JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 85 



term Sovereign State implies one not subject to any superior, and 

 no tribunal has power to bind them by judgments or decrees, or 

 coerce them if transgressors, and international law is only binding 

 on States in the same way that the ten commandments are binding 

 on a moral man. 



We notice then, that although there is no penalty attaching to 

 the breach of the law of nations, there has been created a law- 

 abiding sentiment which is the sanction of international law. One 

 of the first points which strikes the student is the principle of state 

 sovereignty ; this implies that it is nobody's vassal, but it also implies 

 more, that it is entitled to do within its dominions whatever act it 

 may think advisable to make it prosperous and strong, may adopt 

 any means it pleases for its defence, may follow any commercial 

 system it thinks most likely to promote its interest. 



Before the recognition of this principle of state sovereignty, no 

 act was more liable to cause war between nations than the erection 

 of fortresses or the adoption of a hostile tariff, but since its accept- 

 ance as a principle of international law it follows that it is no concern 

 of ours whether, for example, the United States adopts a Dingley 

 Tariff or passes an Alien Labor Law, though these measures do not 

 tend to promote friendliness between adjoining nations, because 

 they are essentially measures which a sovereign state may adopt to 

 further its interests. So, too, the defences at Halifax or Esquimalt 

 are no concern of the United States Congress, they concern only 

 the integrity of British possessions in America. So well established, 

 indeed, is this principle, and so healthy its growth, that the mother 

 country has freely allowed us to exercise a privilege once grudgingly 

 conceded to independent states, namely to place a duty on goods 

 manufactured in Great Britain. 



Another rule of international law is that a sovereign state has 

 unlimited power to occupy unappropriated territory. This is a very 

 fertile source of dispute. We have seen war clouds form and dis- 

 perse with such startling rapidity in the last few years that we have 

 had this rule impressed upon us with a force which none other has 

 attained. 



Discovery used to be sufficient to found a valid claim of title, 

 but now-a-days something more is required. 



A cairn of stones erected by a Rhodes, or a flag planted by a 



