ALABAMA CLAIMS. 83 
(Eidgenossische) Bank established at Berne. On 
receiving the respective “Counter-Cases” of the two 
Governments, which in effect closed the proofs on 
both sides, te took a characteristic step in order to 
be prepared for action in June. 
As you sail up the Lake of Thun toward Unter 
seen or Interlaken, you note on the left the precipi- 
hond addeA ‘mountainside ct Beatenberg. Here, 
high up in a rural hamlet, hidden among ‘the treés, 
with the beautiful lakes of Thun and Brienz at his 
feet, and the magnificent spectacle of the Oberland, 
terminating at the remoter Berner Alps, —in those 
balmy Alpine days when spring is passing into: sum- 
mer, and all earth is a paradise of verdure and of ani- 
mation,—here Mr. Stempfli secluded himself from the 
social disfractigns and cares of business at Berne, and 
dedicated himself to. the mastery of the “ Alabama 
Claims.” In such a blessed retreat even law-books 
might lose their dullness, and diplomatic corr espond- 
ence, depositions, and legal pleadings be invested with 
the charmed reflection of the matchless scenery of 
lakes, fields, ‘hamlets, cities, mountains, and. rivers, 
glittering. in: the sun, and resting in the hérizon at 
the snow-crowned heights of the Jungfrau. 
And so it seems to have been. For good St. Bea- 
tus blessed the mountain labors of Mr. Steempfli, and 
he came to Geneva in due’time with full abstracts 
of evidence and elaborately written opinions on the 
main questions at.issue before the Tribunal, to the ap- 
parent surprise of Sir Alexander Cockburn, who, con- 
fidently relying on the rupture of the Arbitration, as 
