Year: 1872

THE LATEST TREATY CORRESPONDENCE.


The most hardened reader of public docu-
ments has rarely been invited to more I'M
satisfactory banquet than that which the State
Department laid before the country yesterday,
and of which we published as much as we
could Afford and more than anybody VIII
care to read. On reading this correspondence
once more, the words of the dying Oxenstlern
come to the mind, and we see with how little
wisdom the world is governed. Lord Gran
vile. Gen. Schenck, and Mr.. Fish here exhibit,
through q half years correspondence, the
unsuccessful craft and the undlscriminating
suspicion which have been the bane OF the
whole unfortunate negotiation, from It's De-
ginning to this hour. 1t looks like one OF
those famous Battles of Fools of the time OF
Charles VI, where blindfod clowns cudgeled
each other for the amusement of the Court


From the beginning 20 the end no one seems
to comprehend the intentions, any more than
the nronositions of another. Gen. Schenck be-
Gins nv promising that he will pre-
vent tbe English from "saying or do
ing ANYTHING offensive" and Mr. Fish stlffiy
assures him that "there will be no withdrawal
"of any part of the Case" A little further on
Feb. or we find Sir Edward Thornton tele-
graphing from Washington that the Cabinet IS
divided on the question, and Lord Granville
is proposing to Gen. Schenck that the British
Government shall "not press for the with
4" "drawal of the American Case if the Govern
"ment of the United States will under
take that their agent shall inform the
Arbitrators at or before the meeting
1t toto 1n M
"ask an award on the indirect claims" TO
this Mr.. Fish promptly replied that =" the suS-
"gestiOn was inadmisSible." When we con-
slider all the annoyance and discredit all the
wrangling and snarling all the flatulence IN
Congress and in Parliament to attain far less
favorable terms than those Lord Granville
offered last February, we can then understand
how much we owe to our Government and
what q great aud useful thing Is diplomacy


Every one of these letters is a temptation
TO criticism. But of what avail would 1t be
10 follow up their feeble meanderngs, con-
tradictiOns, and confusion? The country Is
thoroughly sick of the subject 1t has been
so impotently handled, so ScaDdalously exposed
to public contempt at every stage OF Its
progress, that it is probable no one will read





whose professional duty it is. They show one
unbroken course of advance on'the part OF the
British and retreat on the part of our Govern
ment Once in a while Mr. Fish Is driven
into a corner and says he will go no further;
but he almost always chooses some untenable
ground to stand upon. Thus, after submitting
to a serious loss of position, involving even
loss of national dignity and sef-respect, by
accepting Earl Granville's draft for Supple
mental Treaty, our Government neglected 1t Ill
the Senate, so that it was made ridiculous
by its vagueness, and then positively and
sharply refused to accept a perfectly fair
and reasonable emendatiOn of its Ian
guage. II is difficult to believe that the
only question which has divided the two Gov
ernments since the 30th of May, and upon
which the fate of the Treaty has hung, is that,
whereas the Supplemental Treaty as amendedby
us excludes from future consideration as be-
tween the two nations any claims for remote
OF indirect losses resulting from the acts of
belligerents, committed "by reason of
"failure to observe neutral obligations"
the English Minister very properly desired
to substitute for this slOvenly and meaningless
phrase, this more definite and comprehensive
one, "by reason of a want of due diligence
con the part of a neutral in the performance
"of neutral obligations Surely after yielding
so much more than should have been yielded
in matter and substance, it would have been
no killing matter to submit to this palpabe
and unobjectionable amendment of form. But
the curse of the entire negOtiatiOn-and we
do not pretend to know whether it comes
from Gen. Grant or from Mr.. Fish i that
when essentials are discussed our Government
has nose of wax, and when mere trifes are
in question it has a beak of bronze.


1t is not worth while to waste time in con-
lectures as to what the Board of Arbitration
will do in their session of Wednesday. 1t is
pretended, on utterly insufficient foundation,
that the question of indirect claims has already
been decided never to have been before the
Court and that therefore the Tribunal will
proceed to the practical work of arbitrating
the direct claims without delay. 1t is not i'm
possible that some such decision may be made
tomorrow, for all sides would be glad to see
the dishOnOred rubbish swept out of the way.


--


HOW THE REFORM LEGISLATURE RE-


FORMED THE CANALS.


No charge against the late Democratic State
Administration was more general or effective
than that concerning its extravagant manage