600 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



since a straight line from the south cape of Florida to the Missis- 

 sippi measures about 500 miles, and encloses a tract of sea as 

 much as 180 miles in breath. Kent adds that the Government 

 of the United States would certainly view with uneasiness, in 

 the case of war between other maritime Powers, the use of 

 the waters of the American coast, far beyond the reach of 

 cannon-shot, as cruising ground for belligerent purposes. 



Manning, an English publicist, writing a little later, 1 adopts 

 the usual opinion, stating that the distance to which the 

 special right of jurisdiction or the qualified dominion of a 

 state extends on the adjacent sea has been variously measured, 

 the most prevalent distances being those of a cannon-shot 

 or of a marine league from the shore. Heffter, a publicist of 

 high authority, asserting as incontestable the right of all 

 maritime nations, both for defence and for the protection of 

 their commercial and revenue interests, to establish an active 

 surveillance on the neighbouring sea, declares that for these 

 purposes a state has the power of fixing, according to the 

 particular conditions of its coasts and waters, the distance 

 to which its rights shall extend. A common usage, he says, 

 has established the limit at the range of guns, a principle 

 sanctioned by the laws and regulations of many nations. But 

 he maintains with Vattel that the dominion of the state in 

 the adjacent sea extends as far as it is necessary for its 

 security, and it can enforce it, qualifying this declaration, 

 however, by adopting Rayneval's suggestion that the horizon 

 should be the extreme boundary of the territorial sea. In 

 his opinion the range of guns, although the principle commonly 

 adopted, affords no invariable basis, and the distance may 

 be fixed, at all events provisionally, by the laws of each 

 state : formerly, he adds, it included two leagues, and now 

 usually three marine miles. 2 



A much more restricted view of the extent of the territo- 

 rial sea was taken by Reddie, an English writer whose work 



1 Commentaries on the Law of Nations, p. 119. 1839. 



2 Das Europaisches VoTkerrecht der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1844. Le Droit Interna- 

 tional de I'Europe, Paris, 1873, s. 75. " La ligne de la porte'e du canon elle-meme, 

 bien qu'elle soit regardee comme de droit commun, ne presente aucune base in- 

 variable et peut-etre fixe'e par les lois de chaque Etat, du moins d'une maniere 

 provisoire." 



