300 MARITIME INTERNATIpNAL LAW. 



were created and fomented -by, and through, the existence of this 

 barbarous maritime code, the right of a belligerent to prey upon the 

 peaceful commerce of an enemy. Happily, the general acceptance 

 of the obligations of justice between Great Britain and America, 

 made it difificult for the Two Governments to be driven to the necessity 

 of appealing to force, and to the August Tribunal which assembled 

 at Geneva were relegated the complicated difficulties. The success 

 attending this peaceful reference has proved, that it is within the 

 compass of public reason and justice, that two powerful, enlightened, 

 and kindred nations can, by amicable negotiations, avoid the 

 adjudication of war, and leads to the hope, that at no distant date, 

 an International Tribunal may be erected, for the peaceful and 

 equitable adjustment of all international differences. 



Of the intricate questions involved in the escape of the 

 "Alabama," it would be irrelevant here to treat, if for no other 

 reason that they have been, by the Treaty of Washington and 

 the Geneva Tribunal, for ever set at rest. 



It is rather to the effects produced by her escape, the depredations 

 she committed as a privateer, that we would make reference. The 

 United States, throughout their great struggle, were sorely tried by 

 having to cope with an adversary which had no commerce and no 

 Navy, but which, by privateers and corsairs, was able to burn, and 

 plunder, and drive from the seas, her vast commercial marine. 



These privateers, built, armed, and supplied by foreign agencies, 

 were swift and vigilant for the destruction of peaceful commerce, 

 and swift and vigilant to evade pursuit and capture. The injuries 

 inflicted by these piratical cruisers of violence and robbery, were 

 estimated at twenty millions of dollars, and this does not include 

 the indirect losses,, the burden on the commerce of the United 

 States, and the transfer of its carrying trade to foreign nations, 

 by the partial destruction of her mercantile marine. Besides, there 

 was the unnecessary prolongation of the war, and the severity in its 

 prosecution imposed by the Federal Government, in order to main- 

 tain its authority and to suppress the Rebellion, and all this 

 increasing vastly the radius of mutual injuries, without in any way 

 advancing the Rebel cause, or hastening the conclusion of the 

 struggle. 



The direct and indirect evils arising from the piratical depreda- 

 tions of the " Alabamas," and the" Shenandoahs," of the Southern 

 Confederacy, have helped considerably to advance opinion against 



