The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-03-14

THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH IA, '72.
The Alabama Question.
THE FEELING PREVAILING IN ENGLAND.

| ~N1A- hhfAILlNG IN ENGLAND
The London Correspondent of the Tribune
writes "A feeling has been aroused on both
sides which threatens to survive any possible
adjustment OF the pending arbitration. What
is uppermost in mems minds is the question
OF good faith. have no doubt it is in Amer
lea. l know it is here. 1 meet good MANY
Englishmen. Nobody means to say anything
uncivil; l should say rather there is an evil
dent effort to avoid incivilities But the
mere fact that such an effort needs t, be
made shows the state of mind they are in.
Most Englishmen, lam afraid, have allowed
a conviction or an impression to settle into
their minds that the indirect claims were not
included in the Treaty, were not meant to be
by us any more than by the English, and
that we took advantage of the loose phrase
ology of the Treaty to make them a part of
our case They are never tired of repeating
that Lord Granville said last July, before the
ratification of the Treaty, that such claims
were not included, and that if we thought
they were we ought to have said so, and be-
cause we did not say so we are barred from
taking any other view than that to which,
they urge, we gave a tacit consent Nor do /
think any explanation or answer makes much
impression. When an Englishman has once
made up his mind, he holds to his opinion
with great tenacity. His reflections ON all
these matters are somewhat mixed, and /
should be slow to say that thought he had
any very strong grasp of the facts. How can
he? He was fed on English views till he
could take no other. But out of all has grown
this notion; that things are in bad way
that her own Commissioners were probably
stupid, but that ours were certainly too
shrewd; that they were good deal to blame,
but that it was quite wrong in us to take adj
vantage of their innocence; perhaps that we
ought to have looked after their side of the
bargain as well as our own; and he sums up
his views in one or two ugly phrases about
sharp practice and Yankee cuteness.
In word, there is good deal of bitter
ness in the English breast, and, as l suppose
there is some in the American also. 1 don't
see how the two nations can for some time
to come regard each other with that cordial
good will which sprung from the Treaty.
could quote many a hot speech and base in
sinuatiOn if / cared to, but what good can
come of repeating such thingsa There are
Englishmen who profess to regard the Tribu-
nal of Arbitration as capable of being bribed,
and Americans as capable of bribing them
We are told of an alabama Ring" which
has bought up all the Alabama claims and in
tends to spend don't know how much in
getting them allowed. An American friend
told me what names he had heard mentioned
in connection with that Ring; names such as
no Englishman who cared for an Americans
regard would mention. And 1 hear many
things which are by no means intended to be
offensive, but which man who hopes for
friendship between England and America can
not hear without distress. Ihad note this
morning from an Englishman whom have
always thought great friend of America and
of mine. There was not an unkind word in
it-indeed it contained only line, but that
line showed such an estrangement as had
not suspected to exist. Yet have been say
ing for a month that tine men who now take
the strongest English views are precisely
those who once took the strongest American.
The English papers have referred in guard
ed terms to Mr.. Bright's opinion as being of
an extreme English type in the present con-
troversy. l have neither seen Mr.. Bright nor
heard from him since the American Case was
known in England, but l have no doubt
whatever that what the papers say is sub
stantially correct So far as / know, there is
among those Englishmen, who hold public
position, but one single man who dissents
form the popular opinion, and that is Sir
Charles Dixie. What he said this week at
Chelsea you already know from another cor
respondent, but no English paper that have
seen gave report of that part of his speech
which related to America. They don't seem
to want it known that there is even one Eng
lishman on the American side
But this feeling will subside, you say? Yes,
it will subside, but not this week, nor this
month, nor this year. doubt whether the
London pres has known the full extent of
mischief they we're doing. 1 quite acquit
them of doing any mischief consciously or in
tentionally, but what they have done is to
plant in the mind of the English people sus-
picion, and what is there that takes so long
to root out as suspicion? When we agree
on some compromise, the same papers will
make haste to declare that they always knew
that the Americans are, on the whole, good
fellows, and meant no wrong by their mistake
about the Treaty. But will that cure it? 1t
cannot. The same rule, the same great class
es of society, who were against us during the
rebellion and who wanted to see the Union
split in pieces, exist to-day. Seven years had
softened their animosity, and they had partly
forgiven us for proving them in the wrong,
but the last seven weeks has revived more of
that old dislike than one would have thought
possible. should like to cover it all up and
go on pretending it does not exist, and that
we shall love each other heartily when spring
comes; but how much good would there be in
a sham of that kind? There is none what
ever. We have got to face the music. We
do not stand to each other as we stood last
year, and it will be long ere we shall again
shake hands with such hearty grasp and
sincere wishes as we exchanged last summer.