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We have gained the vindication of our rights as a Government; the redress of the wrong done to our citizens; the political prestige, in Europe and America, of the enforcement of our rights against the most powerful State of Christendom; the elevation of maxims of right and of justice into the judgment-seat of the world; the recognition of our theory and poli cy of neutrality by Great Britain; the honorable conclusion of a long-standing controversy and the extinction of a cause of war between Great Britain and the United States; and the moral authority of hav ing accomplished these great objects without war, by peaceful means, by appeals to conscience and to reason, through the arbitrament of a high international Tribunal.

That war, the great curse and scourge of mankind, will utterly cease because of the present successful instance of international arbitration, nobody pretends. Questions of national ambition or national resentment,--conflicts of dynastic interest,-schemes of territorial aggrandizement,-nay, deeper causes, resting. in superabundant population or other internal facts of malaise, misery and discontent, will continue to produce wars to the end of time.

"Non, sans doute," says M. de Mazade,-speaking of the acts of the Tribunal,-"la guerre n'est point bannie de ce monde, elle n'est pas remplacée par un tribunal de conciliation faisant rentrer au fourreau les épées impatientes d'en sortir: ce n'est pas moins un événement caractéristique et heureux que le succés de ce tribunal d'équité, de cette sorte de justice internationale."

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We, Great Britain and the United States, have in

this matter shown that even a question affecting, or supposed to affect, national honor, may be settled by arbitration; and if we have not effected the establishment of international arbitration as the universal substitute for war, we have co-operated to prove by our example that the largest possible questions be tween contending Governments are susceptible of being settled by peaceful arbitration. As Lord Ripon truly says, in so doing, we have taken a great step in the direction of the dearest of all earthly blessings, the blessing of peace.

Let us hope that other nations may follow in our footsteps. Great Britain, to her honor be it said, has been true in this respect to the engagements she entered into at the Conferences of Paris. If we of the British race are more capable of reasoning in the midst of passion than others, then ours be the glory. In all this, the sacrifices of feeling have been on the side of Great Britain. We owe the acknowledg ment to her, in all sincerity. Standing, as we now do, side by side, with every cloud of offense removed from between us,-two peoples, as Mr. Gladstone has well said, on whom the seal of brotherhood has been stamped by the hand of the Almighty himself,-we may proudly point in unison to the homage we have both rendered to the cause of peace and humanity in the hall of arbitration at Geneva.

CHAPTER III.

MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS.

TREATY PROVISIONS.

THE Treaty goes on to provide, in Articles XII. to XVII. inclusive, that all claims on the part of corporations, companies, or private individuals, citizens of the United States, upon the Government of Great Britain, arising out of acts committed against the persons or property of citizens of the United States, during the period between April 13, 1861, and April 9, 1865, inclusive, not being claims growing out of the acts of the vessels referred to in the previous articles of the Treaty; and all claims, with the like exception, on the part of corporations, companies, or private individuals, subjects of Great Britain, upon the Government of the United States, arising out of acts committed against the persons or property of subjects of Great Britain during the same period, shall be refer red to three Commissioners to be appointed, one by each of the two Governments, and the third by the two Governments conjointly: these Commissioners to meet at Washington, there to hear, examine, and decide upon such claims as may be presented to them by either Government.

The stipulation, it will be perceived, does not cover

all existing claims of citizens or subjects of the one Government against the other, but only claims for acts committed against persons or property on either side between certain defined dates, that is, during the pendency of actual hostilities in the United States. It is a provision, supplementary in effect to the preceding clauses of the Treaty, conceived in the apparent intention of thus closing up all subjects of contention growing out of our Civil War.

The Commission was duly organized by the ap pointment of Mr. Russell Gurney, Commissioner on the part of Great Britain, and Mr. James S. Frazer, on the part of the United States, and of Count Corti, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Italy, Commissioner named conjointly by the two Governments.

The Treaty contains detailed provisions for the prosecution of the business before the Commission, to be completed within two years from the day of their first meeting; and the contracting parties engage to consider the decision of the Commissioners absolutely final and conclusive on each claim decided by them, -to give full effect to such decision without any objection, evasion, or delay whatsoever, and to consid er every claim comprehended within the jurisdiction of the Commissioners as finally settled, barred, and thenceforth inadmissible, from and after the conclusion of the proceedings of the Commission.

The Commissioners assembled at Washington on the 26th of September, 1871, and are assiduously engaged in the determination of the claims submitted

in conformity with the Treaty, having before them as Agent for the United States, Mr. Robert S. Hale; as Agent for Great Britain, Mr. Henry Howard; with Mr. James M. Carlisle as Counsel, and Mr. Thomas C. Cox, Secretary to the Commission.

The Commission will undoubtedly complete its duties within the time prescribed by the Treaty.

PRIVATE CLAIMS ON GOVERNMENTS.

The intimate relation, which exists between the different States of Christendom at the present time, has resulted in the necessity of providing special means for adjudicating the private claims of the citizens or subjects of one Government against another. It is one of the incidents of the gradual tendency of modern nations to substitute reason for force, and arbitration for war.

The subject has not yet obtained from publicists and legislators the attention which, by reason of its great practical importance, and its intrinsic interest as an element of civilization, it deserves. It may well receive consideration here, both in itself and in its relation to other congenial stipulations of the Treaty of Washington.

All the Powers of Christian Europe and America are of accord, and stipulate in their treaties of amity and commerce, to permit to one another's subjects free ingress, residence, sojourn, and traffic in their respective territories, on the same footing with the inhabitants thereof, and with subjection to the laws of the land, more or less complete, according to local

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