THE AMERICAN DIFFICULTY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 161, 5 April 1872, Page 3

THE AMERICAN DIFFICULTY.

"We take the following from the 'San Francisco Chronicle':— England has at last thrown off the mask in the matter of the Alabama claims, and has left us virtually the choice of abandonment of them or war. The London press savagely scouts the very idea of paying them, and demands at once the withdrawal of Chief Justice Cockburn (the English representative) from Geneva; and not only that, but the repudiation of the Treaty of Washington. The Tories, it is said, intend making it -a test question in Parliament, and- English-Ministry, to excuse their ' contemplated breach . of faith, wishes America to withdraw part of her claims. Our representatives. at the Conference were not only instructed to demand damages for the loss of ships and cargo actually captured or destroyed, but to require compensation fyr the almost irreparable injury then inflicted on American commerce. This latter-demand our Cabinet has insisted on presenting to the judgment of the arbitrators. And it furnishes the ostensible reason for England's contemplated repudiation; of the Treaty of "Washington • but it is not the realone. AHEhgland has understood long since the nature, of America's demand, and has awakened W new conviction of it now. Her present attitude might easily have been foreseen by anyone not blessed with a most trusting nature.

At least those posseF--i,u_ .-veil n' moderate knowl-dge of i >ig] ud and J:uglishinen would never Ireain of such a thing as an English -Ministry's undertaking, in good fait'hj to pay any hostile claim whatever. The pride, ihe intej rest, the antecedents of their country all alike forbid it. And. no English Ministry could stand, for a day "that would even hint at' the possibility of such a thing being conceived. 'Great Britain would first .have to be humiliated" as much as was-France' at the*-ter-mination of the war with Germany. It . suited - English politicians for a while, to amuse America with the'prospect of a peaceful solution ,of .the difficulty'between the two nations Ireland .wasan a ferment, the Fenians were about invading Canada, Prussia almost threatened, an 4 the United States, then urgent in the matter, had no complication, present or prospective. 'Now, however, the case is all ered.' Therois no more flea** of a Canadian invasion, or of an immediate attempt at armed re-

volution in Ireland. Prussia's wrath at England's furnishing arms to Prance has cooled downV the temper of the American people on the Alabama claims question has apparently cooled.down' too, and we are on the eve of a possible complication with.. Spain. In the event of a war with spain, there would be a favorable opportunity, by means of new Alabamas, of striking such a blow at our reviving commerce,'that it: would not recover for a quarter of a.century!.. And England is 'firmly persuaded that now, after such a lapse of time, we would never go to war about the Ala;baina claims; and she has therefore made up her mind never to pay one cent of them. The sooner that our people are thoroughly persuaded of fact the better. We await -with anxiety further developments in the new and sudden, if not extraordinary, turn which events in this matter 1 have ' taken.