ALABAMA CLAIMS. 107 
The Tribunal then authorized publicity to be given 
to its declaration and to the declarations ofthe two 
Governments, relative to the national claims of the 
United States: after which it adjourned to the 15th 
of July. 
Heretofore, either by intimation to the Secretary, 
and to the Agents and Counsel, or by formal resolu- 
tion, the Tribunal had signified its desire that the 
proceedings should not be committed to publicity, 
unless by the will of the respective Governments. 
Of course, reporters for the Press, and other persons 
not officially connected with the Arbitration, were ex- 
cluded from the sittings of the Tribunal. This re- 
serve or secrecy of proceeding was inconvenient to 
the many respectable representatives of the Press of 
London and New York, persons of consideration, who 
had come to Geneva for the purpose of satisfying the 
public curiosity of the United States and of England 
regarding the acts of the Tribunal; but was dictated, 
it would seem, rather by considerations of delicacy 
toward the two Governments, than by any reluctance 
on the part of the Arbitrators to have their action 
made known day by day to the world. It was a tri- 
bunal of peculiar constitution and character; its 
members were responsible in some sense each to his 
own Government, and also to the opinion, at least, of 
the litigant Governments; its proceedings were not 
purely judicial, but in a certain degree diplomatic; 
and a large part of the proceedings were in the na- 
ture not so much of action as of judicial consultation, 
which it might well seem unfit to communicate to the 
