192 The Frederick G erring, Jr. 



miles seaward from the Gull Islands, as such a contention would 

 be at variance with the position taken by the State Department 

 at Washington, so far as concerns the eastern coast of North 

 America, and with the accepted authorities of international law. 



It is stated in a letter from Mr. Bayard, written on the 28th 

 May, 1886, as United States Secretary of State, to Mr. ]\Ianning, 

 then Secretary to the Treasury, and quoted in "Wharton's Inter- 

 national Law Digest, pages 107-9," that the position of the State 

 Department "has uniformly been that the sovereignty of the shore 

 does not, so far as territorial authority is concerned, extend be- 

 yond three miles from low water mark, and that the seaward 

 boundary of this zone of territorial waters follows the coast of 

 the mainland, extending where there are islands, so as to place 

 around such islands the same belt." 



"This necessarily excludes the position that the seaward 

 boundary is to be drawn from headland to headland, and makes 

 it follow closely, at a distance of three miles, the boundary of 

 the shore of the continent or of adjacent islands belonging to 

 the Continental Sovereign." 



"This position," Mr. Bayard adds "was not taken by the 

 Department speculatively, but advanced at periods when the ques- 

 tion of peace and war hung on the decision." 



The same view as to the extent of territorial jurisdiction is 

 held by His Majesty's Government and has been supported on 

 various occasions by the decisions of the British Courts. To one 

 of these I refer more specifically as emphasising this contention. 



In the case of the Anna, 5 Christopher Robinson's Ad- 

 miralty Reports, page 373, decided by Lord Stowell in 1805, the 

 ship under American colors with a cargo of logwood and about 

 thirteen thousand dollars ($13,000) on board, bound from the 

 Spanish Main to New Orleans, was captured by the Minerva, 

 2l British Privateer, near the mouth of the River Mississippi, and 

 a claim was made under the direction of the American Ambas- 

 sador for the ship and cargo as taken within the territory of the 

 United States at a distance of a mile and a half from the western 

 shore of one of the islands at the mouth of the principal entrance 

 of the Mississippi. The question raised was whether these islands 

 formed part of the territory of the United States, and the Court 

 had no difficulty, on reasoning which appears irresistible, in hold- 



