irit the regret felt by
Her Majesty's Government for the escape, under whatever circumstances,
of the _Alabama_ and other vessels from British ports, and for the
depredations committed by those vessels." And with the expression of
this regret, Her Britannic Majesty agreed, through her Commissioners,
that all the claims growing out of acts committed by the aforesaid
vessels, and generally known as the _Alabama_ claims, "shall be
referred to a tribunal of arbitration, to be composed of five
arbitrators,--one to be named by the President of the United States,
one by the Queen of England, one by the King of Italy, one by the
President of the Swiss Confederation, and one by the Emperor of
Brazil." This was a great step beyond the Johnson-Clarendon treaty,
which did not in any way concede the responsibility of England to the
Government of the United States. It was a still greater step beyond
the flat refusal, first of Earl Russell and then of Lord Stanley, to
refer the claims to the ruler of a friendly state.

But England was willing to go still farther. She agreed that "in
deciding the matters submitted to the arbitrators, they shall be
governed by three rules, which are agreed upon by the high contracting
parties as rules to be taken as applicable to the case; and by such
principles of International Law, not inconsistent therewith, as the
Arbitrators shall determine to have been applicable to the case.(6)"
Her Brittanic Majesty had commanded her High Commissioners to declare
that "Her Majesty's Government cannot assent to these rules as a
statement of the principles of International Law which were in force at
the time when the claims arose; but that Her Majesty's Government, in
order to evince its desire of strengthening the friendly relations
between the two countries, and of making satisfactory provision for
the future, agrees that in deciding the questions between the two
countries arising out of those claims, the Arbitrators shall assume
that Her Majesty's Government had undertaken to act upon the principles
set forth in these rules."

There is some question as to whether the British Government has
discharged one of the obligations which it assumed under the treaty.
After the three rules had been agreed upon, a clause of the treaty
declared that "the high contracting parties agree to observe these
rules as between themselves in the future, and to bring them to the
knowledge of the other maritime powers and invite