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to the British brown and much life that the existence of two rival or independent Jurisdictions in the same waters could be contemplated.
The Chinese Government were originally as much entitled to exercise exclusive dominion over the Lye Moon and other Sea Passes as Britain was over the St. George's Channel, Denmark over the Great and Little Belt and the Sound, or the Kingdom of the two Sicilies over the Straits of Messina, according to the rules laid down by Vattel (Cap. xxx) as to the Rivers. If therefore these rules are applicable to these Passes, it might be open to the Chinese Government to contend that, the Treaty being silent on the subject, her exclusive dominion over the Lye Moon was not ceded with the Island of Hong Kong, and at all events that the British Dominion and Jurisdiction over the Pass can only extend to a line drawn in the centre of it, although a common use might be conceded to both nations.
"Selden in his 'mare clausum' denies any distinction in principle between Seas and Rivers 'Immo ipsa flumina sunt maris minora, uti etiam paludes et lacus; quemadmodum mare ipsum aliud non est quam flumen, palus, lacus a caeteris quam magnitudine duntaxat (quantum ad fluorem) discrepans?' (Cap. 21).