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Show of the government, tho executive and congress, both of which have decided de-cided against the petitioners contention, and this decision he held, must be conclusive upon the judiciary. No consideration, whatever, what-ever, the attornev-goueral said, had been given in his answer to tho question ques-tion of international law which now is and has been for the past six years, a subject of diplomatic correspondence between Great Britain and the United States with reference to to the right of this country to assert certain territorial jurisdiction in the Retiring sea to tho extent of protection to seal fisheries fish-eries heyond the three mile limit, ordinarily ordi-narily fixed as the boundary of territorial terri-torial jurisdiction of the country bordering on the sea. Such a quoetioit, the attorney general respectfully insisted, in-sisted, is not within the cognizance of the supreme court, and he therefore did not discuss it. THE QI I-8T10N OF Jl'KISDIC'lION. The Attorney-General on the Retiring- Sea Di.piltr. Washington, Jan. 27. Tho brief of tho attorney-general in reply to the application ap-plication of the Canadian government for a writ of prohibition in the case of W. F. Sayward. for catching seal in the Behring Sea wes tiled in the supreme court today. The position of the U. S. ! government is thus stated briefly: Tho government of the United States opposes the petition of the district court of Alaska in this case for the following fol-lowing reasons: First That tho supreme court has no power in any case to issue a writ of prohibition to the Sitka court, because it is not a district court of the United States, being merely a territorial court. He argued further that that which the petitioners seek to present can not be raised on the record of the admiralty proceedings on file with the Supreme cnurt. because the face of these proceedings show tho jurisdiction in the Alaska court, and after the sentence in such causes is heard argued prohibition "will not issue." In concluding his argument he he'ld that conceding all the facts averred in the petition the question of the jurisdiction juris-diction ol the A'lankan court depends upon the extent of the dominion of the United States in the Behriug sea. This he maintained is a political question to be decided by the political department |