ALABAMA CLAIMS. 33 



cause to approve the reason, the dignity, and the tem- 

 per of that Case. 



EXPLANATION OF OBJECTIONS TO THE AMERICAN CASE. 



The truth undoubtedly is, that discontent with the 

 Treaty itself had much to do in England with objec- 

 tions to the " Case." The British Ministers had ne- 

 gotiated the Treaty in perfect good faith, and in well- 

 founded conviction of its wisdom, of the justice of its 

 provisions, and of its not conflicting with the honor 

 either of Great Britain or of the United States. Par- 

 liament had accepted the Treaty without serious op- 

 position, and with but little debate, except on the 

 very trivial ixirtif question whether it was more or 

 less favorable to Great Britain than the conventions 

 negotiated by Lord Stanley and the Earl of Claren- 

 don. And Great Britain, as a nation, had, beyond 

 all peradventure, heartily approved and welcomed 

 the conclusion of the Treaty. 



But, on reading the American Case, and reflecting 

 on the constitution of the proposed Tribunal, many 

 Englishmen yielded to a sentiment of undue estimate 

 oi English law and English lawyers, as distinguished 

 from the laws and the lawyers of Continental Europe 

 and of Spanish and Portuguese America. England 

 has good reason to be proud of her legal institutions 

 and of her jurists, and, of late years, she has learned 

 to regard the common law with some abatement of 

 that fetichisi?i of devotion which was taught by Coke 

 and by Fortescue. But the statesmen appointed by 

 the three neutral Governments to act as Arbitrators 



C 



