Year: 1872

The Results OF Incompetent Diplo-


macy.


At last the door Of the temple has been


thrown open and the mysteries of the Geneva


Court of Arbitration are displayed to the


vulgar eye. A special cable despatch to the


HERALD brings us intelligence of the result OF


the deliberations of the learned members OF


that august tribunal, reached after diligent


examination of cart loads of documents and q
patient hearing of exhaustive arguments. The
Court, we are told, declines to admit the prin-
ciple contended for by the American counsel,
that England made herself responsible for the


general escape of the Anglo Confederate cruisers


from her ports by want of "due diligence" or


the neglect of the plain duties of an honest


neutral towards friendly people struggling


for national existence against q powerful re-


bellion, and refuses to decide that the facts
show any disposition on the part of the Eng
lish authorities during our war to connive or
wink at general infraction of the neutrality
laws for the advantage of the Confederates


But by one of those mysterious processes of
reasoning known only to digni6ed arbitrators
and profound lawyers the Court then


proceeds to pronounce the opinion that


in the special cases of certain privateers there


was such want of due diligence as renders
England liable for the damages done by the
said vessels to the property of American citi-
zens within certain limits. Thus, while
the Georgia is ruled out altogether as one of
the cruisers for which our British cousins are
to be held responsible, and while the opera
tions of the Shenandoah before reaching Mel
bourne are disposed of in similar manner,
Judgment is given in favor of the United
States for the sum of sixteen or seventeen mil
lion dollars, one-half of which is on ac-
count of the notorious Alabama. AS might be
expected, the Lord Chief Justice of England
dissents from the decision of his brother arbi-
trators-although he accepts the verdict so far
as the Alabama is concerned-and writes an
opinion, long, of course, justifying his govern
ment and holding that its action was through
out in accordance with the requirements of
international law, of neutral obligations,
and even of the three rules of the Treaty of
Washington. These are the points of the
report that reaches us from Geneva to-day,
and these the results that are announced to be
highly satisfactory to our government at Wash
ington, and with which, we have been periodi-
cally assured, all the country is to be intensely
gratifed.


From the initiation of the Joint High Com
mission down to the virtual close of the arbi-
tration proceedings yesterday, this whole bust
ness seems to have been mainly carnival of
eating and drinking, mutual admiration and
overstrained courtesy. Controversies have
arisen it is true, and sharp ones at that; but
throughout the affair there has been an appa-
rent want of sincerity and earnestness, a sort of
diplomatic false pretence, revolving to all
honest and sensible people. At Washington,
pending the negotiations for the treaty every
thing was couleur de rose, and we were assured
that triumph was in preparation for the peo-
pie of the United States before which all the
glories of war would show dim and worthless


This same expectation was persistsntly held out
through all the stages Of the proceedings
down to the assembling of the arbitrators,
and then the eyes of the ordinary spectator
were dazzled by liberal display of the glory
of that distinguished tribunal The attraction
of mystery was invoked to awaken interest in
the body itself and to distract attention from
its matter-of-fact business. But at last the
famous Geneva Court of Arbitration has gone
out, like the performances of the English Gre
morne, or like one of our own Fourths of July,
in blaze of pyrotechnics, and we are enabled
to behold its surroundings under their ordinary
appearance. We do not mean to say that in
the closing scene at Geneva there have actually
been blazing wheels, twirling and twisting,
kissing and splitting and at last exploding
themselves with final noisy effort into an
illuminated representation Of Lord Chief JUS
tice Cockburn's wig, or spouting jets of sparks,
playing gracefully into the air and gradually
taking the semblance of the jovial countenance
of Count Sclopis in a setting of variegated fire.
We speak fguratively, Of course, and allude
to the balls, fetes, dinners, excursions and
general Qualifications that have rewarded
the learned and amiable gentlemen who
have been for the past four or five months
devoting themselves to the laborious task of
discovering that England never committed an
act unbecoming a neutral and never was
guilty of bad faith towards the United States
when she sent forth privateers to prey upon
our commerce under the black flag of the
slave Confederacy. These gratifying and
attractive exhibitions are now over, and as
they have had the effect of fireworks in
momentarily dazzling and confusing the eyes
of the beholders, it will not be surprising if
their sudden cessation should leave dull,
heavy, unpromising appearance upon the
actual work of the tribunal. We do not desire
to incur the charge of irreverence when we
express the opinion that all the noise and bril-
liancy of the Geneva display have been manu-
factured to order, like pyrotechnist's handi-