New-York tribune., 1869-03-16
THE ALABAMA TREATY.
seen.


The Saturday Rerier, commenting upon the
views expressed by THE TRIBUNE OF the
| Protocol still before the Senate.
The writer frankly admits the justice OF our
suggestion that the Englishmcn whose claims
! against tho American Government were by
| that treaty placed upon an equality with the
| American claimants for losses by the Alabama,
were not compelled to show that they had oc-
cupied position of neutrality during the war,
! but insists that it is wholly immaterial whether
| or not the British claims are preferred by -
&c class of Englshmen whose sympathies we're
call on the side of Slavery and the Rebellion"
! The SATURDAY. ReuieU declares that "all Mr.
| " Stewards projects of arbitration included the
claimants on both sides" and its tone makes
| it clear that the English press and the English
people have been honestly surprised to ind
| how little the diplomacy Of the ex-Secretary
! reflected upon this subject the feelings, the
I convictions, and the resolve Of his cOuntrymen.
| The remark that the counter claims would
probably have been advanced by Americans
whose sympathics were on the side of Russia
during the Crimean war. of Mana Sahlb during
the Indian mutiny and of the Fenian conspira-
tors, naturally recalls to us Americans the sgnf-
forgotten across the water, that during the
Crimean war the appeals of England for pro-
lection against violations of onr neutrality
were responded TO with prompt fidelity by the
Government and the people; that when Have
lock fell the flags Of our shipping at haIf-mast
indicated our national and popular sympathy
with that gallant hero; and that since the close
of our civil war the Queen advised her Lords
and Commons that the integrity Of her Cana
dian border had been preserved against Fe-
nian invasion 10y the prompt in1eIposihon oi
the American Government
The Rerieic unsparngy condemns Lord Stan
ley for having, rs it says, unnecessarily and
"mprudently expressed the opinion that the Ala
"bama claimants would probably recover DANA
"ges,p and it il almost equally severe upon
Mr.. Mill Lord Russell, aud Mr. Gladstone But
if any English statesman has misrepresentcd
the British Government in intmating that it is
ready 10 conccdc liability TO individual claim
ants for losses by the Alabama, the mistake
is trining TO that committed by the American
diplomatisls who led England 10 suppose that
those losses constitute the claim of the American
people against Great Britain for what they re-
gard "a her persistent violation, from the COM
mencement to almost the end of the Rebellion,
of that international neutrality which for seventy
years We had practiced toward England, with
fidelity and diligence which had not only been
recognized by the warmest Acknowledgements
of her statesmen, but which had commanded
the admiration OF the world, and lent new
dignity TO the law of nations
Our claims for the wrong done to us in the
hour of our peril are beyond computation in
pounds or dollars, for it was wrong to our
National honor; and wrong to the honor of
a nation can no more be measured In money
than a wrong to the honor of man. How
that great wrong rs TO be repaired Is ques-
ton for the consideration of the English peo-
pie rs well as OF our own. The grand mis-
take, hitherto, has been their misunderstand-
ing OF our true position. And as that has been
in large measure owing to our own feeble and
demoraizcd diplomacy, which, amid the perils
of the Rebellion and the difficulties. OF Recon
slruction, has been allowed, unfortu-
nately, TO Dass with too little nStce, we
should be willing to allow the British nation,
whose devotion to manly justice is their great
est boast, the fairest opportunity for re-
hccting how they would have felt haIt
our positions and conduct boon reversed.
Let them leisuTely picture to thsInsslves, in
the midst Of one of their own rebeli0ns,
the issue from American ports Of American
iron -cads, built by member of Congress, to
prey upon British commerce. Let them nead
the dilatOry dispatches of lord Russell the
convenient excuses for inaetOn, the aSgu-
ments of their Attorney and Solcitor-Gen-
eral, and the judgment in the case Of the
Alexandra, as coming from the American Min
ister, American lawyers, and American courts.
Let them suppose that the official hospitaltics
of our ports are openly extended to the
Yankee pirates as they rest occasionally from
the work of sinking and burning English
merchantmen, aud transferring the carrying
trade of England to American vessels, making
American merchants the direct gamers by
the piracies 80 insolently inaugurated. and
they will begin 10 realize the application OF
the words of Burke to such policy as Que
" at which morality is perplexcd, reason is
staggered, and from which ailrighted nature
"recois.h
They will then understand why tho cOnvic-
ton is so clear in the mind of the American
people that the cruises of the Alabama and her
piratical consorts, deliberately built at English
dock-yards, and issuing unmOlested from En-
glsh ports, was ian intolerable violation" OF
the law of nations for which the English Gov
erhment Is Justly responsible and that If the