ALABAMA CLAIMS. 15 



Q 



tliey actually decided, tlie immediate effect of the De- 

 cision, and tlie general relation thereof to Great Brit- 

 ain, to the United States, and to the other Govern- 

 ments of Europe and America. 



EEVIEW OF THE DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL ON NATION^iL 



LOSSES. 



To begin, let us see what was the true thought of 

 the Tribunal regarding the class of claims, as to w^hich 

 the British Government displayed so much superflu- 

 ous emotion subsequently to the publication of the 

 American Case, and which the Tribunal passed ui^on, 

 in effect, without previous decision Vv^hether they were 

 or were not embraced in the Treaty. 



I have already called attention to the fact that no 

 consideration of direct or indirect, immediate or conse- 

 quenticd, appears in that opinion of the Tribunal. 

 The Arbitrators express a conclusion, not the reasons 

 of the conclusion. We might, it is true, easily infer 

 those reasons from the Ian2:ua2:e in which the conclu- 

 sion is expressed. That language excludes all such 

 trivial questions as whether " direct " or " indirect," 

 and invokes us to seek for the unexpressed reasons in 

 some higher order of ideas. Meanwhile we have, at 

 length, in the final " Decision," means of ascertaining 

 the whole thouo^ht of the Tribunal. 



The Arbitrators had to pass on a claim of indemni- 

 ty for the costs of pursuit of Confederate cruisers by 

 the Government : — a claim admitted to be within the 

 jurisdiction of the Tribunal, and w^hich the Tribunal 

 rejects on the ground that such costs " are not, in the 



