ALABAMii CLAIMS. 50 



Great Britain. That was tlic very question present- 

 ed by the Treaty. 



Great Britain professed to be so nuicli offended ])y 

 tlie charaeter of eertain of the proofs adduced in the 

 American Case, — rigorously pertinent to tlie question 

 as all those proofs were, — that she would not suffer 

 any appropriate answer to those proofs to be brought 

 forward in her Counter-Case or in her Argument: it 

 was not compatible Avitli self-respect, — it would be 

 giving dignity to undignified arguments, — we were 

 told by the British Press. Meanwhile, the very mat- 

 ter Avhicli the British Government could not conde- 

 scend to notice was both material and important to 

 such a degree as very much to inflame the temper and 

 exercise the ingenuity of iSir Alexander Cockburn, 

 the "representative" of Great Britain at Geneva. 



Now, the American Case, if conceived in any other 

 spirit than that of just and fair exposition of the pre- 

 cise issue, — question, that is, whether the British Gov- 

 ernment had or liad not incurred responsibility fur 

 its want of due dilii^ence in the matter of Confederate 

 cruisers fitted out in the ports of Great Britain, — I 

 say, if the American Government, in the preparation 

 of its Case, liad not been animated by the spirit of 

 perfect fairness and justness, it ini(/1it liave gone into 

 the inquiry of the political conduct of Great Britain 

 in other times, and with reference to other nations, in 

 the view of imputing to lier luthitual disregard of the 

 law of nations in illustration of her present conduct 

 'toward the United States. Wc might liave charged 

 that, while her btatcsmen contend that they could do 



