HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA 559 



range of guns on shore ; if seized by the enemy there, they 

 require to be restored. 1 This was the ordinary rule in regard 

 to neutrality ; but with regard to the question of sovereignty 

 in the neighbouring sea, Casaregi followed preceding Italian 

 jurists in assigning a space of one hundred miles from the 

 coast for civil and criminal jurisdiction, with the power of 

 levying tolls and dues from passing ships, and even of pro- 

 hibiting or permitting navigation. 



A little later a Spanish writer, Abreu y Bertodano, in a 

 work on the law of maritime prize, 2 held that it was unlawful 

 for cruisers to attack the enemy's vessels in the seas adjacent 

 to the coast of a neutral within a distance of two leagues from 

 the shore, or within the reach of a cannon-shot from it. He 

 stated that no European Power had asserted the dominion of 

 the sea with more heat and boldness than Great Britain, and 

 yet by Act of Parliament the visitation of ships by the coast- 

 guard was restricted to two leagues from the coast, which was 

 as much as could reasonably be claimed. 3 But this author also 

 followed the Italian rule that jurisdiction, including the levy- 

 ing of tolls, &c., was not limited to the coast waters, but 

 extended for at least a hundred miles from the shore, and 

 said that this was in agreement with the teaching of the 

 lawyers of all nations. 4 



Wolff', who wrote on the law of nations about the same time, 

 appears rather to have followed the opinions of Puffendorf . He 

 argued that the use of the sea next the shore, for fishing and 

 the collection of things that grow on it, was not inexhaustible, 

 nor its use for navigation always innocuous ; and since it 

 served as a protection for the adjoining state, it was reasonable 

 that it should be under the dominion of that state. The 

 inhabitants of the shores had therefore the right to occupy 



1 " Naves extera: dicuntur esse sub protectione illius principis, cujus mare navi- 

 gant, quando reperiuntur intra portus illius, aut in mari, ita vicino, ut illuc tor- 

 menta, bellica adigi possent. Et si depnedentur ab inimicis, de jure restituendte 

 sunt. " 



2 Tratado juridico-politico, sobre prcssas de mar, y calidades, que deben concurrir 

 para hacerse feyitimamente cl Corso, Part I. c. v. Cadiz, 1746. 



3 " No podnt con razon pretender mas extension de sus Costas, que las dos 

 leguas." 



4 " Y circunda en el espacio & lo menos de cien millas en recto : lo qua! es uua 

 inf alible, y conforme tradicion de los Letrados de todas las Naciones." 



