HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA 575 



and France. The twenty-fifth article of this treaty provided 

 that neither Government should permit the ships or goods be- 

 longing to the citizens or subjects of the other " to be taken 

 within cannon-shot of the coast, nor in any of the bays, ports, 

 or rivers of their territories, by ships of war, or others, having 

 commissions from any prince, republic, or state whatever." l 



It may be mentioned here that the claims which have 

 been put forward by the United States as to the extent of 

 their territorial or jurisdictional waters have varied greatly 

 on different occasions. The above declaration to M. Genet 

 was, for instance, repudiated by President Jefferson as estab- 

 lishing a fixed limit ; and it was claimed that the limit of 

 neutrality should extend " to the Gulf Stream, which was 

 a natural boundary (!), and within which we ought not to 

 suffer any hostility to be committed." 2 On another occasion, 

 in a controversy about the right of jurisdiction, they claimed 

 that the extent of neutral immunity off the American coast 

 ought at least to correspond with the claims maintained by 

 Great Britain around her own territory, and that no belligerent 

 rights should be exercised within "the chambers formed by 

 headlands, or anywhere at sea within the distance of four 

 leagues, or from a right line from one headland to another." 3 

 The American Government endeavoured to obtain from 

 England in the same year the recognition of a territorial 

 belt six miles in breadth, and in the draft treaty proposed 

 in 1807 a distance of five miles was in reality specified. 4 



1 Wheaton, Elements, 724. 2 Wharton's Digest, i. c. 2. 



3 Mr Madison to Messrs Monroe and Pinckney, 17th May 1806. Kent, Com- 

 mentaries,, i. 31. 



4 Hall, A Treatise on International Law, Part II. c. ii. s. 2. 



