The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-25

or Speedy and Honorable Settle
ment-Another Peace-Onering 20 Eng
land.
The suggestion thrown out in the HERALD of
Tuesday in reference to the Alabama question
has produced profound impression upon all
WELL thinking minds. The desire for peace
between the two great English-speaking ma
tons has increased more and more with the
dread Of war. For two months all inter-
national business has been dead. The active
and healthy currents of life that swept back
wards and forwards through the wide angry
seas have been arrested. The radiant aurora
of harmony and peace and alliance which
covered the heavens last autumn and was
seen with joy and hope by all the world,
has gone out in the bleakness and icy
gloom of an Arctic night. Where friend
ships dYelt anger reigns. With anger came
dark suspicion and invectives and threaten
ings, and words that were bitter and griev-
GUS and hard to bear. AS Coleridge
says =" Each spoke words of high dis
dain and insult to his hearts
best brother" Following out the exquisite
image of the poet, they stood aloof, tho scars
remaining like cliffs that had been rent asun-
der while dreary sea flowed between. The
statesmen of Washington and London mourned
over the misfortune, and there has been no
hope more keenly cherished by patriotic men
in England and America than that there could
be found way honorable to both countries
secure lasting peace.
So far as the alienation and misunderstand-
ing are concerned, we have felt and we still
feel that our government is in no way to
blame. The record shows plainly that we
that did not come within the special
understanding Of the treaty submitted
to Her Majesty's Ambassadors in Joint
High Commission. The words of the
protocols signed by Lord Tenterden and Mr..
Davis are too clear and emphatic upon this
point to be overlooked. After speaking of
the direct losses, which are not in question,
they proceed to refer to indirect injury in
the transfer Of a large part of the American
commercial marine to the British flag, in the
enhanced payments Of insurance, in the pro-
longation of the war and in the addition of a
large sum to the cost of the war and the sup
preston Of the rebellion" Thus we have the
whole case for consequential damages in the
first article of the protocols. To show that it
was not written for rhetorical effect the
American Commissioners further said that
"Great Britain, by reason Of failure
in the proper observance of her duties as
neutral, had become justly liable for the acts
of these cruisers and their tenders - ''that the
cost to which the government had been put in
the pursuit of cruisers could easily be ascer-
tanned by certificates Of government account
ing officers that in the hope of on amicable
settlement no estimate was made of the indi-
rect losses, without prejudice, however, to the
right to indemnifcation on their account in
the event Of no such settlement being made"
These words show that there could be no mis-
understanding on the part Of the English as to
the claims for indirect damages and that in
the presentation Of the case at Geneva Mr..
Fish simply carried out the letter and spirit Of
the treaty.
Where then, is the difficulty? Not with
the administration or with Mr. Fish, but with
the present English Ministry. There is no
doubt that Mr. Gladstone accepted this treaty.
There is no doubt that he understood
clearly the meaning of these words and
what the duty of the American government
would lead its representatives to do at
Geneva There is no doubt that he expected,
as we expected, that the indirect claims would
be considered and finally determined and
buried forever as cause Of difference between
the two countries. But there is also no doubt
that in this anticipation Mr.. Gladstone misun-
derstood the temper of the English people,
Just as Palmerston misunderstood it when in
the flush and ecstasy of the alliance with Napo-
leon he proposed that England should surren-
der political conspirators against the En-
peror to French justice. Although Palmerston
was the most popular statesman in England,
and was in power, at the head of a
large majority in the Commons, he was