The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-24 00:00:00

THE CLARENDON-JOHNSON TREATY.

On Thursday the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations agreed almost unanimously to recommend
the rejection of the Alabama Claims Treaty. This
will surprise no one acquainted with the progres-
sion of events in America. Indeed we announced
it as almost certain, having little doubt that such
would be the result, and that the Senate would act
on the recommendation. The chairman of this
committee is Mr. SUMNER, a learned lawyer, and
the man who has paid most attention to Foreign
Affairs. That Senator, in any debate connected
with England, has always spoken in a calm, digni-
fied, and argumentative manner, often in marked
contrast with the tone of others. The committee
could not have been so nearly unanimous had Mr.
SUMNER not concurred in its conclusion, and we are
confident that hedid not concur without some sound,
weighty reason wholly apart from the sentiment
with which the subject is generally throughout the
United States overlaid. In yesterday's article in
the Times, the grave defect which, perhaps, influ-
enced the committee is indicated as the want of a
definite basis for arbitration. The Times agrees
with the first objection made in the petition
Senator SUMNER presented from Mr. GEORGE B.
UPTON, a large shipowner of Boston, for the rejec-
tion of the treaty, " that its provisions delay re-
dress for an unnecessary period," while acknowledg-
ing and Pointing out also the aforesaid defect. At the
same time, it with justice remarks that these are not
the real objections which have led to its rejection,
but that they are embodied in Oa —euna pot Lion of
Mr. UeioN's petition. La it that gentleman ex-
presses what tue 1 tines calls the ultra-American
view or this controversy, and if nations could be
taught to put aside prejudice and strive to view
.luestions from the ground taken by their opponents
in the dispute, nothing would more tend to teach
them than publishing widely in America the ex-
treme English view of this matter, and in England
the extreme American view. It is more easy glibly
to talk in harmony with one's prejudices than
to search through history and make the necessary
mental effort to see the points which favour the
other side. If individuals cannot do this but with
eyes closely shut, refusing to look, walk into law
courts to their own destruction, it is not likely that
nations can, each one composing which do not at-
tempt to unravel the elaborations and complications
of national dispttes. Mr. UPTON undoubtedly thought
every word he said true, and four Americans out of
five believe tint be has in no degree exaggerated.
Is it then surprsing that the popular demand should
be fcr the rejection of a treaty which places British
claim? against ;he United States on the same foot-
ing as Americas claims against Great Britain, while
the former are jelieved to have been inflicted by the
British Government wilfully and in bad faith, and
the latter by tie Washington Government without
malice and in good faith. As descriptive of Mr.
UPTON'S view, this portion of the memorial is
ere committed by British-
quoted :—" Piracies w
built, British-nanned, and British-armed vessels,
by vessels and armaments which left British ports
under the protection of the British flag, and burnt
American ship, and your memorialists among the
number, upon the high seas, without taking them
into port for ondemnation, and without any action
being taken upon the part of the said British Go-
vernment, whm these atrocities were laid before it,
to prevent the same ; but, on the contrary, these
pirates were everywhere received with rejoicing
when visiting British ports, and when the notorious
builder of one of them boasted of the same in the
British I'arlianent, of which he was a member, he
was received wth cheers and expressions of satis-
faction." All Englishmen will recognize the unfair
way in which his is represented, while compelled
to acknowledge that it is grounded on truth. It was
precisely by distorting truth in the same way that
Britain so managed to misrepresent the United
States during the war ; and it was the action she
took, deceived by these misrepresentations, which
so annoyed the Northern people. Had the ports of
England been as open as Mr. UPTON repre-
sents, it is not Alabantas that would have gone
to sea, but ironclad men-of-war in the Confede-
rate service vhich might have engaged in battle
the blockadiig fleets. The only instance of
such constrtttion was met by an illegal seizure
on the part d the British Government, for which
they were compelled to pay heavily. No armed
vessel left as English port, nor was any Confede-
rate cruiser welcomed in a harbour of Britain.
That they were welcomed in the pestiferous little
island of 1N assau, or in such places as Cape Town
or Melbourne, is true, aria 12m7 ran'"ilY esrulained.
The first coined money by the war, and was the
head-quarters of blockade-breaking schemes ; the
other two would welcome " Old NICK," if he came
in the shape of an excitement, to break the tire-
some monotony of a monotonous existence. We
venture to say that not one out of every five of the
colonists who cheered the Confederate commanders
could have named a Southern State, much less have
shown any acquaintance with the causes and ob-
jects of the war. We all know the conversation
between two vociferous navvies, roaring themselves
hoarse in the streets of London in welcome of
GARIBALDI. "I say, BILL, who is this GARIBALDI ?7,
t, Don't know, NED ; lie is one of them foreign
beggars." The stress laid on the cheers with which
the British Parliament greeted Mr. LAIRD'S declara-
tion ought, if anything
can, to teach Americans the
necessity for restraining their own legislative as-
semblies ; for it cannot but be humiliating to make
that a charge against the English people, for oc-
curring in England, which is habitually practised in
the United States. Because some members of the
Tory party indiscreetly cheered the indiscreet
speech of one of their party, Her MAJESTY'S sub-
jects are to be mulcted in damages, as it is held to be
conclusive proof that they all sympathized in such
an expression of feeling. Now this is the happiest in-
stance we have been able to get hold of,and we do not
intend soon to let it go, as illustrating the injustice so
generally done to America in England. The Re-
publican institutions of the United States give
undue prominence to rampant demagogues. Abuse
of the British lion is a blazoned banner they are
always flourishing in the face of the people, but
although they represent a noisy section it is in
reality one but of little influence. Yet the English
choose to interpret the sayings of these men as the
expression of national feeling, and to hate America