THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 257 



due to the United States on account of the 

 dereliction were assessed at 15, 500,000. Sir 

 Alexander Cockburn, the British arbitrator, 

 dissented from the judgment of the tribunal on 

 all but a single point, namely, that due dili 

 gence had not been used in ascertaining the 

 character of the Alabama and preventing her 

 departure from Liverpool. The dissenting opin 

 ions of the Englishman were embodied in a very 

 lengthy document, in which he expressed with 

 unjudicial candor his contempt for the intelli 

 gence of his fellow arbitrators and for the meth 

 ods and attainments of those who conducted 

 the American case. Cockburn s caustic crit 

 icism found some reflection in the Tory press, 

 and there appeared more or less of the once 

 familiar diatribe against the Yankees. In gen 

 eral, however, the judgment was acquiesced 

 in by British public opinion with good grace. 

 Even Cockburn ended his offensive opinion with 

 an expression of the hope and desire that the 

 arbitration would prove a potent influence in 

 maintaining amity between the two kindred 

 peoples. 



This was indeed the dominant note in Great 

 Britain. The whole social and political move 

 ment of the day, with the now liberalized Glad- 



