"This principle was completely established in the controversy which produced the war of 1755. Great Britain contended that she had a right, _founded on the discovery and possession of such territory_, to define its boundaries by given latitudes in grants to individuals, retaining the sovereignty to herself from sea to sea. This pretension on her part was opposed by France and Spain, and it was finally abandoned by Great Britain in the treaty of 1763, which established the Mississippi as the western boundary of her possessions. _It was opposed by France and Spain on the principle here insisted on, which of course gives it the highest possible sanction in the present case._"
To a similar purport Vattel, b. i., § 266, writes: "When a nation takes possession of a country, with a view to settle there, it takes possession of every thing included in it, as lands, lakes, rivers, &c." It is universally admitted, that when a nation takes possession of a country, she is considered to appropriate to herself all its natural appendages, such as lakes, rivers, &c., and it is perfectly intelligible, why the practice of European nations has sanctioned the exclusive title of the first settlers on any extent of sea-coast to the interior country within the limits of the coast which they have occupied, because their settlements bar the approach to the interior country, and other nations can have no right of way across the settlements of independent nations. In reference, however, to the extent of coast, which a nation may be presumed to have taken possession of by making a settlement in a vacant country, the well-known rule of _terræ dominium finitur, ubi finitur armorum vis_, might on the first thought suggest itself; but it has not been hitherto held that there is any analogy between jurisdiction over territory, and jurisdiction over adjoining seas: on the contrary, it was ruled in the Circuit Court of New York, 1825, in the case of Jackson v. Porter, 1 Paine, 457, "that under the second article of the treaty with Great Britain, the precincts and jurisdiction of a fort are not to be considered three miles in every direction, by analogy to the jurisdiction of a country over that portion of the sea surrounding its coasts, but they must be made out by proof." The comity of nations, however, has recognised in the case of settlements made in a vacant territory for the purpose of colonisation, a title in the settlers to such an extent of territory as it may fairly be presumed that they intend to cultivate (Vattel, b. i., § 81,) and the possession of which is essential either to the convenience or security of the settlement, without being inconvenient to other nations. The limitation of this extent seems rather to have been regulated by special conventions, than by any rule of uniform practice.