ALABAMA CLAIMS. 153 



they actually decided, the immediate effect of the De 

 cision, and the general relation thereof to Great Brit 

 ain, to the United States, and to the other Govern 

 ments of Europe and America. 



KEYIEW OF THE DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL OX NATIONAL 



LOSSES. 



To begin, let us see what was the true thought of 

 the Tribunal regarding the class of claims, as to which 

 the British Government displayed so much superflu 

 ous emotion subsequently to the publication of the 

 American Case, and which the Tribunal passed upon, 

 in effect, without previous decision whether they were 

 or were not embraced in the Treaty. 



I have already called attention to the fact that no 

 consideration of direct or indirect, immediate or conse 

 quential, appears in that opinion of the Tribunal. 

 The Arbitrators express a conclusion, not the reasons 

 of the conclusion. We might, it Is true, easily infer 

 those reasons from the language in which the conclu 

 sion is expressed. That language excludes all such 

 trivial questions as whether &quot; direct &quot; or &quot; indirect,&quot; 

 and invokes us to seek for the unexpressed reasons in 

 some higher order of ideas. Meanwhile we have, at 

 length, in the final &quot; Decision,&quot; means of ascertaining 

 the whole thought of the Tribunal. 



The Arbitrators had to pass on a claim of indemni 

 ty for the costs of pursuit of Confederate cruisers by 

 the Government : a claim admitted to be within the 

 jurisdiction of the Tribunal, and which the Tribunal 

 rejects on the ground that such costs &quot;are not, in the 



