Mr. Davis, in his recent work on International Law, thus describes a sovereign state:

"A sovereign state may, therefore, be defined as one which retains and exercises in their entirety its essential attributes of sovereignty, which has parted with none of them, but retains them all unimpaired.

1 Minor on Conflict of Laws, Sec. 2.

In this sense Russia, England, France, China, Japan, and the United States are sovereign states.

"From the point of view of international law, the attributes which are essential to the conception of a sovereign state are three in number - sovereignty, independence, and equality.

"The sovereignty of a state is its inherent right to assume and exercise jurisdiction over all questions arising within its boundaries, and to control and regulate the actions and legal relations of all persons within its territorial limits.

"The conception of independence is included in that of sovereignty, of which, indeed, it is the negative view. It involves an immunity from all interference from without in the purely internal affairs of a state and implies a corresponding obligation to abstain from similar interference in the internal affairs of other states.

"It has been seen that a state possesses a certain number of sovereign rights and powers. These rights are possessed in precisely the same number and to the same degree by every sovereign state. This is called the equality of states. It is not to be inferred from this definition that all states are equal in dignity, importance, or power. It is only asserted that each state possesses the same number of sovereign rights and powers, and each to the same degree that they are possessed by every other state. For example, England and Portugal have the same right to borrow money, to send ambassadors, and to make treaties of alliance. But whether one can borrow money at a lower rate of interest than the other, whether the ambassadors of both powers at Berlin have the same influence, and whether an alliance with one will be as advantageous as with the other, are questions that depend upon the financial resources, political influence, and military power of each state, all of which are very unequal." 2