The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-26

for it is obvious that is is quite competent to
us, or anybody else, 30 regret, and regret
very heartily, sevents which it would also
have been quite impossible to prevent. Nor
does such an expression of regret seem'to be
in any degree agratuitoUs' and forced devia-
tion from the natural line Of conduct appro-
pirate for great State, even granting that
we were really quite without responsibility
for any of those events For our Foreign
Enlistment act was and iE- q declaration on
our part that ID is part of the true purpose
and policy Of England to prevent,
so far as possible, exactly the
class of events for which we
have now expressed regret and it can'never
be unworthy evon of the greatest power to
declare her sorrow that she has not succeeded
in doing effectually what her law requires her
to do at all. What is more, we, at least, have
always asserted that it was ss great a aisfor-
tune for England as for the United States
that cruisers continued to escape from, Eng
lish ports and so greatly annoyed the COM
merce of belligerent power. That was a
precedent which it is quite certain would be
followed, and followed at great cost to our
selves, whenever we may be at war again;
and the more completely we may have sue
seeded in demonstrating now chat no precau-
tions which we could have telken could have
been successful, the more completely shall
we be confuted out of our own mouths
in complaining, then, that cruisers
intended to prey upon cur commerce
should have been permitted by other powers
to escape from their ports. This will not,
therefore, be on our part a mere expression
of disinterested regret that one of our most
important municipal laws should have proved
inefficient; it will be fresh argument in our
mouths to prove that we have fair right to
demand from any other neutral the same evil
dence of sincerity of purpose which we have
thus ourselves given. While we maintain,
then, that such an expression of regret was
not only legitimate and dignifed, but even
defensible on the lowest, because the most
self-interested, motive, we should also. con-
tend that there is fitness ia any act which
will, without insincerity or compromise of our
rights, assume to the mind of the people of
the United States the form of an apology.
An apology, no doubt, seems to imply some
thing of responsibility and culpability, some
consciousness of O fault of omission if not of
commission; and, as we have shown, the
question of responsibility is really not in
volved in what our commissioners have said,
and may be decided by the arbitrators to
whom it is to be referred entirely in our
favor. Still, however that may be, nobody
can deny that there was enough of careless
ness about the conduct of Government in re-
lation to at least one of these cruisers, and
enough of loudly expressed class sympathy
with the cruisers, and of equally loudly-ex-
pressed antipatby to the American national
cause, to afford a popular justification for the
intense irritation felt in the United States;
and therefore it seems to us quite right that
in relation to any purely formal issue betwee
us, We should even strain point to decide
against ourselves and in their favor Sup
posing 1t were question between
expressing regret at the risk of re-
gret being misinterpreted by the Ame-
rican people to mean seE-reproach and
not expressing regret at the risk ..of that reti-
cence being misinterpreted by the American
people to mean entire Indifference to the
mischiefs caused by the escape of the cruis-
ers, we think we were bound in candor and
honor to run the first risk rather than the
second; for self-reproach ought certainly to
be less foreign to us in this matter than pure
Indifference. We conclude, therefore, that
in relation to the point most likely to excite
unfavorable comment-the frank expression
of regret by our commissioners at what oc-
curred-our Governments have shown courage
and wisdom, and taken the only course likely
to heal the wound completely, by sacrificing
all unworthy pride and reserve.
On all the other points, the solution arrived at
by the commission seems to us quite unex-
ceptionable. For the actual adjudication of
the Alabama claims, commission of five
persons, one appointed by the British and
IT,,
| three others by the King of Italy, the Presi-
dent of the Swiss Confederation, and the
Emperor of Brazil, is to be appointed, with
power either to decide finally for themselves
| on the question of damages in lump sum,
or to refer the details OF such damages to a
Board of Assessors sitting in the United
States, of whom one is to be appointed by the
President, one by the Queen, and one by the
Italian Envoy in Washington. The principle
| agreed on for the assessment of damages is
contained in the following very important
passage of the treaty.
"a neutral Government is bound ~ to use due
| diligence TO prevent the hitting out, armng, or
it has reasonable ground TO believe is intended 10
cruise or TO carry on war against power with which
| tits at peace and also to use ike diligence 20 pre-
vent the departure from its Jurisdiction OF any vessel
intended to cruise or carry on war as above, such
vessel having been specially adapted In whole or in
part within such jurisdiction to warlike (2 not
To permit suffer either beligerent 70 make use Of
its ports or waters as the base OF naval operations
against the other, for the purpose OF renewal or
augmentation OF military supplies, or arms, or re-
cruitment OF men, s), to exercise Que diligence in
! its own ports aud waters, and, as to ali persons
within It's jurisdiction, TO prevent any violation of
| the foregoing obligations and duties. Her Britannia
Majesty mas commanaea her commissioners 10 de-
ing rules as statement OF the principles OF inter-
national law which were in force at the time when
the claims arose; but IN order to eynce desire of
| strengthening friendly relations between the two
countries and of making satisfactory provision for
the future her Governm ent agrees that in deciding
questions arising out OF these claims the arbitrators
| shall assume the Government had undertaken TO
act upon principles set forth in these rules. The
contracting parties agree to observe these rules
| tween themselves in future and to bring them to
the knowledge OF other maritime powers, inviting
them TO accede to them"
This solution of the difficulty we regard
with the most unfeigned satisfaction. On
the one hand no one who had looked into the