Method: (1) The title to lands depend entirely upon the law of the nation which t lie; it is necessary to examine the principles which our government has adopted. (2 Discovery gave title to the government whose subjects, or by whose authority, it we made, against all other European governments, which title might be consummated possession. Exclusion of all other Europeans, gave to the nation making discovery sole right of acquiring the soil from the natives, and establishing settlements upon i Original inhabitants were admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil, with a le well as just claim to retain possession of it, and to use it according to their own discretion; but their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, were necessarily diminished, and their power to dispose of the soil at their own will, to whomsoever they pleased, was denied by the original fundamental principle, that discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it. While different nations of E