562 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



sea in accordance with Bynkershoek's teaching becomes more 

 manifest, particularly in those which treat specially of the rights 

 of neutrals. Hiibner, who was assessor in the Consistorial Court 

 at Copenhagen, treating of this subject, said with reference to 

 Bynkershoek's doctrine that it was evident the parts of the 

 adjacent sea belonged to the master of the country, as accessory 

 to the land, first, " because it is in his power to take possession 

 and to maintain it by means of forts and batteries which he is 

 able to erect on the shore " ; and, secondly, because the waters 

 serve as a rampart to the land. 1 



Valin, a French writer of authority, introduced another 

 principle in combination with that of the range of guns. 

 In his commentary on the marine ordinance of Louis XIV., 

 first published in 1760, he stated that the rule that the 

 adjacent sea within the reach of guns from the coast is 

 under the dominion of the neighbouring state was univer- 

 sally recognised, the alternative distance which he gave being 

 two leagues the same as given by Abreu. But he thought 

 that the depth of the water ought also to be taken into 

 account, and that the sea up to the point at which the bottom 

 ceased to be reached by a sounding-line pertained to the adjoin- 

 ing coast an idea vague and impracticable. 2 



In 1778, Moser, a councillor of state in Denmark, adopted 

 Bynkershoek's doctrine, declaring that the sea adjacent to 

 the coast of a country was, according to the law of nations, 



1 De la Saisie des Bdtimens Neutres, La Haye, 1759, torn. i. Part I. c. iii. s. 5, 

 p. 57. 



2 Nouveau Commcntaire sur I'Ordonnancc de la Marine du mois d'Aofit 1681, 

 Uochelle, 1766, t. ii. Liv. v. tit. i. pp. 687, 688. "Jusqu'a la distance de deux 

 lieues, et avec cette restriction encore, la iner est done du domaine du souverain 

 de la cote voisine ; et cela que 1'on puisse y prendre fond avec la sonde, ou non. II 

 est juste au reste d'user de cette methode en faveur des Etats dont les cotes sont 

 si escarpees, que des le bord on ne peut trouver le fond ; mais cela n'empeche pas 

 que le domaine de la mer, quant a la jurisdiction et h, la peche, ne puisse s'etendre 

 au delh, ; soit en vertu des traites de navigation et de commerce, soit par la regie 

 ci-dessus etablie qui continue le domaine jusq'ou la sonde peut prendre fond, ou 

 jusqu'a la portee du canon, ce qui est aujourd'hui la regie umversellemeut re- 

 connue." Lawrence, in his annotated edition of Wheaton's Elements of Interna- 

 tional Law, Part II. c. iv. s. 6 (1864), makes a curious blunder in regard to the 

 limit proposed by Valin, who, he says, " proposed to fix it according to the sound 

 of a cannon, or as far as the ball would reach." The authority Valin gives for the 

 statement that the rule was universally recognised is Journal de Commerce, Mai 

 1759, p. 40. 



