62 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



•passed away, leaving the great question unsettled, in 

 what manner ultimately to deal with the claim for 

 rational losses preferred by the United States. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR A SUPPLEMENTAL TREATY. 



A new series of events then happened, which occu- 

 pied the period intervening between the 15th of April 

 and the 15th of June. 



It occurred to the two Governments that the diffi- 

 culty might be disposed of by the exchange of diplo- 

 matic notes, w'hich, in laying down a definite rule of 

 reciprocal international right on the subject of such 

 losses, should reserve or leave unimpaired the present 

 pretensions of l)oth Governments. The British Gov- 

 ernment would not admit that it w\as the intention 

 of the Treaty to cover national losses; the United 

 States insisted that it was, and refused to do any act 

 incompatible with this construction of the Treaty; 

 and, therefore, they would not withdraw any part of 

 the American Case, nor disavow the opinion that it 

 was within the province of the Arbitrators to consid- 

 er all the claims, and to determine the liability of 

 Great Britain for all the claims, which had been put 

 forward by the United States. But the American 

 Government had not asked for pecuniary damages in 

 its "Case" on account of that part of the claims called 

 the indirect losses; it only desired a judgment there- 

 on, whicli would remove them for all future time as a 

 cause of difference between the two Governments. 

 To hold that this class of claims was not disposed of 

 by the Treaty, — that is, Avas not a subject for the con- 



