68 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
tration, proceeds to examine the particular claims, na- 
tional as well as individual,—to maintain the jur ‘ellie 
tion of the Tribunal over both classes of claims,—and 
to argue the nature and degree of the responsibility 
of Great Britain to the United States in the premises. 
In fine, the Argument is co-extensive with the “ Case.” 
We repaired to Geneva in due, time, and at the 
meeting of the Tribunal on’ the 15th we presented 
our Argument as required by the Treaty, and, for the 
better information of the Tribunal, in French as well 
as in English. That is to say, the Government of 
the United States, through the means of its official 
Agent, complied with that last command of the Trea- 
ty of Washington, in virtue of which the Tribunal of 
Arbitration became formally seized and possessed of 
all our claims, national as well as private, precisely as 
if no controversy on the subject existed between the 
two Governments. The United States were in condi- 
tion to invoke the judgment‘of the Tribunal, whether 
Great Britain appeared or not; for Counsel had am- 
ple authority of legal doctrine at hand to show that 
the Tribunal would have power to act even in the 
absence of Great Britain. 
In the anticipation of this contingency, the British 
Government requested that of the United States to 
concur in making a joint application to the Tribunal 
for an adjournment of eight months, in order to afford 
to the two Governments sufficient time for further 
negotiation, Mr. Fish replied that the Government 
of the United States had no reason to desire such ad- 
journment, although the’ Government intended, and 
