To a similar purport the British Commissioners, Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, in the sixth conference held at London, December 16, 1826, maintained this doctrine:--"Upon the question how far prior discovery constitutes a legal claim to sovereignty, the law of nations is somewhat vague and undefined. It is, however, admitted by the most approved writers, that mere accidental discovery, unattended by exploration--by formally taking possession in the name of the discoverer's sovereign--by occupation and settlement, more or less permanent--by purchase of the territory, or receiving the sovereignty from the natives--constitutes the lowest degree of title; and that it is only in proportion as first discovery is followed by any or all of these acts, that such title is strengthened and confirmed."
In accordance with the same view, the plenipotentiary of the United States, Mr. Gallatin, in his counter-statement, which Mr. Greenhow has appended to the second edition of his work, asserts that "Prior discovery gives a right to occupy, provided that occupancy take place within a reasonable time, and is followed by permanent settlements and by the cultivation of the soil."
It thus seems to be universally acknowledged, that discovery, though it gives a right of occupancy, does not found the same perfect and exclusive title which grows out of occupation; and that unless discovery be followed within a reasonable time by some sort of settlement, it will be presumed either to have been originally inoperative, or to have been subsequently abandoned.
It seems likewise to be fully recognised by the law of nations, as based upon principles of natural law, and as gathered from the language of negotiations and conventions, that in order that discovery should constitute an inchoate title to territory, it must have been authorised by the sovereign power, must have been accompanied by some act of taking possession significative of the intention to occupy, and must have been made known to other nations.
Thus Lord Stowell (in the Fama, 3 Rob. p. 115) lays it down, that "even in newly discovered countries, _where a title is meant to be established_ for the first time, some act of possession is usually done and proclaimed as a _notification of the fact_."