The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-02-28
ruE men ooaImlssroN.

utlW cen lne tWO SuFctunShtS, WIiCn WAS
to have organized yesterday. That the
Alabama claims will be settled in some
way may be considered certain, but what
they will amount TO after the allowance of
the offsets that are claimed, aud precisely
what kind of an indemnity will be offered
to us, are different matters. If we may
judge from the tone Of the press through
out the country, says the Louisville Com
mToial, considerable uneasiness is felt in
regard to both of these questions. The
English claim Of damages for the destruction
of cotton belonging to British subjects is
served, no one is opposed to allowing and
paying such damages in any case when
they have a real and substantial existence
but the country has such a deep and abid-
ing sense of injury arising from England's
having turned out a gang of pirates to
prey on our commerce during the war,
that no mere pretended settlement Or
diplomatic hoous-pocus would be tolerated.
The indemnity must be as substantial as
the injury.
But we are confident that the Admins
tration is in hearty sympathy with the
people on this point, and that no offsett
will be allowed that is not equitable and
just in every sense. There will be no
Jumping of cross-claims for the purpose of
arriving at predetermined balance. Mr..
Secretary Fish, in particular, appreciates
his present opportunity for brilliant
stroke in the diplomacy much too tho
roughly to suffer himself to be taken una
wares upon point not second in import
ance even to settlement itself and
should any matter.of detail prejudicial to
our honor or our interest escape his pru-
dent and experienced eye, the President
and the Senate would be sure to detect and
remedy the omission. 1t is certain, there
fore, that not only our rights, but also our
EXTREMIST sensibiities will be protected, or
no settlement made.
The form Of the indemnity, however, is
more open TO doubt, and here, also, the
sentiment of the people is less pronounced
The drift of opinion aud feeling seems to
be in favor of "a territorial compensation.
1t would, perhaps, be nothing but poetical
justice if England, having turned loose the
Alabama 70 help accomplish the division
Of the Union, should now be made to ex-
tend and aggrandize what she SO lately
sought to diminish and destroy; but the
subject is beset with poetical difficulties
that may be insuperable. Ia the first
place, it becomes mixed up at once with
the most delicate topic Of dispute that the
Commission will be called upon to adjust.
We refer to the claim of the colonial au-
thorites to complete control and sovereign
ty over the bays that extend into the pro-
yinees. This demand, originating mainly
in colonial jealousy and pique, is yet, for
that very reason, the one which, above all
Others, requires tact aud the utmost discre-
die IL in such a way as to ALLEVIATE the
British Americans irretrievably from us
a result not to be desired even by those
who have no especial wish to see them po-
litically annexed to US.
The Commercial continues: We are
afraid that England is playing her game
with the colonies much more shrewdy
than we are playing ours. For many
years the politicians Of England have been
telling the colonists that they had no
earthly need of them-that every remote
dependency of the empire, except India,
was dead expense and disadvantage, and |
was free TO go at any time. Lord Palmer
ston, and a shrewd old fox he was, was the
first, we believe, to set an example which
has now become habit with British ora
tors and cheap presses. But while the
politicians have held this language, anoth-
er, and in England very influential class
of men, have spoken in widely different
tone. We iu this country can form no ade-
auate idea of the influence welded in Eng
land by the essayists, class of brilliant and
scholarly writers who give to the public
through a score Of periodicals the ripest and
profoundest reflections in the most COM
pact ard assimilable form. 1t is not going
too far to say that they are the real mould
ers of British opinion on all subjects.
Being more retired and meditative than
the politicians, they are, in consequence,
less fertile in expedients, but much more
under the sway of impulses of the higher
kind. They Go not seem to have under
stood the game of make-believe which the
politicians have been playing with the
colonies, for they have denounced it and
protested against it in some of the most
indignant passages to be found
10 English literature. The expressions of
he sly old premier aud his imitators were,
40 doubt, dictated by a double motive.
Knowing that they could not possibly hold
he colonies in case of serious revolt,
hey aimed to take advantage of that trait