170 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
Russell, with which he is credited: by Mr. Adams, 
May it not have been, must it not have been, Lord 
Palmerston? Is Earl Russell solely responsible for 
the deplorable errors of that Administration ?* 
* I repeat, in Great Britain issue is not to be made on the 
pecuniary part of the Award, but on the construction of the 
opinions expressed and the legal conclusions arrived at by the 
Tribunal of Arbitration. 
The opinions of a the Arbitrators in the case of the Alaba- 
ma, including that of the British Arbitrator, are concurrent to 
the effect that, by reason of the mendacity of her builders, the 
Lairds, co-operating with corruption, negligence, or stupidity 
on the part of the Board of Customs, the British Government 
was made responsible for the depredations committed by her 
on the commerce of the United States. 
But the circumstances of the actual escape of the Alabama 
reveal a singular imperfection in the administrative mechanism 
of the British Government. 
On the 23d of July, 1862, the British Government was 
aroused from its indifference in regard to the equipment of the 
Alabama, by receiving from Mr. Adams, with some other 
papers, an opinion of a Queen’s Counselor, Mr., now Sir Robert, 
Collier, to the effect that, if the Alabama were suffered to de- 
part, the Board of Customs and the Government would incur 
“heavy responsibility.” The case had become urgent. The 
Alabama might sail at any moment. Lord John Russell has- 
tened to hide himself under the robes of the “ Law Officers of 
the Crown,”—that is to say, Sir John Harding, the Queen’s Ad- 
vocate-General; Sir William Atherton, the Attorney-General ; 
and Sir Roundell Palmer, the Solicitor- ‘General. 
But the oracles did not speak until the 29th of July, and 
then advised detention ; in consequence of which, on the morn- 
ing of that day, the Alabama, whose managers appear to have 
had intimate knowledge of every step taken or not taken by 
the Government, departed from Liverpool. 
Lord John Russell, in a conference with Mr. Adams on the 
31st of July, imputed this misadventure to “the sudden devel- 
