ALABAMA CLAIMS. 107 



The Tribunal then authorized publicity to be given 

 to its declaration and to the declarations of the two 

 Governments, relative to the national claims of the 

 United States: after which it adjourned to the 15th 

 of July. 



Heretofore, either by intimation to the Secretary, 

 and to the Agents and Counsel, or by formal resolu- 

 tion, the Tribunal had signified its desire that the 

 proceedings should not be committed to publicity, 

 unless by the will of the respective Governments. 

 Of course, reporters for the Press, and other persons 

 not officially connected with the Arbitration, were ex- 

 cluded from the sitting's of the Tribunal. This re- 

 serve or secrecy of proceeding was inconvenient to 

 the many respectable re2:>resentatives of the Press of 

 London and New York, persons of consideration, who 

 had come to Geneva for the purpose of satisfying the 

 public curiosity of the United States and of England 

 regarding the acts of the Tribunal ; but was dictated, 

 it would seem, rather by considerations of delicacy 

 toward the two Governments, than by any reluctance 

 on the part of the Arbitrators to have their action 

 made known day by day to the world. It was a tri- 

 bunal of peculiar constitution and character; its 

 members were responsible in some sense each to his 

 own Government, and also to the opinion, at least, of 

 the litigant Governments; its proceedings were not 

 purely judicial, but in a certain degree diplomatic; 

 and a large part of the proceedings were in the na- 

 ture not so much of action as of judicial consultation, 

 which it misfht well seem unfit to communicate to the 



