Judah are censured for tolerating their existence. The reaction which followed the death of Josiah (608 B.C.) restored the old altars of Yahweh; they survived the destruction of the temple in 586, and it is probable that after its restoration (520–516 B.C.) they only slowly disappeared, in consequence partly of the natural predominance of Jerusalem in the little territory of Judaea, partly of the gradual establishment of the supremacy of the written law over custom and tradition in the Persian period.
It may not be superfluous to note that the deuteronomic dogma that sacrifice can be offered to Yahweh only at the temple in Jerusalem was never fully established either in fact or in legal theory. The Jewish military colonists in Elephantine in the 5th century B.C. had their altar of Yahweh beside the high way; the Jews in Egypt in the Ptolemaic period had, besides many local sanctuaries, one greater temple at Leontopolis, with a priesthood whose claim to “valid orders” was much better than that of the High Priests in Jerusalem, and the legitimacy of whose worship is admitted even by the Palestinian rabbis.
See Baudissin, “Höhendienst,” Protestantische Realencyklopädie3 (viii. 177-195); Hoonacker, Le Lieu du culte dans la législation rituelle des Hébreux (1894); v. Gall, Altisraelitische Kultstädte (1898).
HIGH SEAS, an expression in international law meaning all
those parts of the sea not under the sovereignty of adjacent
states. Claims have at times been made to exclusive dominion
over large areas of the sea as well as over wide margins, such as a
100 m., 60 m., range of vision, &c., from land. The action and
reaction of the interests of navigation, however, have brought
states to adopt a limitation first enunciated by Bynkershoek
in the formula “terrae dominium finitur ubi finitur armorum
vis.” Thenceforward cannon-shot range became the determining
factor in the fixation of the margin of sea afterwards known as
“territorial waters” (q.v.). With the exception of these territorial
waters, bays of certain dimensions and inland waters
surrounded by territory of the same state, and serving only as
a means of access to ports of the state by whose territory they
are surrounded, and some waters allowed by immemorial usage
to rank as territorial, all seas and oceans form part of the high
sea. The usage of the high sea is free to all the nations of the
world, subject only to such restrictions as result from respect
for the equal rights of others, and to those which nations may
contract with each other to observe. An interesting case
affecting land-locked seas was that of the Emperor of Japan
v. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, in
which a collision had taken place in the inland sea of Japan.
The British Supreme Court at Shanghai declared this sea to
form part of the high sea. On appeal to the privy council, the
appellants were successful. Though the decision of the Shanghai
court on the point in question was not dealt with by the privy
council, Japan continues to treat her inland sea as under her
exclusive jurisdiction. (T. Ba.)
HIGHWAY, a public road over which all persons have full
right of way—walking, riding or driving. Such roads in England
for the most part either are of immemorial antiquity or have been
created under the authority of an act of parliament. But a
private owner may create a highway at common law by dedicating
the soil to the use of the public for that purpose; and the
using of a road for a number of years, without interruption, will
support the presumption that the soil has been so dedicated.
At common law the parish is required to maintain all highways
within its bounds; but by special custom the obligation may
attach to a particular township or district, and in certain cases
the owner of land is bound by the conditions of his holding to
keep a highway in repair. Breach of the obligation is treated
as a criminal offence, and is prosecuted by indictment. Bridges,
on the other hand, and so much of the highway as is immediately
connected with them, are as a general rule a charge on the
county; and by 22 Henry VIII. c. 5 the obligation of the county is
extended to 300 yds. of the highway on either side of the bridge.
A bridge, like a highway, may be a burden on neighbouring land
ratione tenurae. Private owners so burdened may sometimes
claim a special toll from passengers, called a “toll traverse.”
Extensive changes in the English law of highways have been made by various highway acts, viz. the Highway Act 1835, and amending acts of 1862, 1864, 1878 and 1891. The leading principle of the Highway Act 1835 is to place the highways under the direction of parish surveyors, and to provide for the necessary expenses by a rate levied on the occupiers of land. It is the duty of the surveyor to keep the highways in repair; and if a highway is out of repair, the surveyor may be summoned before justices and convicted in a penalty not exceeding £5, and ordered to complete the repairs within a limited time. The surveyor is likewise specially charged with the removal of nuisances on the highway. A highway nuisance may be abated by any person, and may be made the subject of indictment at common law. The amending acts, while not interfering with the operation of the principal act, authorize the creation of highway districts on a larger scale. The justices of a county may convert it or any portion of it into a highway district to be governed by a highway board, the powers and responsibilities of which will be the same as those of the parish surveyor under the former act. The board consists of representatives of the various parishes, called “way wardens” together with the justices for the county residing within the district. Salaries and similar expenses incurred by the board are charged on a district fund to which the several parishes contribute; but each parish remains separately responsible for the expenses of maintaining its own highways. By the Local Government Act 1888 the entire maintenance of main roads was thrown upon county councils. The Public Health Act 1875 vested the powers and duties of surveyors of highways and vestries in urban authorities, while the Local Government Act 1894 transferred to the district councils of every rural district all the powers of rural sanitary authorities and highway authorities (see England: Local Government).
The Highway Act of 1835 specified as offences for which the driver of a carriage on the public highway might be punished by a fine, in addition to any civil action that might be brought against him—riding upon the cart, or upon any horse drawing it, and not having some other person to guide it, unless there be some person driving it; negligence causing damage to person or goods being conveyed on the highway; quitting his cart, or leaving control of the horses, or leaving the cart so as to be an obstruction on the highway; not having the owner’s name painted up; refusing to give the same; and not keeping on the left or near side of the road, when meeting any other carriage or horse. This rule does not apply in the case of a carriage meeting a foot-passenger, but a driver is bound to use due care to avoid driving against any person crossing the highway on foot. At the same time a passenger crossing the highway is also bound to use due care in avoiding vehicles, and the mere fact of a driver being on the wrong side of the road would not be evidence of negligence in such a case.
The “rule of the road” given above is peculiar to the United Kingdom. Cooley’s treatise on the American Law of Torts states that “the custom of the country, in some states enacted into statute law, requires that when teams approach and are about to pass on the highway, each shall keep to the right of the centre of the travelled portion of the road.” This also appears to be the general rule on the continent of Europe.
By the Lights on Vehicles Act 1907, all vehicles on highways in England and Wales must display to the front a white light during the period between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise. Locomotives and motor cars, being dealt with by special acts, are excluded from the operation of the act, as are bicycles and tricycles (dealt with by the Local Government Act 1888), and vehicles drawn or propelled by hand, but every machine or implement drawn by animals comes within the act. There are two exceptions: (1) vehicles carrying inflammable goods in the neighbourhood of places where inflammable goods are stored, and (2) vehicles engaged in harvesting. The public have a right to pass along a highway freely, safely and conveniently, and any wrongful act or omission which prevents them doing so is a nuisance, for the prevention and abatement of which the highways and other acts contain provisions. Generally, nuisance
