DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



263 



that Lord Tenterden and Mr. Bancroft Davis 

 were entitled to, and were requested to ac- 

 cept, the thanks of the Joint High Commission 

 for their valuable services, and the great assist- 

 ance which they had rendered with unvarying 

 obligingness to the commission. 



Lord de Grey replied, on behalf of the British 

 commissioners, that he and his colleagues most 

 cordially concurred in the proposal made by 

 Mr. Fish that the thanks of the Joint High Com- 

 mission should be tendered to Mr. Bancroft 

 Davis and Lord Tenterden for their valuable 

 services as joint protocolists. The British 

 commissioners were also quite as sensible as 

 their American colleagues of the great advan- 

 tage which the commission had derived from 

 the assistance which those gentlemen had 

 given them in the conduct of the important 

 negotiations in which they had been engaged. 



Monday, the 8th of May, was appointed for 

 the signatures of the treaty. 



On May 25th, Secretary Fish writes to Mr. 

 Schenck, the American minister at London, 

 that, " the Senate having advised and consented 

 thereto, the President has ratified the treaty 

 between the United States and Great Britain 

 for the settlement of pending questions be- 

 tween the two countries, signed at Washing- 

 ton on the 8th instant, and I now transmit to 

 you by the hands of Mr. Bancroft 0. Davis, 

 of Massachusetts, the American ratification to 

 be exchanged against that of her Britannic 

 Majesty, with full power to enable you to 

 effect that object." 



On June 22d Mr. Schenck writes from Lon- 

 don to Secretary Fish as follows : 



I have the satisfaction to inform you that, having 

 produced and exchanged powers from our respective 

 Governments, the formal exchange of ratifications 

 took palace, as agreed between Lord Granville and 

 myself, on Saturday, the 17th, at a quarter-past two 

 o'clock, P.M.. at the Foreign Office. I note the ex- 

 act time and place as marking an interesting and 

 momentous point in the historv of the two countries 

 and their Governments. Besides Lord Granville and 

 myself, there were present and assisting, on ourpart, 

 Mr. Moran, secretary of legation, and General Wood- 

 hull, assistant-secretary ; and on the other side, 

 Lord Tenterden and Mr. Bergne, of the Foreign 

 Office. No particular ceremony was observed be- 

 yond the signing of the certificates of our action. 

 There was, however, an interchange of hearty mu- 

 tual congratulation that we had completed an act 

 which has not only removed all present serious differ- 

 ences, hut established, we hope, lasting peace and 

 better understanding between the two countries. 



Steps were immediately taken for the ap- 

 pointment of the arbitrators. The following 

 is a oopy of the joint note sent by the two 

 Governments to the Emperor of Brazil, and 

 mutatis mutandis to the King of Italy, and the 

 President of the Swiss Confederation : 



"Differences having arisen between the Government 

 of the United States and the Government of her 

 Britannic Majesty, growing out of the acts commit- 

 teji by the several vessels which have given rise 

 to the claims generally known as the "Alabama 

 claims," the hign contracting parties, in order to re- 

 move and adjust all complaints and claims on the 

 part of the United States, and to provide for the 



speedy settlement of such claims, have agreed, by 

 the first article of the treaty signed at Washington on 

 May 8, 1871, of which a copy is annexed, to refer all 

 the said claims growing out of acts committed by 

 the aforesaid vessels, and generally known as the 

 "Alabama claims," to a tribunal of arbitration, to 

 be composed of five arbitrators, to be appointed in 

 the following manner, that is to say : One shall be 

 named by the President of the United States ; one 

 shall be named by her Britannic Majesty ; his Majesty 

 the Emperor of Brazil shall be requested to name 

 one; his Majesty the King of Italy shall be re- 

 quested to name one ; the President of the Swiss 

 Confederation shall be requested to name one. 



The high contracting parties, therefore, reposing 

 entire confidence in the spirit of justice and impar- 

 tiality which distinguishes his Majesty the Emperor 

 of Brazil, the common friend of the two states, have 

 agreed, in pursuance of the said treaty, to address 

 themselves severally to his Majesty, and to request 

 his Majesty to be pleased to appoint an arbitrator, 

 to form, with the arbitrators to be named by the 

 other powers above named, the tribunal of arbitra- 

 tion, to which reference agreed upon in the first 

 article of the treaty shall be made. 



The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minis- 

 ter plenipotentiary of the United States, having re- 

 ceived the orders of his Government to communicate 

 to his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil the agreement 

 thus made on the part of the United States, has been 

 further charged to express the earnest wish of the 

 President of the United States that his Majesty the 

 Emperor will be willing to afford his good offices on 

 the present occasion, and will be pleased to appoint 

 an arbitrator to act in the premises. 



The undersigned has the honor to request the 

 [Minister of Foreign Affairs] to lay this communica- 

 tion before his Majesty, and to be pleased to make 

 known to the undersigned his Majesty's determina- 

 tion with regard to the request therein set forth. 



In August, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, of 

 Massachusetts, was appointed arbitrator on be- 

 half of the United States, with Mr. James S. 

 Frazer, late of the Supreme Court of Indiana, 

 as commissioner of claims. {For further pro- 

 ceedings, see GREAT BRITAIN.) 



Charles Francis Adams is the only surviving 

 son of John Quincy Adams, ex-President of the 

 United States of America, and was born in 

 Boston, August 18, 1807. While still an infant, 

 he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, 

 where, with unusual precocity, he, prior to his 

 sixth birthday, had acquired a practical knowl- 

 edge of the Russian, German, and French lan- 

 guages. In the year 1815 (a period when the 

 " Grand Tour " was a work of considerable dan- 

 ger and difficulty, from the disturbed state of 

 Europe generally), he accompanied his father to 

 Paris, and thence to England, where he be- 

 came an inmate of one of its public schools. At 

 that time the prejudice of the English against 

 Americans and American institutions pervaded 

 every section of English society, the popular 

 feeling running so high as to amount almost 

 to persecution of the few American citizens 

 who visited its shores. This was more espe- 

 cially observable in the educational institu- 

 tions, and young Adams found it necessary to 

 vindicate the honor and reputation of his coun- 

 try by repeated pugilistic encounters, in which 

 his patriotic feeling and physical prowess uni- 

 formly procured for him the victory. His 

 father, who had for some time been engaged 



