ALABAMA CLAIMS. Bb 
considerate one at New York. But Earl de Grey 
and Ripon, who had now become Marquess of Ripon, 
deported himself with admirable dignity. It was, in- 
deed, wittily said, or reported to have been said, by 
Mr. Lows, that Lard Ripon was going about very stele 
at the stomach of a marquisate, which he would be 
glad to throw up; but the reproach was wholly un- 
deserved. Lord Ripon manfully maintained silence 
while to speak would have been unwise; when at 
length it became expedient to speak, he did so with 
discretion and with judiciousness, beyond what ap- 
peared in the speeches of some other members of the 
Government. 
ACTION OF THE AMERICAN AGENT AND COUNSEL. 
Whilst all these discussions were going on in Great 
Britain and the United States, we, the Agent and 
Counsel of the United States, were busily occupied, 
partly at Washington but chiefly at Paris, in the 
study of the British Case and the preparation of the 
American Counter-Case. We had fixed on Paris for 
our head-quarters, as a neutral city, as a great centre 
of international jurisprudence and diplomacy, and as 
a place in easy communication with London and with 
Washington. 
From | this ground of vantage we could observe 
and estimate correctly the current of discussion in 
America, in Great Britain, and on the Continent of 
Europe. 
Speaking for myself, at least, let me say, it appear- 
ed to me that much of what was being said in En- 
