ALABAMA CLAnrs. 1G9 



amount .iwartled as iiuleinnity. Earl Granville, in- 

 deed, does not fail to remind the Earl of DerLy of tlic 

 admission made by the latter in the House of Com- 

 mons, to the cftect tliat the Americans Mere very 

 likely to establish tlieir claims, or some of them at 

 least, and to get their money. This admission on the 

 part of Lord Stanley evinced his manliness and trutli- 

 fulness. Even the Chief Justice at Geneva Avas forced 

 to concede the responsibility of Great Britain for the 

 acts of the Ahdxnna, and did not very skillfidly es- 

 cape making the satne concession as to the Floridu. 



Tlie marvel is, that Lord Russell should have so 

 persistently refused to agi-ec to any terms of redress, 

 when iic himself could write to Lord Lyons on the 

 27th of March, 18G3, " that the cases of i\\Q Alahama 

 and Ovcto were a scandal, and, in some degree, a re- 

 ]u-oach to our laws.'' I demand of myself somciim^.^, 

 in reflecting on the strange obstinacy of Lord llus.sell 

 in this respect, as contrasted with the conduct of the 

 Earl of Derby, the Earl of Clarendon, and Earl Gi-an- 

 ville, whether there be not some mystery in the mat- 

 ter, some uiuliscloscd secret, some unknown moral co- 

 ercion, to account for and explain the conduct of Lord 

 Kussell? The extraordinary incident of the failure 

 of the Government to obtain from the LaAv Ollicers 

 of the Crown any response to the call for tlu'ir opin- 

 ion in season to detain the Alahama, — which incident 

 Sir Iloundell Palmer vainly attempted to explain at 

 Geneva, — would really tend to make one suspect that 

 some member of the Government more powerful than 

 himself had defeated those good intentions of Lord 



