has thought fit at the outset to exclude from consideration, are just and reasonable, I am instructed to say that it sees now no occasion for further delay in giving a full answer to his Lordship's proposition. "I am directed, therefore, to inform your Lordship that the proposition of Her Majesty's Government for the creating of a joint Commission is respectfully declined. I pray, &c. "CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS." 42 42 The Official Correspondence on the Claims of the United States in respect to the "Alabama." (Published by Earl Russell.) London: Longmans, Green & Co., page 223. CHAPTER IV. There was a growing, uneasy feeling in England that Earl Russell's abrupt and absolute refusal to discuss the question of liability by England for the Alabama claims was a mistake.43 In this view the English were confirmed by the visit at several of their ports of the double-turretted monitor, Miantonomoh.44 She crossed the Atlantic without trouble, bearing to Russia on a special mission the Hon. Gustavus Vasa Fox, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. English naval experts freely acknowledged that there was no ship in the English navy that could compete with the 43 This was evidenced in a letter, supposed to be written by Mr. Olyphant, a member of Parliament, who had traveled in the United States in 1865, that appeared in the London Times on August 20th, 1866. It treated of the neutrality laws; and, after referring to the strong feeling of resentment that existed in the United States against Great Britain on account of the fitting out of the Confederate cruisers in English ports, deplored the rejection by Lord Russell of all attempts to settle the difficulties by arbitration. "Narrative of the Mission to Russia, in 1866, of the Hon. Gustavus Vasa Fox. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1873, pages 39, 40, 43. (74) Miantonomoh; and as there were a number of others like her in the United States Navy, Great Britain, at that time, was not mistress of the seas. An article in the London Times, of July 17th, 1866, showed well the impression the Miantonomoh made upon England: "The royal visitors at Sheerness on Saturday, as well as the numerous pleasure-parties flocking thither on the same errand, saw a very extraordinary, and— we wish we could not feel it-a portentous spectacle. They saw a fabric, something between a ship and a diving-bell-the Romans would have called it a tortoise-—almost invisible, but what there was of it ugly, at once invulnerable and irresistible, that had crossed the Atlantic safely, and was anchored in our waters, with the intention of visiting Russia. Round this fearful invention were moored scores of big ships, not all utter antiquities, but modern, for there were among them steamships, generally screws, and therefore none of them more than twenty years old. These ships form a considerable portion of the navy of this great maritime power, and there was not one of them that the foreigner could not have sent to the bottom in five minutes, had his errand not been peaceful. There was not one of these big ships that could have avenged the loss of its companion, or saved itself from immediately sharing its fate. sharing its fate. In fact, the wolf was in the fold, and the whole flock was at its The advisability of reopening the subject became by the latter half of 1866 a topic of general discussion in the English press; and the GovernmentLord Stanley had succeeded Earl Russell as Foreign Secretary-was understood to favor an amicable settlement of the question. The Prime Minister, Earl Derby, gave countenance to such a view in a speech at the Mansion House.46 The Times in several leaders supported the view that Earl Russell had rejected Mr. Adams's demands on rather narrow grounds, and urged that the claims were "not forgotten by the American people," and that they never would be forgotten until they were submitted to some impartial adjudication." 4 Meanwhile Lord Stanley instructed the British Minister at Washington to propose to the American Government a limited form of arbitration: this dis 45 Narrative of the Mission to Russia, in 1866, of the Hon. Gustavus Vasa Fox. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1873, pages 48, 49. 46 Papers relating to Foreign Affairs, accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session, Fortieth Congress. Government Printing Office, 1868, part I., page 25. 47 The London Times, November 17th, 1866; January 4th, 1867. patch, which was as follows, the English Minister, Sir Frederick Bruce, communicated to Mr. Seward on January 7th, 1867:— "FOREIGN OFFICE, November 30, 1866. * * "It is impossible for Her Majesty's present advisers to abandon the ground which has been taken by former Governments, so far as to admit the liability of this country for the claims then and now put forward. They do not think that such liability has been established according to international law or usage; and though sincerely and earnestly desiring a good understanding with the United States, they cannot consent to purchase even the advantage of that good understanding by concessions which would at once involve a censure on their predecessors in power, and be an acknowledgment, in their view uncalled for and unfounded, of wrong-doing on the part of the British Executive and Legislature. But, on the other hand, they are fully alive to the inconvenience which arises from the existence of unsettled claims of this character between two powerful and friendly Governments. They would be glad to settle this question, if they can do so consistently with justice and national self-respect; and with this view they will not be disinclined to adopt the principle of arbitration, provided |