prejudiced by the exercise of the power of Congress therein conferred.

But it is said that the act admitting Louisiana, the act admitting Mississippi, and the act admitting Alabama must be construed as in pari materia; and, being so construed, that Congress must be held to have had in view in the three acts a division of the coast along the Gulf of Mexico so as to equalize the water frontage of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.

We do not regard these acts as in pari materia in any proper sense. They provided for the admission of three separate States, and the subject of each was not only not identical with, but not even similar to, that of the others. They did not form part of a homogeneous whole, of a common system, so as to allow a claimant under the later act to successfully contend that it changed the earlier act by construction or effected such change because declaratory of the meaning of the prior act.

And assuming for the sake of argument, that the Louisiana and Mississippi acts were irreconcilably inconsistent, but remembering that when Louisiana was admitted into the Union, the territory now composing the coast counties of Mississippi, that is, below the thirty-first degree of north latitude, was not actually a part of the Mississippi Territory but was in dispute between the United States and Spain, the theory of any preconcerted design in regard to the water front of the two States is too unreasonable to be entertained.

In the treaty of peace between England, France and Spain of February 10, 1716, Article VII, on the subject of the boundary line separating the dominions of England and France in the New World, provided: "That for the future the confines between the dominions of His Brittanic Majesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the river Mississippi from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea." According to this treaty England retained the port of Mobile and its river and everything east

of the Rigolets. The Island of Orleans, formed by the river Iberville, Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, the Rigolets, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi river, remained the property of France. In the treaty of February 10, 1763, practically the same language is used in describing the boundary line separating the British from the French territory, and by the twentieth article the cession to England of Florida by Spain and all that Spain possessed on the continent of North America was provided for. By the treaty of September 3, 1783, between England and Spain, England retroceded East and West Florida to Spain. By the treaty of St. Ildefonso of October 1, 1800, Spain ceded to France "the colony or province of Louisiana with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other States." April 30, 1803, France ceded to the United States "the colony or province of Louisiana," using the same description as used by Spain in ceding the territory to her, and stating in Article II "In the cession made in the preceding article are included the adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana.

There is nothing in any of these transfers to raise a doubt that the peninsula of St. Bernard was part of the Island of Orleans and that this Island of Orleans was in fact formed by the extension to the sea of the boundary line coming down through the middle of Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain and so finding its way to the sea by the deep water channel.

March 26, 1804, an act of Congress was approved, dividing the country acquired as Louisiana from France into two parts, providing:

"That all that portion of the country ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies south of the Mississippi Territory and of an east and west line to commence on the Mississippi river, at the thirty-third degree of north latitude, and to extend west to the western boundary of the said cession, shall constitute a Territory of the United

States under the name of the Territory of Orleans; the government whereof shall be organized and administered as follows:

"SECTION 12. The residue of the Province of Louisiana, ceded to the United States, shall be called the District of Louisiana, the government whereof shall be organized and administered as follows:

Congress manifestly regarded the lands to the east, that were south of the Mississippi Territory, and which form the disputed area of to-day, as part of the original Island of Orleans, included in the treaty of April 30, 1803; and these were given to the Territory of Orleans, whose southeastern boundary was the original southeastern boundary of the Island of Orleans. At that date the Mississippi Territory did not extend south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude and its domain did not reach the shore of Mississippi Sound, so called.

February 20, 1811, 2 Stat. 641, c. 21, an act of Congress was approved "to enable the people of the Territory of Orleans to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes. The description of the limits was as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the river Sabine, thence, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river, including all islands to the thirty-second degree of latitude; thence due north to the northernmost part of the thirty-third degree of north latitude; thence along said parallel of latitude to the river Mississippi; thence down the said river to the river Iberville; and from thence along the middle of the said river and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the Gulf of Mexico; thence bounded by said Gulf, to the place of beginning: including all islands within three leagues of the coast, etc.

The eastern boundary thus described is a water boundary, and, in extending this water boundary to the open sea or Gulf of Mexico, we think it included the Rigolets and the deep water sailing channel line to get around to the westward. A little

over one year later Louisiana was created a State by the act of Congress of April 6, 1812, with this identical eastern boundary line; and the addition of territory by the act of April 14, 1812, did not affect the deep water sailing channel line as a boundary. April 7, 1798, 1 Stat. 549, c. 28, an act was approved "for an amicable settlement of limits with the State of Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mississippi Territory," which read in part: "That all that tract of country bounded on the west by the Mississippi; on the north by a line to be drawn due east from the mouth of the Yasous to the Chatahouchee river; on the east by the river Chatahouchee; and on the south by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, shall be, and hereby is constituted one district, to be called the Mississippi Territory." This was in conformity with the treaty between Spain and the United States of October 27, 1795. Maps of that date, and subsequently, show that the admitted rights of the United States did not at the time extend south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude at that point.

By an act of January 15, 1811, the President of the United States was authorized, among other things, in the event that any foreign government attempted to occupy the same, to take possession of the country lying east of the river Perdido, and south of the State of Georgia and the Mississippi Territory. The river Perdido is in the State of Alabama, east of the State of Mississippi, and flows into the Gulf of Mexico between Mobile Bay in Alabama and Pensacola Bay in Florida. A few days later, and on March 3, 1811, an act of Congress was approved, providing that the act of January 15, 1811, and this act, should not be published until the end of the next session of Congress, unless with the consent of the President.

By resolution approved January 15, 1811, it was specifically declared that the United States could not without serious inquietude see any part of the territory adjoining the southern border of the United States pass into the hands of any foreign power, "and that a due regard to their own safety compels

them to provide, under certain contingencies, for the temporary occupation of the said territory." 3 Stat. 471.

May 14, 1812, an act of Congress was passed, 2 Stat. 734, c. 84, to enlarge the boundaries of the Mississippi Territory, which used the following language: "That all that portion of the territory lying east of Pearl river, west of the Perdido, and south of the thirty-first degree of latitude, be, and the same is hereby annexed to the Mississippi Territory," etc. The country described was not at the time in the possession of the United States, and on February 12, 1812, Congress passed an act “authorizing the President of the United States to take possession of a tract of country lying south of the Mississippi Territory and west of the river Perdido," which act referred to the tract. as "not now in the possession of the United States." 3 Stat. 472. But it was not until the enabling act in respect of Mississippi, approved March 1, 1817, that the language was used: "Thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico, thence westwardly, including all the islands within six leagues of the shore, to the most eastern junction of Pearl river and Lake Borgne," etc.

The claim of Mississippi is that the disputed area is composed of islands, and as those islands are within eighteen miles of her shore, that they were given to her by the act of March 1, and the resolution of December 10, 1817. It is true there are some islands in that area, such as Grassy, Half Moon, Petit Pass and Isle à Pitre, all of which are between the deep water channel on the north and the main coast line of St. Bernard peninsula on the south.

The contention of Louisiana is that these islands were previously given to her by the act of April 6, 1812, more than five years prior to the admission of Mississippi, and that her title thereto, even if the acts were in conflict, is superior to that of the State of Mississippi; and she also contends that the islands belong to her because they are south of the deep water sailing channel line, which she submits is the true boundary line between the two States. Mississippi denies that the peninsula