you that I am now further instructed to make similar representations in the cases of the British Columbian vessels "Grace," "Dolphin," and "W. P. Sayward," seized lately by the United States' Revenue cutter "Richard Rush," and at the same time, as in the case of the "Onward," "Carolina," and "Thornton," to reserve all rights to compensation on behalf of the owners and crews.

I am also instructed to point out to you that, according to the deposition of the mate of the "W. P. Sayward," copy of which is inclosed, no seals had been taken by her crew in Behring's Sea as is alleged in the libels of information filed on behalf of the United States' District Attorney in the District Court of Alaska.

I am, &c.

Sir L. West to the Marquis of Salisbury.-(Received October 24.)

My Lord, Washington. October 14, 1887. I HAVE the honour to inclose to your Lordship herewith copy of the reply which I have received to my note of the 12th instant, copy of which was inclosed in my despatch of the 12th instant, respecting the seizure of the "Grace," "Dolphin," and "W. P. Sayward."

I have, &c. (Signed)

L. S. SACKVILLE WEST.

Sir.

Inclosure in No. 76.

Mr. Bayard to Sir L. West.

Department of State, Washington, October 13, 1887.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your note of yesterday in relation to the cases of the seizure of the British schooners "Onward," "Carolina," and "Thornton," in Behring's Sea, by United States' Revenue vessels in August 1886, and also your instructions to include by similar representations the cases of the British Columbian vessels "Grace," "Dolphin," and "W. P. Sayward," seized by the United States' Revenue authorities in Behring's Sea, with notification that Her Britannic Majesty's Government reserve all right. to compensation on behalf of the owners and crews of the above-mentioned vessels.

The affidavit of the mate of the "W. P. Sayward" has been read, and the facts therein stated will be at once investigated.

I have, &c.

Sir L. West to the Marquis of Salisbury.-(Received October 24.)

My Lord, Washington, October 14, 1887. I HAVE the honour to inclose to your Lordship herewith copies of the brief recently filed in the Court at Sitka by the counsel for the United States' Government which has appeared in the "New York Herald," as well as an article thereupon from that Journal.

I have, &c. (Signed)

L. S. SACKVILLE WEST.

Inclosure 1 in No. 77.

Extract from the "New York Herald," October 18, 1887.

Ottawa, Ontario, October 12, 1887.

THE Government here are in receipt of advices from Sitka which contain the brief which is understood to have been prepared at Washington and recently filed in

the Court at Sitka by Mr. A. K. Delaney, as counsel for the United States' Government.

The following is a verbatim copy of the brief:

"Case.

"The information in this case is based on Section 1956 of Chapter 3 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which provides that No person shall kill any otter, mink, martin, sable or fur seal, or other fur-bearing animal within the limits of Alaska Territory or in the waters thereof.'

"The offence is charged to have been committed 130 miles north of the Island of Ounalaska, and therefore in the main waters of that part of the Behring's Sea ceded by Russia to the United States by the Treaty of 1867. The defendants demur to the information on the ground

"1. That the Court has no jurisdiction over the defendants, the alleged offence having been committed beyond the limit of a marine league from the shores of Alaska.

"2. That the Act under which the defendants were arrested is unconstitutional in so far as it restricts the free navigation of the Behring's Sea for fishing and sealing purposes beyond the limits of a marine league from shore. The issue thus raised by the demurrer presents squarely the questions:

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(1.) The jurisdiction of the United States over Behring's Sea.

"(2.) The power of Congress to legislate concerning those waters.

"The Argument.

"The fate of the second of these propositions depends largely upon that of the first, for if the jurisdiction and dominion of the United States as to these waters be not sustained the restrictive Acts of Congress must fall, and if our jurisdiction shall be sustained small question can be made as to the power of Congress to regulate fishing and sealing within our own waters. The grave question, one important to all the nations of the civilized world, as well as to the United States and Great Britain, is 'the dominion of Behring's Sea.'

"The Three Mile Limit.

Concerning the doctrine of international law establishing what is known as the marine league belt, which extends the jurisdiction of a nation into adjacent seas for the distance of 1 marine league, or 3 miles from its shores, and following all the indentations and sinuosities of its coast, there is at this day no room for discussion. It must be accepted as the settled law of nations. It is sustained by the highest authorities, law-writers, and jurists. It has been sanctioned by the United States since the foundation of the Government. It was affirmed by Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, as early as 1793, and has been reaffirmed by his successors—Mr. Pickering, in 1796; Mr. Madison, in 1807; Mr. Webster, in 1842; Mr. Buchanan, in 1849; Mr. Seward, in 1862, 1863, and 1864; Mr. Fish, in 1875; Mr. Evarts, in 1879 and 1881; and Mr. Bayard, in 1886. (Wheaton's 'International Law,' vol. i, sec. 32, pp. 100 and 109.)

"Sanctioned thus by an unbroken line of precedents covering the first century of our national existence, the United States would not abandon this doctrine if they could; they could not if they would.

"Landlocked Seas.

"Well grounded as is this doctrine of the law of nations, it is no more firmly established as a part of the international code than that other principle which gives to a nation supremacy, jurisdiction, dominion over its own inland waters, gulfs, bays, and seas. If a sea is entirely inclosed by the territories of a nation, and has no other communication with the ocean than by a channel, of which that nation may take possession, it appears that such a sea is no less capable of being occupied and becoming property than the land, and it ought to follow the fate of the country that surrounds it. The Mediterranean in former times was absolutely inclosed within the territories of the Romans, and that people, by rendering themselves masters of the strait which joins it to the ocean might subject the Mediterranean to their Empire, and assume the dominion over it. They did not by such proceeding injure the rights of other nations, a particular sea being manifestly designed by nature for the use of the

countries and nations that surround it. (Vattel's Law of Nations,' pp. 129 and 130.)

"Chancellor Kent, in 1826, before the doctrine as to the marine league limit was as firmly established as it now is, says :

"It is difficult to draw any precise or determined conclusion amid the variety of opinions as to the distance a State may lawfully extend its exclusive dominion over the seas adjoining its territories and beyond those portions of the sca which are embraced by harbours, gulfs, bays, and estuaries, and over which its jurisdiction unquestionably extends.' (Kent, vol. i, p. 28.)

"Jurisdiction of States.

"It thus appears that, while in 1826 the limit of the marine belt was unsettled, the jurisdiction of a State over its inland waters was unquestioned.

"In the laws of nations bays are regarded as a part of the territory of the country when their dimensions and configurations are such as to show shat the nation occupying the coast also occupies the bay as a part of its territory.' (Manning's 'Law of Nations,' p. 120.)

"An inland sea or lake belongs to the State in which it is territorially situated. As illustrations, may be mentioned the inland lakes whose entire body is within the United States, and the Sea of Azof.' (Wheaton's 'International Law, vol. i, sec. 31.)

"Rivers and inland lakes and seas, when contained in a particular State, are subject to the Sovereign of such State.' (Idem, vol. iii, sec. 300.)

"Undoubtedly it is upon this principle of international law that our right to dominion over such vast inland waters as the great lakes, Boston Harbour, Long Island Sound, Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, Albemarle Sound, and the Bay of San Francisco rests. This country, in 1793, considered the whole of Delaware Bay to be within our territorial jurisdiction, and it rested its claim upon these authorities, which admit that gulfs, channels, and arms of the sea belong to the people within whose land they are encompassed.' (Kent's Com., vol. i, p. 528.)

"The Doctrine always asserted.

"It thus appears that our Government asserted this doctrine in its infancy. It was announced by Mr. Jefferson as Secretary of State and by the Attorney-General in 1793. Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State in 1796, reaffirms it, in his letter to the Governor of Virginia, in the following language: 'Our jurisdiction has been fixed to extend 3 geographical miles from our shores, with the exception of any waters or bays which are so landlocked as to be unquestionably within the jurisdiction of the States, be their extent what they may.' (Wheaton's International Law,' vol. i, sec. 32, pp. 2-100.)

"Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, to Mr. Jordan, in 1819, reiterates this rule in the following language: The exclusive jurisdiction of a nation extends to the ports, harbours, bays, mouths of rivers, and adjacent parts of the sea inclosed by headÎands.' (Idem, p. 101.)

"Mr. Seward, in the Senate in 1852, substantially enunciates the same doctrine by declaring that, if we relied alone upon the old rule that only those bays whose entrance from headland to headland do not exceed 6 miles are within the territorial jurisdiction of the adjoining nation, our dominion to all the larger and more important arms of the sea on both our Atlantic and Pacific coasts would have to be surrendered. Our right to jurisdiction over these rests with the rule of international law which gives a nation jurisdiction over waters embraced within its land dominion.

"It thus appears that from our earliest history, contemporaneously with our acceptance of the principle of the marine league belt and supported by the same high authorities is the assertion of the doctrine of our right to dominion over our inland waters under the Treaty of 1867, and on this rule of international law we base our claim to jurisdiction and dominion over the waters of the Behring's Sea. While it is, no doubt, true that a nation cannot by Treaty acquire dominion in contravention of the law of nations, it is none the less true that, whatever title or dominion our grantor, Russia, possessed under the law of nations at the time of the Treaty of Cession in 1867,

passed and now rightfully belongs to the United States. Having determined the law, we are next led to inquire as to whether Behring's Sea is an inland water or a part of the open ocean, and what was Russia's jurisdiction over it.

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Behring's Sea is an inland water. Beginning on the eastern coast of Asia, this body of water, formerly known as the Sea of Kamchatka, is bounded by the Peninsula of Kamchatka and Eastern Siberia to the Behring's Strait. From the American side of this strait the waters of the Behring's Sea wash the coast of the mainland of Alaska as far south as the Peninsula of Alaska. From the extremity of this peninsula, in a long, sweeping curve, the Aleutian Islands stretch in a continuous chain almost to the shores of Kamchatka, thus encasing the sea.

"Russia's Title and Dominion.

"It will not be denied that at the time the United States acquired the Territory of Alaska by the Treaty of 1867, the waters of the Behring's Sea washed only the shores of Russian territory. The territory on the Asiatic side she had possessed since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.' Her title to the other portions of those shores and her dominion over the waters of the Behring's Sea are based on 'discovery and settlement.'

"Possession and Supremacy.

"The right of a nation to acquire new territory by discovery and possession has been so universally recognized by the law of nations that a citation of authorities is scarcely necessary. Upon this subject the most eminent as well as the most conservative of authorities says: All mankind have an equal right to things that have not yet fallen into the possession of any one, and those things belong to the person who first takes possession of them. When, therefore, a nation finds a country uninhabited and without an owner, it may lawfully take possession of it, and after it has sufficiently made known its will in this respect it cannot be deprived of it by another nation.'

"Thus navigators going on voyages of discovery, furnished with a commission from their Sovereign, meeting islands or other lands in a desert state, have taken possession of thera in the name of their nation, and this title has been usually respected, provided it was soon followed by a real possession.' 'When a nation takes possession of a country to which no prior owner can lay claim, it is considered as acquiring the empire or sovereignty of it at the same time with the domain.' The whole space over which a nation extends its government becomes the seat of its jurisdiction and is called its territory.' (Vattel, p. 98.)

"Such being the law, we are led to inquire as to on what discoveries, possessions, and occupation Russia's right to dominion in North America is based.

"Historical Shetch-1725-1867.

"In 1725, under the commission of that wondrous combination of iron and energy, Peter the Great, an expedition was organized, crossed the continent from St. Petersburgh to Kamchatka, where a vessel was constructed, and in July 1728 sailed for explorations to the north and east. That vessel was the 'Gabriel.' Her master was Vitus Behring, a name destined to historical immortality. On the expedition Behring crossed the waters of the Sea of Kamchatka, discovered and named the Island St. Lawrence midway between which and the Asiatic mainland our boundary-line is laid down by the Treaty, and after passing through the straits which bear his name returned to St. Petersburgh.

"In 1733 a second expedition was organized under the auspices of the Government and the commission of Queen Anne, and with Behring, raised to the rank of Admiral, at its head, repeated the long and dreary journey across Siberia, and in June 1741 sailed for new discoveries. In July of that year Behring sighted the American continent, some authorities claim at the 58th degree of north latitude, others at the 50th degree. The latter is probably correct, as it rests on the authority of Stellar, who accompanied the expedition, and Behring undoubtedly sailed as far south along the American coast as the 45th parallel, in accordance with his instructions. But what is more pertinent to this inquiry, he discovered several of the Aleutian Islands and the Komanderoff group or couplet. On the larger of this couplet, which bears his name, the hardy navigator, after shipwreck, died on the 19th December, 1741.

"Russian Discovery.

"But the spirit of Russian discovery survived him, and from the starting point he began traders, hunters, and adventurers made their way from island to island until the whole Aleutian chain, and with it the mainland, was discovered. In 1743, 1745, 1747, and 1749 a Cossack sergeant named Bossof made four consecutive voyages from the mainland of Kamchatka to the Behring and Copper Islands in vessels of his own construction. In 1745 a sailor named Nevidchinof, who had served under Behring, crossed the channel which connects the North Pacific Ocean with the Behring's Sea and discovered the Islands of Attoo and Agatoo, the former of which now marks the western limit of our land dominion. In 1744 a small Russian merchant-vessel reached the Island of Atka and some of the smaller islands surrounding it.

"Ten years later Glottoff, in a ship belonging to an Okotsk merchant, advanced as far as the Island of Ounak, and subsequently discovered Ounalaska and the whole of that group of the Aleutian chain known as the Fox Islands. He made a Map of his explorations, which includes eight islands east of Ounalaska. In 1760 a Russian merchant, Adreian Tolstyk, landed on the Island of Adak, explored it and some of the surrounding islands, and made a report of his discoveries to the Russian Crown. This group was named after him, the Adreian Islands. The next year a ship belonging to a Russian merchant named Bechevin made the coast of the Alirska Peninsula, and in the autumn of 1762 Glottoff, who discovered Ounalaska and the Fox Group, reached the Island of Kodiak. In 1768 two captains of the Imperial Navy, Krenitzen and Levashoff, sailed from Kamchatha in two Government vessels, and the former passed the succeeding winter at Kodiak, and the latter at Ounalaska.

"Twenty-five years succeeding the death of Behring the spirit of discovery had planted the Russian ensign along the entire Aleutian chain, from Behring's Island to the mainland of the North American continent.

"Possession and occupation followed the footsteps of discovery, and settlements and trading posts were established at the more favourable points along the line. Expeditions, stimulated by the large remunerations of the fur traffic, were constantly fitted out at the ports along the shores of the Sea of Okotsk and the mouth of the Amoor River for voyages of trade and exploration in the new country. Lieutenant Elliot, in his Report on the seal islands, published with the Tenth Census of the United States, estimates that no fewer than twenty-five different Companies, with quite a fleet of small vessels, were thus employed as early as 1772. employed as early as 1772. Under the auspices of one of these Companies, Shekeloff, a merchant of Rylsk, founded the first permanent Settlement on the Island of Kodiak in 1784. From this point exploring expeditions were sent out, one of which crossed the strait between Kodiak and the mainland which bears Shekeloff's name, and explored the coast of the mainland as far as Cook's Inlet, upon the shores of which in 1786 a Settlement was established.

"Another pushed along the coast to Prince William Sound and Cape St. Elias, the latter of which was located by Behring in 1741. In 1788 another of Shekeloff's ships visited Prince William Sound, discovered Yakutat Bay, and made a thorough exploration of Cook's Inlet. In the meantime, in 1786, Gehrman Pribylov, a Muscovite ship's mate, sailed from Ounalaska in a small sloop called the "St. George," discovered the islands which bear his name, located in the heart of the Behring's Sea, and now far famed as the only seal rookeries in the known world.

"Baranoff's Mission

"In 1790 the Shekeloff Company placed at the head of all enterprises in the new country that restless spirit whose energies clinched Russia's dominion to her possessions in North America, Alexander Baranoff. Arriving at Kodiak, he changed the head-quarters of the Company to the harbour of St. Paul, where the village of that name now stands, and the next year one of his skippers passed round the extremity of the Alaska Peninsula and along the north-western coast to Bristol Bay, discovering Kvichak River and the Lake Llamna, and crossed the portage to the mouth of Cook's Inlet, thus finding the safest and quickest means of communication between Shekeloff Strait and the Behring's Sea.

"In 1794 Baranoff established a ship-yard at Resurrection Bay, on Prince William Sound. About this time the first missionaries of the Greek Church arrived, and