596 THE SOVEREIGNTY OP THE SEA 



dealt with the question was Rayneval, although his views 

 were also somewhat coloured by national prejudice. In 1803 

 he published a treatise on international law, 1 and in 1811 

 another on the liberty of the sea. 2 The latter for the most 

 part consists, like the work of Champagne, of an examination 

 of the writings of Grotius and Selden regarding the mare 

 liberum and the mare clausum, and also of the trenchant 

 little book of Jenkinson (Lord Liverpool) on the conduct of 

 the British Government in relation to neutrals. But in the 

 earlier treatise, which is still cited as an authority, Rayneval 

 expounded the law of nations respecting the territorial sea 

 with marked impartiality. On the general question of the 

 freedom of the sea and the appropriation of straits and 

 bays the usual opinions were expressed. He held that the sea 

 bathing the coasts of a country makes part of it; that the 

 security and tranquillity of the state require that it should be 

 held as a rampart against hostile surprise or violence and illicit 

 trading; and that the fisheries form a natural appendage to 

 this zone. With regard to the extent of sea that may be 

 appropriated, Rayneval stated that it had not been determined 

 by any uniform rule. Some, he said, carried it to a hundred 

 miles, or to sixty miles, from the coast, others only to three 

 miles, and others placed it at the distance of gunshot from the 

 shore. On the southern coast of France it had been fixed by 

 agreement at ten leagues with respect to the Barbary privateers. 

 Like Meadows and several preceding writers, he held it to be 

 desirable in the interests of the peace of nations that a 

 general rule, or at least particular rules clearly determined, 

 should be adopted on a matter so important and exposed 

 to such uncertainties and disputes. Authors, he said, had 

 usually fixed the distance at the range of cannon, but their 

 opinion was not founded on a general regulation nor on uniform 

 practice ; and the most equitable limit according to some was 

 the range of vision from the coast or the apparent horizon. 

 Rayneval was of opinion that within the territorial seas the 

 neighbouring state had the right to forbid navigation, except 

 in cases of stress and necessity a claim generally discarded, 

 though still made by Norway. Any liberty to foreigners to 

 fish along the coasts or in the bays of a country, he thought, 



1 Institutions du Droit de la Nature et des Gens. 2 De la Liberte" des Mers. 



