ALABAMA CLAIMS. 33 
cause to approve the reason, the dignity, and the tem- 
per of that Case. 
EXPLANATION OF OBJECTIONS TO THE AMERICAN CASE. 
The truth undoubtedly is, that discontent with the 
Treaty itself had much to do in England with objec- 
tions to the “Case.” The British Ministers had ne- 
gotiated the Treaty in perfect good faith, and in well- 
founded conviction of its wisdom, of the justice of its 
provisions, and of its not conflicting with the honor 
either of Great Britain or of the United States. Par. 
liament had accepted the Treaty without serious op- 
position, and with but little debate, except on the 
very trivial party question whether it was more or 
less favorable to Great Britain than the conventions 
negotiated by Lord Stanley and the Earl of Claren- 
don. And Great Britain, as a nation, had, beyond 
all peradventure, heartily approved and welcomed 
the conclusion of the Treaty. 
But, on reading the American Case, and reflecting 
on the constitution -of the proposed Tribunal, many 
Englishmen yielded to a sentiment of undue estimate 
of English law and English lawyers, as distinguished 
from the laws and the lawyers of Continental Europe 
and of Spanish and Portuguese America, England 
has good reason to be proud of her legal institutions 
and. of her jurists, and, of late years, she has learned 
to regard the common law with some abatement of 
that fetichism of devotion which was taught by Coke 
and by Fortescue. But the statesmen appointed by 
the three neutral Governments to act as Arbitrators 
C 
