The case of Haggard v. Pelicier Frères was reported in the Times

of Dec. 5, 1891, too late for notice.

EXTERRITORIALITY.

THE subject of Exterritoriality, described by Sir Fitz James Stephen as "of great curiosity, but very little known," is supposed to be of local rather than of general interest; but it has in recent years received some share of public notice. Attention. has been directed to it by the great strides in intercourse with Western nations which have been made by one of those countries in which European Sovereigns are permitted to exercise jurisdiction over their own subjects. Of the many debatable points connected with what is commonly called the Queen's Foreign Jurisdiction which the Revision of the Japanese Treaties has brought to the surface, I propose to deal in the following pages with one only the purely legal aspect and consequences of this jurisdiction.

I do not concern myself to defend or attack a system which has taken such deep root in the policy of Western nations in their intercourse with the East; nor shall I touch upon the question, full of difficult interest to all concerned, at what point in commercial progress, or in civilization, an Eastern nation must arrive before she may demand as of right the loosening of her chains. Above all, I shall avoid all reference to the questions which have for so long been under discussion between Japan and the Treaty Powers.

I propose to limit myself still further. Although a critical examination of the policy adopted by England in her interpretation of the Treaties is necessary to a full understanding of the subject, a special review of the texts of the several Treaties and of the many British Orders in Council, with a view to ascertaining whether in every instance the rights expressed to be granted by one Sovereign are identical with the rights claimed to be

B

exercised by the other, seems to be unnecessary: indeed, it would be profitless, leading nowhere. The policy, as revealed in the Orders in Council, is capable of being expressed in a series of broad propositions. These propositions belong legitimately to the domain of law.

By these limitations, all those contentious questions are avoided with which, by the exercise of a very little ingenuity, the subject may be made to bristle.

Lastly, the historical treatment of the subject may be conveniently omitted as being already well-worn; and also the encyclopædic, which is covered by Mr. Tarring's admirable handbook on Consular Jurisdiction in the East.'

There is left for discussion only the purely legal aspect of the question the study of Order in Council law, and the bearing of the general law upon the many independent points which inevitably arise under so artificial a system of government. And again this branch of the subject introduces its own peculiar limitation. The points can only be discussed in the abstract. Very few legal precedents exist; and reference to diplomatic precedents is to be avoided for two reasons. In the first place, it would be impossible to be either accurate or complete. The facts of a small proportion only of the cases which arise for decision become public property through the medium of the local newspapers. There are no means of testing the accuracy of the reports, much less of appreciating the reasons for the decisions or of gauging 'their soundness. And as to completeness, my own experience of the jurisdiction in operation is confined to one country; it would be impossible to gather information as to what has taken place in the many quarters of the Eastern world in which English Consuls settle disputes in a friendly manner, or decide them equitably.

In the second place, the ultimate decisions, often indeed the first decisions, are given by the Minister, or other representative of the Sovereign; and I would not appear either directly or indirectly to criticise positions which have been taken up on different occasions by British Ministers, and which may have had an important bearing on the relationship of the two Governments as well as on the rights of the parties concerned.