The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-19


ordinary punishment was not what this Mary
land woman wanted Nothing less than the life
of her victim would satisfy the stomach of her
deep revenge. IL is not by any means certain
that she would have been satisfied with the con-
signment of the faithless man to the Deniten-
tiary. Such an expiation she would have re-
garded as grossly inadequate. We hold all hu-
man life, whether under conditions of yuilt or
innocence, to be inexpressibly sacred We are
glad that Martha j. Cairnes is not to he bonoed.
but whoever undertakes to convince ms that She
deserved ovation instead of discipline, will find
The labor of his logic lost.
ENGLISH DISCUSSION OF THE ALABAMA
CLAIMS.
From the NJ y. Times.
1t is very clear that the London press has ma
terially changed the tone of its comment upon
Mr.. Summers speech, in one particular. Its
first indignant outcry, on the reception of that
speech, was that America had made fresh pecu-
mary demands, preposterous in their amount.
The London Times figured them at exactly
G422, OOO,OO0i the London Nelos at about $500
600 600; the London Herald at a sum equivalent
TO our national debt and so on. We on this
side of the water, know very well that our
people have never expected, never even dreamed
of any such demands being presented much
less paid. Before Mr.. Summers speech. nobody
ever broached such apropositon. The idea that
Great Britain had wrOnged this country bv the
issue of the Queens proclamation In 1861,
was generally held, though not a few inau-
ential journals and public men denied that
position, and denied also that, in any case,
it had anything whatever to do with the Ala
bama claims. But even the more popular theory
did not pretend that this alleged wrong could be
made the subject of pecuniary damages. 1t was
never Imagined that however the war may have
been prolonged by British sympathy with the
insurgents, or by the over-prompt accordance TO
them of belligerent rights, these matters were
now to be squared off in cash. This last discovery
1t was reserved for Mr.. Sumner to make.
Or, rather this last discovery it was reserved
Tor Mr.. Sumner TO intimate for il Uould he in
justice to that Senator to suppose that even he,
accustomed as he is to go to all extremes of
statement in the line of 'an idea, could actually
maintain such proposition in positive terms.
The trick of Mr. Summers rhetoric was this:-
He first pictured the unfriendly conduct of Eng
land towards our Government, from May, 1861,
down to the sinking of the Alabama, in strong
colors; he then passed to the costs of oar 1Car;
and, finally, without directly stating any con-
nection between these points, urged that the
whole of these costs ought, from her 'moral re-
sponsibility," to be met by Great Britain. And
this we call q trick of rhetoric because since
the people of this country feel, and have q per-
feet right to feel rs strongly as Mr.. Sumner pos
sibly can, the justice of the specific Alabama
claims, and the responsibility of England on one
or another ground for that ship, the very vigOr
of his statements on these points gained ap-
plause for the entire speech though in the
whole diplomatic discussion hitherto, and in
the whole popular discussion also, no such pre-
posterous inference of fastening half of our war
debt on Great Britain was ever thought Of and
is not noo.
Exactly what Mr.. Sumner said on this point
was this:-
''The Rebellion was suppressed at cost Of more
than four thousand million dollars considerable
portion of which has been already paid, leaving
twenty-five hundred millions as a national debt to
burden the people IT, through British intervention,
the war was doubled in duration, or in any way eX-
tended, cannot be doubted, then is England justly
responsible for the additional expenditure to which
our country was doomed; and, whatever may be
the final settlement of these great accounts, such
Judgment Gh9nCprY
suits the simple equity of the case
Here with some rhetorical flourish, Mr.. Sum-
ner, we have said first explains the size of our
debt and then declares that England is respon-
sible 'for such additional expenditure" us her
own action caused-or, as he loosely phrases it,
''to which our country was doomed" Now, any
man in his senses can see, and doubtless Mr..
Sumner, having his Senses sees, that this ''addi-
tional expenditure" is an incompatible amount.
On the very face of 1t, il is not n matter to be
reckOned as exact pecuniary damages. You
might as well ask the commission to decide how
large the moon looks to them-One man taking
it to be as big as a dinner plate, another as big
as cart-wheel, and the arbitrator" deciding
that it is the size of a Cheshire cheese. The
additional expenditure is just what we may
choose to think it is, even as we may say that it
consists OF one months expenses or three years.
The folly of this estimate Il practical settle
ment is sufficiently evident-to say nothing of
the point it confuses in international law.
The English press, however, were not to
which Mr. Summers loose logic seems to convey.
But, after driving Il coach and six through
that logic, and back again through the rhetoric,
they have concluded and very properly, that the
American people at least never could have made
that pecuniary demand, whatever else they may
ask. And, as a matter of fact, save for one or
two wild propositions like the TribuneS, to take
Canada in payment" made purely from sensa-
tional motives, and speedily dropped, without
| response in public sentiment, no such prepos-
ferrous pecuniary claim as the English papers
first saw, has ever been brOachcd.
We shall freely admit, however, that, embit-
tered by war memories, the present disposition
of the American people seems to be not to enter
into negotiations for the settlement OF the Ala
bama dispute, without prior acknowledgment
OF the national responsibility of England Cby
| reason of her governmental action at various
imcs) for the reparaton of the damages inflicted
| by the Alabama. AS this position is one which
| England is not likely to concede we shall pro-
badly have no settlement at present; but at least
we can 'agree to disagree 1t is position,
| nevertheless, whose justice has been substan-
| TALLY conceded by small part of the English
| press, though never by the English Government.
II Is also at least a comprehensive position; and
we are glad tosee the English papers substituting
| it for the one cullcd from Mr.. Summers speech,
| and attributed at first to our people-we have not
yet quite lost our wits as n nation.
LOOKING GLASSES, ETC.