THE AMERICAN DEMAND UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 176, 19 July 1872, Page 512

THE AMERICAN DEMAND UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

i The ' Cologne Gazette," referring to the claims put forth in the American case, says : • Think a little on the magnitude of the sum comprised imder the six heads enumerated. It is at least as much if not more than France must pay to Germany for her foiled aggression, but which she consented to pay only when her armies were everywhere overthrown, her Emperor taken prisoner, her capital captured, k her strongest fortresses fallen; a great of her territory in hostile occupation, hef r resources and her prospects utterly 4es-;" troyed—in short, when--there no -Jolfee'&F remained to her a hope of a change -M& } the better. Contrary to tliisV : • sacrifice is demanded from account of disputed mit of different cially before the adverssM^t:-jjitye "tried their strength. It appears kujbnceivable. The fifth part, which indom-n-ty'for the prolorig&g&a\ of the war, would alone the English a contribution of four : millions sterling; for thejsost .pf the war'to the Union amounted? '"yearljr to two "hundred million poiindsjand tli?t "-the struggle was prolonged twojfbole years by England's fairit alone is a;'propositi which has long enjoyed widespread in America. Compared with this, whab is the sum of fourteen million.dollars which is demanded as compensation for'the owners of ships and cargoes destroyed by the Southern cruisers, and which England, in her innocence, supposed would be the principal item in the American bill. submitted to the Geneva Council of Arbitration ? It must be supposed that America has run" up her demands so high in order that the award, even after great deductions, may still amount to a considerable sum. This may perhaps be smart, but it certainly is not dignified, nor politically judicious. Respectable individuals and respectable States as a rule claim only what they are entitled to, and the one' merit hitherto of the Treaty of Washington was that it was designed to be an example of mutual fairness, and moderation. Rut the example

will fare ill if unjustifiable claims, are put forward, not to mention if 7 the should in the end be dissatisfied with their Government should it obtain only a fraction of what it had originally demanded for the Union and its citizens who had suffered injury! Respecting the inner justification of these claims,' the English have good grounds for' asking, " Y.bu moral people, why do you not apply to. us the measure of neutral duties which you have, applied to yourselves in. your, .conduct during the Franco-German- war ? Pray did you not a year ago seli shiploads of arms and ammunition of war, by means of which- Gambetta was enabied'to :: pr6long for months resistance to the German armies ?" The preservation of the peace of the world'and the welfare of the, nation ' is of higher, interest to us Germans than the gratification of a malicious pleasure, otherwise we could'not help feeling.satisfaction that the only two other countries which, for the sate of a miserable gain, supplied our enemies with the "means of stubbornly prolonging the contest have fallen out with one another on account of a similar piece of huckstering.' .' ■ •