Connecticut western news., 1896-01-09


 Will Be at Fault-The Times Important Concession.
 LONDON. Jan. s.-Sir Edward Clarke. speaking at Plymouth, in referring to Ven- ezuela, said:
 "We must not be too impatient or angry with the Monroe doctrine. If we refused to arbitrate except outside the Shomburgk line, we should have war with the United States, and war in which we should not be right. Each side must yield to some extent We must ignore the American commission, but to say that line fixed in 1S40 is unalterable is to adopt as un- reasonable an attitude as the United States adopted in President Cleveland's mes sage"
 He hoped, he said, that the government would resume negotiations with Venezuela direct, and that some mediator would be found whose judgment could be accepted with honor by both countries. In that case, he continued, we might be called upon to bear taunts both here and in America
 It would not be pleasant to hear that we had yielded after President Cleveland's message, but he did not believe in a bas- tard honor, which feared to do justice be- cause justice had been demanded with in- suit or menace. It was our business espe- cially to fuce the fearful calamity of war with America, to make up our minds to what was right and to do the right calmly and quietly regardless of taunt, content that we had helped to preserve peace by the only conduct worthy of a great nation.
 The close of Sir Edward Clarke's re- marks was greeted with cheers.
 Arbitration or War.
 The Chronicles Washington correspond ent cables as follows: "I once more re- peat my solemn conviction that the over whelming majority of the American peo- pie will support their government in war on behalf of the principle of arbitration where American interests arc believed to be involved. At the same time Ipositively reassert that the president and the cabinet earnestly desire an amicable settlement, and individual members of the admins tration confess that they fail to compre- bend the reasons for England's attitude of mere blunt refusal. In all the govern ment departments here the situation is re- garded as very serious, despite every effort made on behalf of peace"
 Commenting on the dispatch, The Chronicle said today: "The vital and ab- sorbing feature of the controversy is that America desires arbitration, and we can not refuse the request. It is slowly, we hope surely, entering the minds of our statesmen that in order to do justice to the American case we must look at the Mon roe doctrine from the American point of view. Herein the hair splitting of ingen- ious lawyers and academic essayists helps very little. We have to take into account a deep rooted national sentiment which has way of getting itself recognized in o,,I in xxit tha in1. of theoretical rules.
 Some Notable Admissions.
 "Lord Salisbury may urge this, that the American doctrine is not incorporated in the code of international law. The Ameri- can answer is that what we call intcrna- tional law is merely the customs observed by European states in their relations with each other which have been determined by the dominant powers. England has been foremost as maker of international law. It requires no exceptional gift of per ception to see that the United States aspire to the same leading role in politics on the American continent.
 England filled Europe with glory and was herself a benefit to mankind in the period of the Napoleonic wars. The inter- national law which is to govern the Amer ican continent is in progress of formation, and we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that since the United States are the domi- nant power on that continent they will not fail to exercise that paramount in fiuence which is incidental to the position. {"
 The Times has a long article on the Monroe doctrine and the Venezuela bound ary line. It makes an important conces- sion when it describes the Shomburgk line as having no particular sanctity and as useful mainly for marking of the prac- tically settled from the unoocupied dis tricts. By suggesting that 1t ought not to be difficult to determine and exclude the districts actually occupied on either side it opens the way for arbitration of the boundaries of the unsettled districts as whole, without dealing with the Shom- burgk line at all. The precise method pro- posed by The Times Is not important; what is significant is its concession that the Shomburgk line, which was Lord Sallsbury's irreducible minimum, lacks the sanctity of fixed frontier of the BriJ- ish empire. That was the line which Lord Salisbury said could not be discussed, yet the leading English journal deals with 1t as though it were a convenient geograph- ical expression, and argues that arbitra- tion could be arranged without reference to it