140 THE TU1:ATV of WASHINGTON. 



by cxtra-jivllcial accusation nnd inculpation of tl.c 

 United States in the "Koasons" of Sir Alexander. 



And it i.s anui.sing to read tlic imputations of " con- 

 fusion,'^ " vai^uo and declamatory," " ignorance of law 

 and history," which he applies to the Amei'Ican Coun- 

 sel, in view of what his own countrymen say of his 

 own methods of argumentation. Indet^d, it would 

 seem that the hard words of ^Ir. Finlason and others 

 concerninir him had made such ClVectual lodgment in. 

 his Lrain that, whenever ho writes, they rush forth 

 liap-hazard to Le applied by him without reason or 

 discrimination to any occasional oliject of argument 

 or controversy. 



If, like ^Ii'. Charles Fi'aneis Adams, Sir Alexander 

 had simply j^rejjared brief and temjierate o])inions on 

 all the ([uestions, whether favorable or not to the 

 United States, both (Jovernments would have been 

 left in an amicable mood. As it is, in ])rofessedly 

 throwing oil" the character of a judge, — which alone 

 belonged to him of right, — of certain BjK'cific charges 

 of the United States against (treat ]»ritain, submitted 

 to him by the Treaty of Washington, — and in under- 

 takinLr to become the mei'o accuser of the United 

 States, — ho does but insult the American Govern- 

 ment, while subjecting his own (iovernment to much 

 present inconvenience and great future endjarrass- 

 ment. 



There is one ])articular feature of the "llcnsons'* 

 too remarkable to be overlooked. 



In reading these "IJeasons" carefully, one can not 

 fail to bo struck by the fre(pient manifestation of the 



