HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA 573 



ten leagues of the coasts of the Spanish dominions 1 that is to 

 say, within the same extent of sea as was expressed in the 

 treaty between France and Algeria a century earlier. 2 A few 

 years later the same limit of ten leagues was agreed to in a 

 treaty between Great Britain and Spain concerning fisheries 

 and navigation in certain parts of the Pacific. Disputes had 

 arisen with Spain concerning proceedings at Nootka Sound, 

 Vancouver ; and in a convention between the two Powers, signed 

 in 1790, it was agreed, inter alia, that British subjects should 

 not navigate or carry on their fishery within a distance of ten 

 sea leagues from any part of the coast already occupied by 

 Spain, the object being to prevent illegal trading with the 

 Spanish settlements. 3 



We thus perceive that towards the end of the eighteenth 

 century various maritime boundaries were assigned in partic- 

 ular places for particular purposes, and that many states looked 

 upon the limit of gunshot from an open coast as fixing the 

 extent of their neutral waters. But hitherto, with the exception 

 of the league limit prescribed by Denmark and Norway, which 

 had no avowed reference to the range of guns, and was in 

 reality equivalent to much more than three miles, no Power 

 had yet adopted one marine league as the equivalent of gunshot 

 from the shore. It appears that this step was first taken by 

 the United States of America, and it is of interest to note that 

 the three-mile limit was put forward tentatively, and, in a 

 manner, as a temporary expedient. When the war between 

 Great Britain and France broke out in 1793, the United States 

 found it necessary to define the extent of the line of territorial 

 protection which they claimed on their coast, in order to give 

 effect to their neutral rights and duties. Washington, who 

 was then President, instructed the executive officers to consider 

 the line restrained, for the time being, to the distance of one 

 sea league, or three geographical miles, from the shores, a dis- 

 tance which was said to be not more extensive than was 

 claimed by any other Power. This limit was adopted tenta- 

 tively, since the Government "did not propose, at that time, 

 and without amicable communication with the foreign Powers 



1 Martens, Recueil, iii. 763, 10th Sept. 1784, Art. vi. - See p. 527. 



3 Oct. 28, 1790, Art. iv. Martens, ibid. iv. 489, 497. Wheaton, Elements, 307 

 (ed. 1864). 



