ALABAMA CLAIMS. 173 



dismissed, yet it does not appear that any of the 

 guilty parties, such as Laird, Miller, Thomas, Prioleau, 



the 23d and 25th or 26th of July, was on the evening of Mon 

 day, the 28th of July, when he was summoned by the Attor 

 ney-General, Sir W. Atherton, to consider them in consultation, 

 and when the advice to be given to the Government was agreed 

 upon.&quot; Sir R. Palmer thinks it his duty to add, that &quot; no Gov 

 ernment ever had a more diligent, conscientious, and laborious 

 servant than Sir W. Atherton ; and that it is in the last degree 

 unlikely that he would have been guilty of any negligence or 

 unnecessary delay in the consideration of papers of such im 

 portance.&quot; 



We thus learn that in the latter part of June, as the Amer*- 

 ican Counsel had supposed, Sir John Harding was unable to 

 attend to the business of the Government. Next, we are in 

 formed that the papers might have been sent to his private 

 house, to remain there unattended to ; but it is not asserted that 

 they icere so sent in fact. Nay, we are left to conjecture that 

 they might have been sent to the house of Sir William Ather 

 ton ; but it is not asserted that they were. Indeed, Sir Roundell 

 Palmer speaks of &quot; the delivery at their private house,&quot; mean 

 ing apparently &quot; houses.&quot; Next, we are asked to believe that, 

 because of the death of &quot; Sir J. Harding and his wife,&quot; and that 

 of &quot; Sir W. Atherton and his wife,&quot; no means exist to explain 

 the fatal delay in this case, by reason, of which so much loss 

 and shame have been brought on Great Britain. 



Was it ever before imagined that the death of an Advocate- 

 General or an Attorney-General, and their wives, should leave 

 a Government wholly without means of knowledge on such a 

 subject, or should be put forward to explain such delay of ac 

 tion on the part of Ministers ? 



Who carried the papers to the house either of Sir John 

 Harding or Sir William Atherton, or both? Why did Lord 

 Russell permit six days to elapse without inquiring for the an 

 swer to his reference when every hour was pressing for action ? 

 Who brought the papers away from the place in which they 

 were, whether the house of Sir J. Harding, or the house of Sir 



