Year: 1872

Earl Russell, was DascU upon tno noPo Shap
our Government were preparing plan OF
retreat, and it was not good policy to embar-
rass and annoy them. The English news
papers, more ignorant and more reckless than
the Ministers, have observed no restraint, and
have continually insisted that all which was
necessary was to tell the United states square,
" what they had to expect, to bring them to
sense of their duty. SO well-informed and so
moderate journal rs The Pail Mall Gazette
at tho close Of an article which
evinces certain power OF seeing the
other eide of the question, makes this
astonishing declaration: "It is something to
discover that the ascertained determination
"of this country not to allow arbitratiOn to
"proceed unless the indirect claims are with
"drawn is having it's effect on the people Of
"America. The changes we see going on in
"American feeling are due to the fact that the
"British public has plainly exhibited resolve
(which the Government still hesitates to de-
"clare." If it be true that the people of the
United States have been forced to recognize
the fact that our side of the controversy has
been terribly msmanaged, they have not
learned it from the leaders in the London
journals nor from speeches in Parliament. 1t
would be fatal error to imagine that any
assumption of "resolute" attitude on the
part of any foreign Government would be the
best means of inducing the American people
to withdraw from any position which, rightly
or wrongly, they considered just one. But
when we descend to papers of lower grade,
like The Standard, for instance, we see tho
full bloom of that Grass ignorance and self
conceit which distinguish the caricatures
of the Englshman in the theaters OF the
Continent. 1t notices our article on the sur
render of our Case by Mr.. Fish, and, among
other impertinences, says:


"The surrender is not surrender at discretion; nor
does fully the objections of this country or give
us all that we have required and felt bound to require
as q condition Of proceeding with the Arbitration IL
does not amount to withdrawal OF the claims, or Sc
cure us against decision which might entail the graves
consequences. 1t does not meet our just objection
to allow those claims TO be referred at ALL
for they havo been put in issue by tho original plea
OF the American Government and cannot be with
drawn from the cognizance OF the Arbitrators by q
merely negative action its part. There Is nothing
supposed concession TO prevent tho ArDitrator
from passing judgment these claims IL they think h
or to preclude the American Government from alleging
that they included In general award OF damages



part of Mr.. Bancroft Davis. On the other hand the
concession lust goes far enough embarrass posi-
tioD."


If such language as this can be taken to in
dicate the tone of feeling even among the
more ignorant classes of the British public 1T
is easy to imagine how impossible it would be
for Ministry dependent upon popular opinion
to approach this delicate subject with any hope
of doing justice and retaining their places
Any possible compromise, which would not be
thrown out of window by the Congress and
people of the United States, is here rejected
in advance. We are informed that we must
confess that we have made an unfounded
claim; that we know it to be unfOunded; ;
that it shall never be renewed; and
it is even intimated that some judiciOus pun
ishment administered to Mr.. Bancroft Davis
would be graceful act, and would soothe the
agitated feelings of our susceptible cousins.
1t must be confessed that our Government
is not blameless in the matter. Our claims
were clumsily presented, and afterward the
oyertures we made to withdraw them were to
the last degree undignifed and maladroit.
That we are not completely discreditcd and
dishOnOred in our own eyes, is due not so





persistent Obstinacy of the British Government.
If they had accepted the humble overtures we
made in the sense in which they were in
tended, we should have had no means of
escape from the trap into which we were
walking. But the effort to gain still more
from us will probably end in the failure of
the Treaty, and this we can bear with far
greater equanimity than would have been
necessary to support the unconditional sur
render, in tho face of mere clustering, of all
that we have claimed for the last ten years.


Even yet, the London papers, while begin
ming to anticipate the lapse of the Treaty,
continue their obstinate misapprehension of
the tone of American feeling upon this mat
ter. They yesterday threatened Gen. Grant
with defeat in the pending canvass unless he
withdraws these claims If Gen. Grant wished
to return with all expedition to private life,
the surest way of accomplishing it would be
to attempt to extricate the Alabama business
from the slough where it has fallen through
the incapacity Of his Administration, by an
unconditional surrender to England of the
whole subject Of controversy.


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