous sa sauvegarde: en consequence, 1'asile accorde" 

 dans une baie ou dans un golfe, n'est pas moins inviolable que celui d'un 

 port, et tout attentat comtnis dans 1'un comme dans 1'autre, doit etre 

 regarde" comme une violation manifeste du droit des gens." Valin, Com- 

 ment, a VOrdonnance de France, tit. "Des Kades," art. i, may be cited 

 in confirmation of this doctrine. 



The words used in the 1st Article of the Convention of 1818 are, "On 

 the coast of Newfoundland, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, on 

 the coasts, bays, harbors, and creeks from Mount Joy," &c. 



The word "on" is thus used as applicable to shores, coasts, bays, 

 creeks, and harbors, and the United States renounce any liberty to take, 



