mz 



wmt 



^mmmmmmm^ss?^ 



' I 



!i 



ci ;. 



% 



til 



100 



states V. Cirnsii (5 Mason, page 300) : " Tliat swell parts of rivers, arms, and creeks 

 of sea, arc (locnu"! to hv wiiliin the bodies of coimtios, whore persons can sec from 



oio side lo (1k' oUr. : .' 



Tiiat tlie Jul ispruuir.co oi' the Uiiilcd Stales l;,is reeoj^iii/ed tiie principle of 

 Courts of Municipal Law exercisiniv jurisdiction over bays at a distance more than 

 three miles IVom tlir shore, is :;howii by liie decision of the Supreme Court in the 

 case of Church r. lliihhanl (2 Cranch's Rrpurh, |)ai',e iS7). In this case an 

 American lirigantiiie, ih(> " \ur()ra," when at anchor in the I5ay of Para on the 

 coast 1)1' Ura/.il, and four or live ieai^iies from Cape l*a\os. v\as vci/cd and condemned 

 by the P()rluf;esc authorities for a breach of the laws ol Portugal on a matter of 

 illicit trade. Chief Justice Marshall, in delivering;' the oi)inion of the Court, said— 

 '' Xotliing is to be drawn from the laws or usages of nations, wiiich proves that 

 the sei/.ure of tiio 'Aurora' by the Portuguese Ciovcrnment was an act of lawless 

 violence." 



The same luiniij)!;- was also involved in tlu' opinion of thi- Attorney-General 

 of the Uiuted States upon tl;o sei/.ure of the Jiritish vessel "Crange" by a. French 

 frigate, wiliiin the I'ay of Delawaro, and wiiich was accordingly returned to the 

 owners. In his Report to the United Slates' (iovernmcnt (l4th May, 1793), the 

 Attorney-Cieneral ol e-rvcd "that the • (iran.'i(^' was arrested in the Delaware, 

 within Ilic capes, hel'oie .;he had '•''•■H'iied liie sea," that is, in that part of the waters 

 of the Delawiire which is called tlif Htnj of Delaware, and which crtendu lo a 

 dislniirc of si.rlii utiles irit'iiii the cajxs. It is worthy of remark that the Bay of 

 Delaware is not within the body ci a county, its northern headland, Cape May, 

 belonging to the State of Ne\* Jersey in ])ro|iorty and jurisdiction, and its southern 

 headland, Ca|)e llenlopen, being part of tlie Stale of Delaware, yet the whole bay 

 was held to be American territory. 



Tiie ScUiie principle was also involved in the judgment of the Supreme Court of 

 the United States in the case of Martin and others r. Waddell (Ki Pctcr'ii lirports, 

 307), in wliicli it was agreed on all sides that the prerogative of the Crown, prior to 

 the American Rvvolution, cMendod over all bays and arms of the sea, from the 

 River St, Croi.v to the Delaware Hay. 



Again, in the Report of the Committee of Congress (November 17, 1807) on the 

 adair of tlie IJlile Helt, it was maintained lliat the British squadron had anchored 

 within the cn/n's of Clirsapeakc lltiy and vitliin the ucknowlcdyed jurisdiction of the 

 United States, whilst it seems that the alles"^d violation of territory had taken 

 nlaee I't a distance of three leagues from Cape Henry, the southern headiand of the 

 Bay of Chesapeake. 



This assertion orjnrisdietion w.'is in accordance with the instructions sent,May 

 17, lSo(), from .Mr, ]\Iadison to Messrs. Monroe and Pinekney, according to which it 

 was to be insisted that the extent of the iienti'al immunity should correspond with 

 the claims mainl.'iined by Creat Britain around her own territory; and that no 

 belligerent right should be exerci-scd within the chambers formed by headlands, or 

 anywhere at sea, within the distance of four leagues, or from a right line from one 

 headland lo another. 



What those claims were, as maintained by Great Britain, may be gathered 

 from the doctrine laid down by Sir Leoline Jenkins in his Report to llis Majesty in 

 Council, December a, 1()05 (Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins, vol. ii, |)age 720) in the case 

 of an Ostend vessel having been captunnl by a Portuguese privateer, about four 

 leagues west of Dover, and two Dutch leagues from the iMiglish shore, in which 

 ease a cpiestion arose whether the vessel had been taken within one of the King of 

 Kiigland's ehainiiers, /. c, within tin" line (a straiglit one having Ijeen drawn) from 

 the South Korehuul t:^ Dungeness Point, on which supposition siie wtadd have been 

 under the |)rotection and safeguard of the Knglish C'rowii. 



The same eminenl Judge, in another Report to the King in Council (vol. ii, page 

 732), speaks of one of those recesse.; commonly called '"your Majesty's chambers," 

 being bounded b\ a straight line drawn from Dunemorc, in the Isle of Wight, to 

 Portlanfl (according to tlic account given of it to the Ailmiralty in 1664). He says, 

 " It grows very narrow westward, and is scarce in any place four leagues broad, I 

 mean from any point of this imaginary line to the opjiosite English shore." 



And in ii third Uepoii. Ociohf r 1 1, Kir.'i (vol. ii, page 78!lj, lie gi\es his opinion 

 that a llaniiiuig vessel ca|)Uired In a Kreiich piivalcer should be set free, upon a 

 full and clear | roof that she was within one ol' '• your Majesty's chambers at the 

 time of sei/.ure, which the lland)iirglier in his lirsl memorial sets forth as being 

 eight leagues at sea over against Harwich.'' 



\i 



I 







