ALABAMA CLAIMS. 19 
look with solicitude on the uneasy relations of the 
British Government with the United States, and the 
inconvenience thereof in case of possible complica- 
tions in Europe. Thus impelled, the Government 
dispatched to Washington a gentleman, who enjoyed 
the confidence of both Cabinets, Sir John Rose, to as- 
certain whether overtures for re-opening negotiations 
would be received by the President in spirit and 
terms acceptable to Great Britain. 
It was the second time, in the present generation, 
that the foreign policy of England had been directed 
by a sense of the importance to her of maintaining 
good relations with the United States; for, by argu- 
ing from that point, France, at the opening of war 
with Prussia, induced the British Government to de- 
sist from those excessive belligerent pretensions to 
the prejudice of neutrals, which in former times had 
served to embroil her with both France and the Unit- 
ed States. 
There is another fact, which, in my opinion, power- 
fully contributed to induce this overture on the part 
of the British Government, although it was not spok- 
en of in this connection by Lord Granville. I allude 
to the President’s recommendation to Congress to ap- 
point a commission to audit the claims of American 
citizens on Great Britain growing out of the acts of 
Confederate cruisers, in view of having them assumed 
by the Government of the United States. In this in- 
cident there was matter of grave and serious reflection 
to Great Britain. 
On arriving at Washington, Sir John Rose found 
