172 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



lie officers, whose negligence or fraud has reflected so 

 seriously on the British Government, may have been 



■worthy accusation" of his against the American Counsel, he had 

 before him a statement on the subject, presented to the Tribu- 

 nal of Arbitration by Sir Roundell Palmer, as follows: 



" Sir John Harding was ill from the latter part of June, 18G2, 

 and did not, after that time, attend to Government business. 

 It was not, however, known, until some weeks afterward, that 

 he was unlikely to recover; nor did the disorder undergo, till 

 the end of July, such a development as to make the Government 

 aware that the case was one of permanent mental alienation. 



"Although, when a Law Officer was ill, he would not be 

 troubled with ordinary business, it was quite consistent with 

 probability and experience that, in a case of more than usual 

 importance, it would be desired, if possible, to obtain the ben- 

 efit of his opinion. Under such circumstances, the papers 

 would naturally be sent to his private house; and, if this was 

 done, and if he was unable to attend to them, some delay would 

 necessarily take place before the impossibility of his attending 

 to them was known. 



"Lord Russell told Mr. Adams [July 31, 1862] that some 

 delay had, in fact, occurred with respect to the Alabama in 

 consequence of Sir John Harding's illness. He could not have 

 made the statement, if the iact were not really so ; because, 

 whatever the fact was, it must have been, at the time, known 

 to him. The very circumstance that Sir J. Harding had not 

 already advised upon the case in its earlier stage might be a 

 reason Avliy it should be Avishcd to obtain his opinion. 



"Sir J.Harding and his wife are both [some years since] 

 dead; so are Sir W. Atherton [the then Attorney-General] and 

 his wife ; no information, therefore, as to the circumstances 

 which may have caused delay, with respect to the delivery at 

 their private liouse, or the transmission and consideration of 

 any papers on this subject, can now be obtained from them. 



" The then Solicitor-General was Sir R. Palmer, who is able 

 to state positively that tlie first time he saw or heard of the 

 papers sent to the Law Officers [i. e., all three Law Officers] on 



