570 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the following year on the same subject is couched in equally 

 general terms. 1 



We find the same want of definition in an edict of the 

 King of the Two Sicilies in the same year, which speaks 

 only of the accustomed rules being observed in his " ports, 

 coasts, and adjacent seas." 2 But in corresponding pro- 

 clamations issued at the same time by the Grand Duke of 

 Tuscany, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Venice, and 

 the Pope, the range of guns is expressly mentioned as deter- 

 mining the boundary of their territorial waters in respect to 

 neutrality. The Grand Duke prohibited all acts of hostility in 

 the ports or coasts of Leghorn, within certain places specified, 

 and in the seas adjacent to all his other ports, castles, or coasts 

 within gunshot of the shore. 3 With respect to Civita Vecchia, 

 Ancona, and his other territories, the Pope prohibited, " accord- 

 ing to the common usage of nations," all acts of hostility or 

 superiority between belligerents there or in the adjacent seas, 

 " or generally within the range of guns from the shore " ; 4 

 while the Genoese edict forbade all acts of hostility between 

 belligerents "in the ports, gulfs, and coasts, within range of 

 guns," 5 and contained particular rules for carrying the prohibi- 

 tion into effect. Thus, if such an act of hostility should be 

 committed within range of cannon, a shot was first to be fired 

 into the air, or to a distance from the vessel or vessels violating 

 the neutrality, unless there was risk of damage to other vessels, 

 in which case a blank shot was to be fired. If this did not put 

 a stop to the transgression, the offenders were to be assailed 

 with shot and musketry. In places where cannon were not 



1 21st Nov. 1777 ; 9th May 1778. Martens, Recueil, iii. 16, 18. In Kent's Com- 

 mentaries on American Law, i. 118 (ed. 1884), it is said (apparently on the author- 

 ity of Sparks' Diplomatic Correspondence, ii. 110) that the Commissioners, in their 

 circular letter of 1777 to the commanders of American armed vessels. " carried very 

 far the extension of neutral protection when they applied it indiscriminately to all 

 captures within sight of a neutral coast." There is nothing of this in the docu- 

 ment given by Martens. 



2 19th Sept. 1778. Op. cit., i. 47. 



3 1st Aug. 1778. "E ne' mari adjacenti agli altri porti, scali, torri, e spiagge 

 del Gran Ducato non potra usarsi atto veruno di ostilita nella distanza, che potreblie 

 circoscriversi da un tiro di cannone. " Op. cit., 24. 



4 4th March 1779. "Ne generalmente dentro la distanza di un tiro di cannone 

 da terra." Op. cit., i. 52. 



3 1st July 1779. "Nei porti, golfi, e spiagge del nostro dominio nella distanza, 

 che potrebbe circonscriversi da un tiro di cannone." Op. cit., 64. 



