124 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SEEVICE-XIV 



would at last be brought to it. Of course, every think 

 ing Englishman looked with uneasiness toward the possi 

 bility that a line might be laid down by the United States 

 which it would feel obliged to maintain, and which would 

 necessitate its supporting Venezuela, at all hazards, 

 against Great Britain. 



The statesmanship of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Olney 

 finally triumphed. Most fortunately for both parties, 

 Great Britain had at Washington a most eminent diplo 

 matist, whose acquaintance I then made, but whom I af 

 terward came to know, respect, and admire even more 

 during the Peace Conference at The Hague Sir Julian, 

 afterward Lord, Pauncefote. His wise counsels pre 

 vailed; Lord Salisbury receded from his position; Great 

 Britain agreed to arbitration; and the question entered 

 into a new stage, which was finally ended by the award of 

 the Arbitration Tribunal at Paris, presided over by M. 

 de Martens of St. Petersburg, and having on its bench the 

 chief justices of the two nations and two of the most emi 

 nent judges of their highest courts. It is with pride and 

 satisfaction that I find their award agreeing, substantially, 

 with the line which, after so much trouble, our own com 

 mission had worked out. Arbitration having been de 

 cided upon, our commission refrained from laying down 

 a frontier-line, but reported a mass of material, some 

 fourteen volumes in all, with an atlas containing about 

 seventy-five maps, all of which formed a most valuable con 

 tribution to the material laid before the Court of Arbitra 

 tion at Paris. 



It was a happy solution of the whole question, and it 

 was a triumph of American diplomacy in the cause of 

 right and justice. 



I may mention, in passing, one little matter which 

 throws light upon a certain disgraceful system to which 

 I have had occasion to refer at various other times in these 

 memoirs ; and I do so now in the hope of keeping people 

 thinking upon one of the most wretched abuses in the 

 United States. I have said above that we were, of course, 



