72 PROTOCOLS. 



feel confined in a, world too narrow. Onr work is a finst attempt at a sliaring of the 

 products of the ocean, which has liitherto been undivided, and at applying a rule 

 to tilings which escaped every other law but that of the fii'st occupant. If this 

 attempt succeeds, it will doubtless be followed by numerous imitations, until the 

 entire planet, until the waters as well as the continents will have become the sub- 

 ject of a careful partition. Then, perhaps, the conception of property may change 

 amongst men. 



Before laying down the mandate which we have received in trust from two great 

 Goveruments, we desire to otfer our gratitude to all those whose elforts had for their 

 object to facilitate the accomplishment of our task, and esjiecially to the agents and 

 counsel of the tw^o Governments of the United States of America and Great liritain. 



And, now, a Frenchman may be Y>ermitted to use a word which his ancestors 

 emx)loyed when they sung the lay of their great Em]>eror, aiid to say to :ill of you: 

 Gentlemen, may you retaiu a kind remembrance of sweet France! 



Loid Ilaiiuen, tlion addressing the president, said: 



Mr. de Courcel, on behalf of your late colleagues, I have to express my great 

 regret that the absence of the President of the French Republic and Mr. Devjdle 

 from Paris prevents our waiting upon them before leaving this city w'here we have 

 been so kindly treated. We must therefore beg you, ay the French member of the 

 late Tribunal of Arbitration, to convey to the President and to the French Govern- 

 ment the expression of our sentiments of iiroiound gratitude for the gracious recep- 

 tion and generous hospitality which they have extended to us. Our thanks are 

 specially due to Mr. Develle, who, so much to his own inconvenience, has provided 

 us in thisi)alace with so splendid a domicile, and we offer liim our apologies for having 

 so long, though involuntarily, trespassed on his kindness. 



And now, Mr. de Courcel, I have to discharge a duty Avhicli gives me peculiar 

 satisfaction. I have to express to you our high appreciation of the manner in which 

 you have pi'tisided over our deliberations. The public has had the opportunity of 

 witnessing the sagacity, the learning, and the courtesy with which you have guided 

 the ]iroceedings during the arguments. Your colleagues only can know how greatly 

 those qualities have assisted us in our private conferences. Let me add, that our 

 intimate relations Avith you have taught us to regard yon with the warmest esteeni 

 and att'cction. I'crmit me to say^ that you have won in each of us an attached friend. 



I must not ('(mclude without an allusion to the remarkable occasion which has 

 brought ns together. AVe trust that the result will prove that we have taken part 

 in a great historical transaction fruitful ia good for the world. Two great nations, 

 in submitting their differences to arbitration, have set an example which I doubt 

 not will be followed from time to time by others, so that the scourge of war will be 

 more and more repressed. Few can be so sanguine as to expect that all international 

 quarrels will be speedily settled by arbitration, instead of by the dread arbitrament 

 of war; but each occasion on which the peaceful method is adopted will hasten the 

 time when it will be the rule and not the exception. 



One of our poets has said that every prayer for universal peace avails to expedite 

 its coming. 



We have done more than join in such a sni»plication ; we may hope that we have 

 been the humble instruments through whom an answer has been granted to that 

 prayer which I doubt not ascends from the hearts of th(!se two kindred nations, that 

 peace may ibrever prevail between them. 



I bid you heartily iarewell. 



Seuator Morgan then addressed tlie l'(»lh)\\iiig remarks to ex])resshis 

 vshare in the sentiments which Lord Uanneii had Jnst interpreted: 



The arbitrators on the part of the United States most sinceiely unite in the very 

 hapi)y expressions that have fallen from Lord Ilanueu, of grateful api)reciation of 



