Year: 1871

| Or


WASHINGTON, April %, 1871


The Joint High Commission has SUBJ


stantialy completed it's labors, and will


have the basis for the settlement of the


questions pending between this country


and England read by the first of next


month. Though the results of the two


months negotiations are unknown, the


questions themselves are freely discussed


in political circles here, and important


opinions have been expressed by Senators


and others as to what terms of settlement


the United States viii accept.


1t is quite positively asserted by some


that the Commissioners have agreed on
basis for the adjustment of the Ala


bama claims, which will be acceptable to
the country. This belief is based on the
fact that this question has been SO VIZ =
ly discussed, both in this country and ia
England, that the Commissioners ouei.
to have known beforehand what condi-
tons would be acceptable to their re-
spective nations, and also on hints that
have been thrown out in official circles.
There are some, however, vino, like Gen.
Butler, do not believe that the country
will accept any settlement that so FIR has
been guessed at as likely to be made.
They say that the claims amount to only
$13, ,OO0, ,0OO-equal to the ircomo of the
United States for II day5--and that they
are nearly all held oy insurance COM
panies, the representa.ires Of which testi-
fed before the Committee of Ways and
Means last Winter that their charges for
insurance were so sreat during the war
that their actual losses were very light.
1t is also said chat many of the vessels
destroyed were insured in Liverpool, and
that much of the money paid by England
viii 80 to her own subjects. They deny
that the establishment, as a principle of
international law, that neutral nation
shall not build and fit out vessels for ma
tions at war will facilitate in the least the
settlement of the question in the opinion
of the people. That is just what we want
to do, they say. When we had war upon
our hands England took advantage of the
circumstance to build up her commerce
and establish many of her great ship
yards, and now, when England gets into
trouble, our ship-builders and merchants
ought to have the same privileges.


Those who would maintain the posi-
ton taken by the Senate, and so unani-
mously approved by the county when the
Jonhson-Clarendon treaty was rejected,
scout the idea that we can in any possible
way get into a war with England al this
time. They say that war with the Unit
ad States is the last thing that England
will engage in at present.


Two classes of public men here doubt |
the ability of the Commission to agree
upon plan for the settlement of the
Fishery question that the Senate will |
ratify and the country approve, and which |
will at the some time be satisfactory to
the Canadian Government. Any treaty |
to establish the right of Americans to |
fish in Canadian waters, which in any
way recognizes the Dominion Govern
ment as semi-independent power, with |
which the United States is in any way to |
negotiate or enter into arbitration, and |
any that contains in it an element of re-
ciprocity between the United States and
Canada, it is not believed would be agreed
to by the Senate. The objection to such |
a basis of settlement with many Senators |
would be that it would tend to check the |
growth Of public opinion in Canada fav-
oring independence or union with the
United States. and while they would not
advocate positive measures to bring about |
this, they would do nothing to defeat it |
It is not believed, therefore, by those
who are familiar with the repeated warn
ings that have been given the American |
Commission by men whose influence is
greatest here, that they have fallen into
the grave error Of agreeing that the
United States shall pay to Canada any
sum of money to be determined on by
arbitration. We might agree, it is said.
to pay Great Britain, if the justice of
such course could be shown, but never
to Canada. Gen. Butler, who represents
the fishing interest of the country, thus