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Show -32- navigation"; and that tt. . * the navigation of the rivers referred to in the pre- ceding article, along their whole course, from the point where each of them be- comes navigable, to its mouth, shall be entirely free, and shall not as far as commerce is concerned, be prohibited to anyone*"73' It was further provided that the general principles set forth "shall be invariably upheld,11 and Article 9& carried out this agreement in respect to the River Po. Great Britain, France and Spain became signatories to this Magna Carta of the law of international rivers on June 9, 1815* but with mental reservations on the part of Great Britain, as will appear later• The immediate effect of the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna was to open navigation to all nations on the rivers Necker, Main, Moselle, Meuse and Scheldt; 74 and the principle of free navigation was expressly extended to all the" international rivers of the consenting nations.75 If the principle be correct that the scope of international, law is as broad as the sovereignty of the assenting powers, then it follows that the law of rivers common to two or more nations as recognized and established by the Con- gress of Vienna applied directly to all the Spanish dominions in North America Kaeckenbeeck, International Rivers, 57 (see, supra, footnote #7* P» 86}* It; appears, however, that subsequently the European Powers participating in the Congress of Vienna denied that this provision was intended to afford freedom of navigation to any non-riparian States,. Kaeckenbeeok, International Rivers, 61-71* The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna reserved to riparian sovereigns the right of policing waterways within their respective territories and of imposing equal and uniform charges upon all users of such waterways for the sole purpose of defraying the expenses so incurred. The States of the American Union have retained the same rights, subject to the power of Congress to occupy the whole field exclusively by federal regulation-which, practically, Congress has already dene. But in theory, at' least, license fees and other charges limited in good faith to the actual cost of local policing in aid of navigation are not a burden upon, or regulation of, interstate or foreign commerce. See The Constitution of the United States, etc., as Amended to January 1, 1923, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1923, pp. 8O-I91. In his 1427-page tirade against sovereignty, entitled The Lawless Law of Nations, Professor Sterling E. Edmunds (Jofrn Byrne & Company, Publishers, YiTash- ington, D. C.) pauses, at page 92, long enough to sayj llInternational rivers and straits -were, until last century, dealt with as -the proprietary interest of the riparian States. But a precedent set by the Congress of.Vienna in I8I5, opeaing the Necker, Main, Moselle, Meuse and Scheldt to free navigation to all vessels upon equal terms, has ripened into a oommonsense rule of The Law of Nations and is now applied generally to all such passages, including even artificial canals. This principle constitutes one of the few triumphs of reason to be found in The Law of Na-tions." 75 Oppenheim on International Law, 3rd ed. 71, says: "But the Vienna Congress did not only establish a new political order in Europe; it also settled some questions of International Law. Thus, free navigation was agreed to on so-called international rivers, which are navigable r"iters ft*QBftfthB"-»i^ds^tt^^ll&rtdillikia.. through tlie l&fLa~xtf. ailment states." |