Thus it had never been supposed lawful, in
the territory of a friend to seize the goods of an enemy. On an element
which nature has not subjected to the jurisdiction of any particular
nation, but has made common to all for the purposes to which it is
fitted, it would seem that the particular portion of it which happens
to be occupied by the vessel of any nation, in the course of its voyage,
is, for the moment, the exclusive property of that nation, and, with
the vessel, is exempt from intrusion by any other, and from its
jurisdiction, as much as if it were lying in the harbor of its
sovereign. In no country, we believe, is the rule otherwise, as to
the subjects of property common to all. Thus the place occupied by an
individual in a highway, a church, a theatre, or other public assembly,
cannot be intruded on, while its occupant holds it for the purposes of
its institution. The persons on board a vessel traversing the ocean,
carrying with them the laws of their nation, have among themselves a
jurisdiction, a police, not established by their individual will, but
by the authority of their nation, of whose territory their vessel still
seems to compose a part, so long as it does not enter the exclusive
territory of another. No nation ever pretended a right to govern by
their laws the ships of another nation navigating the ocean.
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