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ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 283 



be at war with any nation or nations which shall not have agreed to respect 

 the said special limit or line oj maritime jurisdiction herein agreed upon, such 

 contracting party shall have the right to stop or search any vessel beyond 

 the limit of a cannon-shot, or three marine miles from the said coast of the 

 neutral Power, for the purpose of ascertaining the nation to which such vessel 

 shall belong; and with respect to the ships and property of the nation or nations 

 not having agreed to respect the aforesaid line oj jurisdiction, the belligerent 

 Power shall exercise the same rights as if this article did not exist." 



That covers the whole ground on the balance of interests exhib- 

 ited in the letters of the negotiators, Lords Holland and Auckland, 

 as the result of the resistance of Great Britain under all the circum- 

 stances that existed at the time, to the urgency of the Americans. 

 As a restilt, they agreed upon the line of maritime jurisdiction which 

 is stated here, and that expressly excludes from the maritime juris- 

 diction of the two Powers the chambers between headlands. 



The President: In the text of Article 12 it is stated that this 

 disposition has been agreed upon "on accoimt of the pecuHar 

 circumstances belonging to those coasts." 



Senator Root: Yes. 



The President: Is it not possible that this passage "on account 

 of the peculiar circumstances belonging to the coasts " is evidence 

 that this is a specific provision concerning the open coast, and not 

 referring to the bays ? 



Senator Root: I could not think of any circumstances more 

 peculiar, as belonging to coasts, than the number, size, and character 

 of the bays which indent them. 



The Attorney-General: The shelving nature of the coast. 



The President: In the letter from Lord Holland and Lord 

 Auckland to Lord Howick, of the 14th November, 1806 (British 

 Case Appendix, p. 61), the fifth paragraph seems perhaps to have 

 some connection with Article 12: 



"The circumstance however on which the American commissioners have 

 chiefly relied is the shelving nature of their coast; and though from the east 

 end of Long Island northwards it does not deserve such a description they 

 allege that it is so broken with rocks as to oblige coasting vessels to keep at 

 a considerable distance from the land." 



