The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-10
BR1rlIN NAY .4nBIrRIrE.

bhI f-IL-N 4Hsi ! -d hbI LiI Eas
 
 Peaceful Settlement of the Venezuelan
 Mattor Probable Salisbury to Fon the
 Liberals-Wui Not Give Them an oppor- -tunity to Crlticisa His Foreign Policy
 England's Case Now Being Prepared,
 London, Feb 9.--A report that was generally credited is current in the conservative clubs that the government would be able in the house of commons to foil the attack of the opposition on the Venezuelan question by announcing that negotiations for the arbitration of the Anglo Venezuelan dispute had been opened. Nothing can be said relative to the precise form the liberals crlti- cism of the government will assume un- til the leaders of the opposition get time to scan the queens speech opening the session of parliament, which will be read on Tuesday next.
 It is understood that the speech will contain an assurance vaguely put to the effect that the government has under consideration proposals that offer 8 prospect Of q peaceful solution of the dispute. If Q more definite ministerial statement cannot be obtained, then an amendment to the address in reply to the queens speech distinctly affirming that arbitration ought. to be accepted by Great Britain will be moved by Sir William Vernon Harcourt, the liberal leader in the house Of commons.
 No meeting Of the leaders of the lib- eral party will be held until Monday, but to-day several influential members of the party in the house of commons met eX-Prime Minister Rosebery and dis cussed the general line of action to be followed. The party is solid in it's de- termination not to allow the difficulty with the United States anent the British Guiana boundary dispute to drift fur ther
 It will not submit to rebuffs by the ministers pretending that there is ne- cessity for reticence, nor will it accept excuses based upon the habitual dila- toriness of the foreign office,
 As many of the unionists are strongly in favor of there being no delay i'll the Arbitratton of the question, the liberals will have strong ground for Insisting upon explicit and candid official eXplan- ations of the present situat ton and the policy of the government.
 The conservatives assert that Lord Rosebery will find himself in an awk- ward position in assailing Prime Minis ter Salisbury. as documents in the for eign office prove that when Lord Rose bery held the office of secretary of state for foreign affairs from 1892 to 1894, in which latter year he succeeded MT. Gladstone as prime minister he refused to accept arbitration.
 The progress of Sir Frederick Pollock, corpus professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford university, who is preparing the case of Great Britain, is known to be slow. Officials of the Royal Geographi- cal society, including Clements F. Markham, president of the society, and others, are busy in making researches on behalf of Sir Frederick Pollock. They, however, are scarcely reliable guides. as they are entirely prejudiced in favor of the British claim, and are open advocates thereof.
 The papers which have given promi- hence to the views of MT. Markham, he holding that Venezuela inherits no claim to any part of the so-called Brit ish Guiana, and the views of other per- sons supporting the British contentious have not noticed a remarkable state- ment made by Sir David Chalmers, who spoke before the Edinburgh Geographi- cal society. He was chief justice of British Guiana from 1878 to 1894, and has special knowledge of the country. He deliberately affirmed that, out of the 900 square miles supposed to form British Guianas widest territorial claim, Venezuela can claim two-thirds with absolute honesty. He would not say that these two-thirds belonged to Venezuela, but would only state that the territory could be claimed by Vene- zuela on grounds strong enough to be submitted to arbitration, justified in pri- vate life, or submitted to a court of justice.