86 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



Kitchener, is now regarded as a good source of title. A question 

 which affected the title to a great portion of the Dominion of 

 Canada was founded on discovery, and seemed at first to be merely 

 a dispute between rival fur companies. 



Captain Gray, from whom the Americans claim title to a large 

 portion of our North-west Territories and British Columbia, was the 

 uncommissioned agent of a fur company, while Captain Vancouver, 

 upon whose discoveries the British claim was based, assumed pos- 

 session when he heard of Gray's doings. This question was settled 

 by the treaty of Washington. 



Granted, however, discovery and occupation, what area of land 

 is affected by these acts ? Questions of this kind are arising every 

 day in Africa, where it is not the malarial coast settlement that is 

 the bone of contention, but the trade of the rich Hinterland. It 

 seems now to be generally admitted that the occupation of the coast 

 carries with it a right to the whole territory drained by the rivers 

 which empty their waters within its lines. This is the British claim 

 to-day in China. " Spheres of influence " is the term used, and 

 to-day the whole of China is practically partitioned between Russia 

 and Great Britain, Germany and France. So far I have spoken 

 only of jurisdiction over land. Let us now look at sovereign rights 

 over water. 



States claim sovereign authority over portions of seas, over 

 lakes and rivers, and over the vessels belonging to them or their 

 subjects. One of the most bitterly disputed questions of interna- 

 tional law was the question of the Mare Clausuvi, or the Mare 

 Liberum, sea open to all or under the dominion of a particular 

 power. 



It would be beyond the scope of a paper of this kind to trace 

 the growth of the law on this point. Britain claimed jurisdiction 

 from the North Sea to the Bay of Biscay. As early as the reign of 

 King John, the ordinance of Hastings enacted that "if a Heutenant 

 of the King do encounter upon the sea any ships that will not strike 

 or veil their bonnets at his commandment, he will fight against 

 them, take them, and forfeit their goods." 



The Adriatic, the Gulf of Genoa, the North Sea, and the Baltic 

 were, until recently, all closed and under authority, and no later than 

 the other day do we hear of the United States claiming Behring Sea 



