ALABAMA CLAIMS. AT 
to change in its discretion the constitution of the 
United States. 
Thus it was that, in the matter of the discussion of 
this Treaty, Mr. Gladstone and the other Ministers 
were tossed to and fro on the surging waves of pub- 
lic Opinion, and pestered from day to day in Parlia- 
ment, while solicitously engaged in reflecting how 
best to keep faith with the United States and at the 
same time do no prejudice to Great Britain. If, at 
that period, the Ministers said in debate any thing 
unwise, any thing not strictly true or just,—Mr. Glad- 
stone did, but Lord Granville did not,—let it not be 
remembered against them personally, but charged to 
the uncontrollable difficulties of their position, and the 
signal defectiveness and intrinsic weakness of the or- 
ganic institutions of Great Britain. 
During all that period of earnest discussion on both 
sides of the ocean, it was to me, as an American, 
matter of the highest thankfulness and gratulation 
and’ patriotic pride, to see the Government of the 
United States,—President, Secretary of State, Cabinet, 
Congress,—continue in the even tenor of their public 
duty, calm, unrufiled, self:possessed, as the stars in 
heaven. The Executive of the United States is, it is 
true, by its very nature, a thoughtful and self-con- 
tained power. Congress, on the other hand, is the 
field of debate and the place where popular passions 
come into evidence, as the winds in the cave of Aolus. 
But, on this occasion, no more debate occurred in 
either House than that least possible expression of 
opinion, which was necessary to show accord with the 
