172 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
lic officers, whose negligence or fraud has reflected so 
seriously on the British Government, may have been 
worthy accusation” of his against the American Counsel, he had 
before him a statement on the subject, presented to the Tribu- 
nal of Arbitration by Sir Roundell Palmer, as follows: 
“Sir John Harding was ill from the latter part of June, 1862, 
and did not, after that time, attend to Government business. 
It was not, however, known, until some weeks afterward, that 
he was unlikely to recover; nor did the disorder undergo, till 
the end of July, such a development as to make the Government 
aware that the case was one of permanent mental alienation. 
“ Although, when a Law Officer was ill, he would not be 
troubled with ordinary business, it was quite consistent with 
probability and experience that, in a case of more than usual 
importance, it would be desired, if possible, to obtain the ben- 
efit of his opinion. Under such circumstances, the papers 
would naturally be sent to his private house; and, if this was 
done, and if he was unable to attend to them, some delay would 
necessarily take place before the impossibility of his attending 
to them was known. 
“Tord Russell told Mr. Adams [July 31, 1862] that some 
delay had, in fact, occurred with respect to the Alabama in 
consequence of Sir John Harding’s illness. He could not have 
made the statement, if the fact were not really so; because, 
whatever the fact was, it must have been, at the time, known 
to him. The very circumstance that Sir J. Harding had not 
already advised upon the case in its earlier stage might be a 
reason why it should be wished to obtain his opinion. 
“Sir J. Harding and his wife are both [some years since] 
dead; so are Sir W. Atherton [the then Attorney-General] and 
his wife; no information, therefore, as to the circumstances 
which may have caused delay, with respect to the delivery at 
their private house, or the transmission and consideration of 
any papers on this subject, can now be obtained from them. 
“The then Solicitor-General was Sir R. Palmer, who is able 
to state positively that the first time he saw or heard of the. 
papers sent to the Law Officers [7. ¢., all three Law Officers] on 
