ALABAMA CLAIMS. Gl 



News, tlic Saturday Kevlew, llic Spcctatoi-, llic Pall 

 jNIall Gazette, the jManchestcr Guardian, and otlicr 

 Britisli journals generally, are certainly conducted 

 ■with great ability, and are second, in cliaracter and in 

 value, to no others in Europe. lu view of Avhicli it 

 must be confessed that the outcry which they made 

 against the American Case seemed to me at the time 

 to be altogether unworthy of them and of England. 



It ^va9 my opinion on reading the American Case 

 for the first time, and is my opinion now, after re- 

 l)eated readings, that it is not only a document of 

 signal ability, learning, and forensic force, — which, in- 

 deed, every body admits, — but that it is also tempcr- 

 ftto in language and dignified in si)irit, as becomes 

 any state paper which is issued in the name of tlu- 

 United States. 



I do not mean to say that it is so cnhl a document 

 as the British Case. Warmth or coldness of color is a 

 matter of taste, in respect of which the United States 

 have no call to criticise Great Bi-itain, and Great Brit- 

 ain has no ri'dit to criticise the United States. 



AVe may presume that, in the exercise of its un- 

 questionable right, the Government of the United 

 States made up its Case in the aim of convincing the 

 Arbitrators, and not with any don\inant ])urpose or 

 special expectation of pleasing Great Britain. 



But there is no just cause of exception to the gen- 

 eral tenor, sjiirit, or stylo of the American Case. Its 

 fiicts are pertinent ; its reasonings are cogent; ilsccm- 

 clusiouH are logical: and in all that is tlio true ex- 

 planation of the emotion it occasioned in England. 



