Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-02-29
The Treaty in England.

iHutile of the crown is invariably the butt of the
newspapers and the target of the wits of the
clubs. 1t is ungrammatical, clumsy involved,
i'll assorted and, in a word, absurd from begin
ming to end. Ii President Grant should write
such muddeSome compound, march no to a
lamppost with it and then walk backward away
from the lamppoSt with If, and then have it read
10 joint convention of the senate and house,
you would have a parallel at Washington to a
queens speech at Westminster.
But the ambiguous twaddle of the lamp
posts speech was soon forgotten in the much
eraver ambiguity of the two speeches on the
ambiguous treaty of Washing;on-one by the
leader of the house, and The other by the leader
of her maesty's opposition. These gentlemen
are opposites in many things, but alikes in one
thing-theorctical ambiguity. They can be
equally rhetorical and equally unintelligible on
the slightest proyOcatiUn, and at the shortest
possible notice.
The Right Hon. Benjamin was in "good fet-
tie" as they say in Yorkshire, under the nflu-
ence perehance of telegram from Yorkshire,
where his party has just gained brand new
member by the skin OF his teeth Beer did it.
The beer vendors and the beer bellies are under
mining the clean 100 who follow 'the peoples
William" over the fall of purchase and the wreck
of the Irish church. So the leader OF the tories
'Came up smiling hat eff as usual, curl on as
usual, close shaved as usual, little swngy in
the gait as usual, sat down aud crossed his legs
as usual, folded his drins and looked at the toe
OF bis left foot as usual.
Rises Seesaws. Puts his hands in his coat
tails. Proceeds 'Ah Abs" Corruscates.
Scintiatcs. Scizzes The ministers have been
spending their recess Gin blaze of apologies"
A di2zyism. Tories litter From the uXta-
position of the ballot bill and administrative
improvement for Ireland" he tries 10 thakc d
Joke by wondering with his clowniest connie
nance whether the. 'Secret voting" is TO be con
fined to Ireland; I wonder whether riSracli will
be in earnest DIT the judgment. As to the treaty,
The government made it, and the government
must stand by it, and the country must stand by
the governments At least that's MY inference.
The leader must be a little cautious because
one of his followers and former associates in
power tSir Stafford Nortbeotel was one Of The
bamboo$ed ehtinlission. But be likes to dwell,
dufihg the "hear, "hear' of his party, on the
fact that the American case contains quotations
from the pro confederate sheethes Of "thc right
honorable gentleman opposite, and with melo-
dramatic haughtneSS wants to know how it is
that we are hearing just now, for the first time,
of these claims, to meet which "would be peril
GUS to our fortunes and fatal to Our fame. .
Tory cheers, long repeated
ENGLAND has "behaved in a spirit of true
friendship and real generosity, aud he could
conceive OF nothing more dcplorable than that
they had been treated by the UniIed States in a
spirit of cunning and chcanev He was in
favor of saying frankly to the United States
We have but one Interpretation of the treaty.
You have another, and a very different one. As
we cannot accept your Interpretation, we ask
you TO accept ours, If you cannot, we ask YOU,
with no i'll feeling, to cancel the treaty He and
his side of the house would sustain the govern
ment in that course
Mr.. Gladstone, before reaching the arbitra-
zion muddle, in speaking of the sympathy ex-
pressed in foreign lands durirr Tic illness Of
the prince of Wales, said he was glad to make
the reference more emphatically to the PRAYERS
mat went up from every part of the United
States. This was greeted with great chcerin ,
by the liberals. In reference to the treaty he
said, IF there was one country to which we
were willing to give more and from which we
are willing to eXaetless than any other it is the
United States" CHEERS. Getting more and
more altlloquent as he thraShed about him, he
broke forth with this piece of passionate in-
discretiont 1--WE have advised the queen to put
in her speech what we believe we can show 10
be the meaning and the only meanng-that is
the only rational meaning, the direct grammati-
cal meaning, whether tested by sense, by policy,
or any other standard; and not one of several
conflicting and competing meanings which can
attach to the treaty, but the just meaning which
it unequivocally bears"
The lively gush of cheers which greeted this
came mostly from the tory, and from well up on
the tory side. The premier descended from
this rhetorical elevation, and concluded his
speech in friendly tone. He relied on the
fraternal disposition Of the two peoples one
toward the other. "Ony this day he was OPEN
ing an American newspaper, and there fell from
the inside sheet of no mean poetry, worthy of
more permanent means of record referring in
terms of deep feeling to the anniversary Of the
prince consorts death, and to the renewed and
high interest which that anniversary brought
forth"
In the house of lords, Earl Granville was
much more ludlcious than the premier, although
| he leaned upon crutch in the aronies of the
| DpUppI n bie
which, however, he declined to do, saving we
| are such creatures of habit that he doubted
whether be could. He was sure the common
| sense for which the American people are noted
| would lead them to put themselves in the
position of England, and see the impossibity Of
| their yielding to claims so indefinite and erro.
| neous.
The earl Of Derby said he could not deny that
| there had been certain amount of careleSSness
| on one side, and good deal of acuteness-be
| would not call it by any harsher name-shown
| on the other. They were right in coDtendinr
that the new claims are not, and never were, in
cluded in the treaty. [Cheers from both sides I
but II must be admitted that the language OF
the treaty is ambiguous and susceptible of both
the American and English construction. His
lordship said-and, by the way, what he saws is
about as likely to be right in the public cstIma-
ton here as what any man in Britain saws
mere IS no use in splitting hairs or verbal
discussions. 1t is quite enough 10 know what
we intended to offer, and what we believe we
were offering. And if it turns out. as is nuite
possible, mat we were putting one construction
upon an intentional agreement while the Ampri-
cans were putting upon it anothcr-if. in fact
| we have been OIL both sides uniutentionally mis-.
| leading one another-then apprehend that tho
| essential element of the contract is wanting.
| the agreement is no contract at all, and the
negotiahon, so far as that is concerned, is at an
| eud"
| The spiciest speech on the treaty was made
| oy Mr. Bernal Osborne, the member for Water
| ford. He belongs to the honorable frame
tereurs, who sit under the gangway" and un-
der no leader in particular, hut spend their
!lIIe IN watc9Ing all the leaders and followers
| IN general. He has the charm of audacity and
the advantage of boldnesS. He speaks well (for
| an Englishman), and has culver full of ar.
rows when he rises, which be generally man.
| ages to empty before he sits down. Aud al
though Mr.: Gladstone says they 'produce a
sensation like that produced on ones sIn bv
the prick OF pin" the right honorable gentle.
| mans wlncing may prove either that Mr. Os-
| Dorne's sarcastics are only pins or tbat Mr.
G!adstones skin is very thin. am disposed TO
| think that the latter is true. There is not a
thinner skinned man in the house than the lead.
err OF II. lie is contrast to PalmerSton in this
respect. Even DiSraei, who began his career
with a rete nlucOSum of this kind, has grown
wiser with age under the training of not only
events, nut OF lady whom he very properly
rewarded with title "lor services received"
Mr.. OsbO ne declared that if the business Of
any mercantile firm were conducted on the prin-
clples LAID down by the British commissioners.
1t would be in the Gazette forthwith. He was
aStounded that the prime minister should say
there was no ambiguity" What was ali This
hub-bub about il there was no ambiguity? He
dld not profess to be as good Judge of ambir-
| nous phrases as the right honorable gentleman
| IA PM, but there is a remarkable agreement on
the part OF the whole press of the country. He
| quoted Lord Cairns, who said, when the treaty
was hrst promul%ated: "What is there in this
| treaty to prevent exlrayagant claims? / can
not fnd single word in these procotos or in
these rules which prevents such claims from
beng put in and taking their chance. AS far
! as the Alabama claims are concerned the treaty
has been entered into most carelessiy and mn.
guardedly, and must inevitably lead 10 much
discussion hereafter in parliament" The peril.
GUS ambiguity of the treaty was thus oh.
served and remarked year ago. The
American commission consisted of FIVE of
| the most astute and experienced LAWYERS in the
| United States. Whom did we send 10 meet
| themF A band of gentlemen amateurs who had
| no sort of knowledge of the drawing of trea.
| ties, unless il be Of this American cbaracte,
| (another pin). They dug out from the universi.
| ty oil Oxford professor Of International law,
| who had written a treatise against all claims
| direct and indirect, on account OF the Alabama
who was TO coach" his n mafeur corn,n,ss;o,, 81