102 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



British Government would seem to have supposed 

 that the United States were to discuss and confute 

 the British &quot; Counter-Case&quot; in the American &quot; Counter- 

 Case ;&quot; that is, to make reply to an elaborate argu 

 ment on the law and the facts [for such is the British 

 &quot;Counter-Case&quot;] without seeing it or possessing any 

 knowledge of its contents. Manifestly, no complete 

 and systematic final &quot;Argument&quot; on the part of the 

 United States was possible without previous thought 

 ful knowledge of the British &quot; Counter-Case.&quot; And 

 yet Sir Roundell Palmer, in expressing desire to an 

 swer our &quot;Argument,&quot; reasoned expressly on the im 

 plication that it ought to have been &quot;a mere comple 

 ment of previous documents&quot; No such idea certainly 

 is conveyed by the Treaty; and the implication is 

 contrary to reason and the very nature of things. 



Sir Roundell Palmer entered on the question the 

 moment it became reasonably certain that the Arbi 

 tration would proceed. On the 29th of June he pro 

 posed to us, informally, to arrange for reargument of 

 the cause, he to have until the end of the first week 

 of August to prepare his Argument, and w r e to the 

 end of August to prepare a reply. The effect of this 

 w r ould be a suspension of the sittings for more than 

 ten weeks, and a prolongation to that extent [and 

 perhaps much more] of the absence of the American 

 Arbitrator, Agent, and Counsel from their country. 

 In other respects the proposition involved much in 

 equality; for it would have given to the British 

 Counsel nearly six iveeks at his own home in London, 

 with books, assistants, translators, and printing-offices 



