The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-05-13
YORK HERALD MONDAY MAY 1s S72-TRIPLE, SHEET

The Resurrection OF the Washington
Treaty-A Chance for Honorable
Settlement with England.
For several days past we have heard from all
quarters of the death of the Washington
Treaty. Intelligence of the absolute withdrawal
of England from the Geneva Conference In
high dudgeon at our refusal to abandon our
claims for consequential damages and to amend
our case has reached US simultaneously from
Washington and London and in the latter
city we have been told that the announcement
confirmation" The claimants interested in
the awards for direct damages their lobby
friends, all the respectable and nervous old
gentlemen who apprehend that the lombard
ment of our coast may follow the final cessa-
ton of negotiations and every person interested
in the use of British capital for American en-
terprises, have been weeping and wailing over
the untimely interruption of the promised re-
moval of our international difficulties, and have
been loud in denunciation of all who were sup
posed to have had any hand in the destruction
of the treaty. The report gathered strength
from the knowledge that the British Ministry
was to make full statement of the condition
Of the controversy with our government In tho
Houses of Parliament this evening, and it was
believed that Mr.. Gladstone in his intense
anxiety to retain power, and sensible of the
popular feeling in England against the Ameri-
can case, had resolved to save himself and his
associates in the Cabinet by announcing his
withdrawal from the Geneva Conference. So
certain did it seem that the whole affair was at
an end that the great bulk Of the American peo-
pie, who have never cared straw for the treaty
or its fate, had already begun to congratulate
themselves upon the termination Of wordy
dispute and the return Of the Alabama ques-
ton to the position it was in before the meet
ing of the Joint High Commission.
But the correspondence from Washington
published in the HERALD to-day makes new
and important change in the situation. We
are now told that instead Of the treaty being
dead all the difficulties in the way Of the Gen
eva Conference have been happily removed,
and o compromise has been arrived at satisfac-
tory to England and honorable to ourselves.
According to these accounts Secretary Fish on
Saturday morning received a cable despatch
from our Minister in London bringing the in
formation that the British government has
accepted the final proposition made by the
United States with respect to the disputed
question Of our claims for conse-
quential damages, which proposition is
now announced to be as follows:- Ameri-
can case, with the Objectionable claims in
cluded, is to remain before the Tribunal
exactly as it is; but short supplemental
treaty is to be duly signed, ratified and placed
before the arbitrators, adding to the original
treaty fourth supplemental rule for the
guidance OF the Tribunal This additional
rule will set forth that whenever the United
States or Great Britain is engaged in war
separately, leaving the other Power q neutral,
and by want of due diligence on the part Of |
said neutral, any privateer or hostile vessel
shall escape from its waters or equip or renew
latter shall only be responsible and liable for
the direct damages inflicted upon the bellige-
rent by the operations of such vessel. This
rule, being retrospective, actually declares
that the claims made in our case for
indirect damages are not admissible; |
but it satisfies American amour propre
by leaving our case untouched, and it is
said to remove the British objection to our
consequential claims, which now appears to
have been that they found no sanction or war
ranty in the language of the treaty. As by
this supplement, which becomes, in fact, a |
part Of the treaty, indirect damages will be
indirectly alluded to, the British cavil is, of
course, at an end and the amicable negotiations
again SO on.
To plain, matter of-fact men all this Pick
wickian diplomacy will seem absurd and
unbecoming two earnest, powerful, Anglo
Saxon nations. The people have right to
complain, we think, of the conduct of their
statesmen who thus trife with serious ques-
tons, and for political considerations put to
hazard the friendship if not the peace of
two great countries 1t is notorious that
American sentiment has always been opposed
to seeking any money compensation for the in
juries inflicted upon us during the war through
the instrumentality of England. We de-
manded, as we believe we had a right to de-
mand, an acknowledgment by England
of the wrong she did us, and
this we have received in her ex-
preston of regret at the escape
of the rebel privateers. If our statesmen had
understood the feeling of the people they
would not have made any claims for indirect
damages in framing our case but having
done so the whole nation would have resisted
to the last their absolute withdrawal at the
demand of England, not over courteously
made. The British Ministers, no doubt
believed the consequential claims to be
absurd, and never dreamed that they would be
allowed by the arbitrators. On this account