THE GENEVA ARBITRATION.— ENGLISH OPINIONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 272, 15 November 1872, Page 4

THE GENEVA ARBITRATION.— ENGLISH OPINIONS.

The Times, in an editorial on the result of the Geneva arbitration, says: — ■" While England has been held responsible for the depredations of the several Confederate cruisers, we yet retain the conviction that morally she is not to blame. The United States claimed damages for losses caused by a dozen vessels, but the Court of Arbitration holJ England liable (unanimously) only in the case of one vessel. This is plain evidence of a belief in the genuineness of our neutrality during the war in the United States, and disprove the flagrantly unjust calculations of unfriendliness in the American case presented at Geneva. We cheerfully consent to pay the sum awarded, as tending to obviate similar difficulties in future." The Tory journals are bitter over the result of the Geneva arbitration. The Advertiser says : — " What a farce has been played at Geneva, where England is adjudged to pay tribute to a bully who repudiates his own obligations. America is not contented with the settlement of the claims against Englapd." The Herald breathes defiance to, and hatred of America and says : — " Of course, had the arbitrators decided on a larger sum of indemnity England would pay it. If they had awarded nothing, America could but show her teeth. What humiliation next awaits us ? " The Standard comments upon the award in a similar strain, and says : — "' We went to Geneva for justice and reconciliation, but instead met with invectives from the American counsel and a partially adverse award, dictated rather by a desire for compromise than by equity. The whole proceedings in connection with the arbitration are entirely unsatisfactory to England." The Chambers of Commerce in several of the leading cities of England have adopted resolutions congratulating the Government on the happy termination of the Arbitration, and copies of the resolutions will be forwarded to 'the United States. ' The Right Hon. W. E. Forster, in an address to his constituents at Bradford, said that the object of the Geneva Tribunal was not merely to preserve peace, but to preserve friendship between Eogland and America. Such friendship did not exist before the settlement of the Alabama claims, and the state of feeling was such that it might at any moment have caused war. Forbearance on both sides had been necessary to bring the dispute to a settlement through the slow process of negotiation. By that forbearance alone England got rid of the indirect claims. In conclusion he said that the decision at Geneva not only gives. America £3,000,000, but gives peace to both countries, with new international rules of the highest value/ besides establishing a precedebt that cannot %\\, to be'beneficial to all nations. gofHw

opinion that it was unnecessary and unusual for arbitrators to give reasons for their award. The Arbitrators had no power to lay down any principle of internaiional law. The tribunal was not constituted for that purpose. He did not believe that England was bound by the principles which guided tho arbitrators. He thought the necessity for ratification by the Senate of the United States of every treaty "with a foreign power was a most; dangerous and perplexing difficulty. But he hoped that England would enter upon a new era in her relations with America, an era in which all jealousies and animosities would disappear, and that the two Dations would confine themselves to rivalry in the work of extending the interests of civilisation and peace. Mr. Lowe, in the samo speech, severely condemned Sir Alexander Cock hum for not signing the award of damages in the Alabama claims, and for publishing an argument which opens up the question and renews, ill-feeliug. He insisted that it was the duty of England to accept the award loyally.