The Arbitration Treaty 179 



rendered the prisoners with the noble ' frankness 

 which characterized President Lincoln's way of 

 doing things. What chiefly tended to hinder or 

 prevent such a happy termination of the affair was 

 the unnecessary arrogance of Lord Palmerstoii's 

 government in making its demand of us. What 

 chiefly favoured it was the absence of an ocean tele- 

 graph, affording the delay needful for sober second 

 thought. I remember hearing people say at the 

 time that the breaking of the first Atlantic cable 

 in 1858 had thus turned out to be a blessing in 

 disguise ! Now, should any incident as irritating 

 as the Trent affair occur in future, the Arbitration 

 Treaty can be made to furnish the delay which the 

 absence of an ooean cable once necessitated ; and 

 I have enough respect for English-speaking people 

 on both sides of the water to believe that in such 

 case they will behave sensibly, and not like silly 

 duellists. So, too, as regards " feeling insulted " 

 by the speech of a prime minister, there is a re- 

 cent historic instance to the point. Our British 

 cousins may have had reason to feel insulted by 

 some expressions in President Cleveland's message 

 of December, 1895, but they took the matter very 

 quietly. Had the boot been on the other leg, a 

 few pupils of Elijah Pogram might have indulged 

 in Barmecide suppers of gore, but there the affair 



