ALABAMA CLAIMS. 127 



Sir Alexander Cockburn, as one of the Arbitrators, 

 declining to assent to the Decision, presented a state 

 ment of his &quot; Reasons,&quot; which, without reading, the 

 Tribunal ordered to be received and recorded. 



Thereupon, in an appropriate address, Count Sclopis 

 declared the labors of the Arbitrators to be finished, 

 and the Tribunal dissolved. 



The discourse of Count Sclopis was immediately 

 followed by salvos of artillery, discharged from the 

 neighboring site of La Treille by order of the Can 

 tonal Government, with display of the flags of Geneva 

 and of Switzerland between those of the United States 

 and of Great Britain. 



It is impossible that any one of the persons present 

 on that occasion should ever lose the impression of 

 the moral grandeur of the scene, where the actual 

 rendition of arbitral judgment on the claims of the 

 United States against Great Britain bore witness to 

 the generous magnanimity of two of the greatest na 

 tions of the world in resorting to peaceful reason as 

 the arbiter of grave national differences, in the place 

 of indulging in baneful resentments or the vulgar 

 ambition of war. This emotion was visible on almost 

 every countenance, and was manifested by the ex 

 change of amicable salutations appropriate to the 

 separation of so many persons, who, month after 

 month, had been seated side by side as members of 

 the Tribunal, or as Agents and Counsel of the two 

 Governments ; for even the adverse Agents and Coun 

 sel had contended with courteous weapons, and had 

 not, on either side, departed, intentionally or con- 



