THE WASHINGTON TREATY.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2551, 5 July 1871, Page 3

THE WASHINGTON TREATY.

t7ie New York Herald]

We have the pleasure of giving to our readers elsewhere the "substance of the>new treaty, of peace . between gland and the agreed upon and signed, sealed and delivered to the President fron* Joint High Commission yesterday at Washington. Regarding this as one of the most interesting and important political events ofthe nineteenth century, with all its astounding revolutions and political transformations in both hemispheres, we are sure that the enlighteued and peace-loving people of this great republic will accept this treaty with something of the faith of St. Paul, and that is, as " the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things Inofseen." ••' '■'' "' ' ;:;: ' '"' : '' - '- : '~" i '''

When, on the 17th March last, we received°onr repoirtaroY^nVdefe^atches

-which had just passed betweerrQueen Victoria and President Grant looking to the appointment of this Joint Com mission, and when we saw that General Graut's proposition that tint* Commission bo charged with the adjustment of all the unsettled questions pending betweeu the two countries was at once accepted by her Majesty, we could not resist the impression that the labors of the Joint High Commission thus agreed npmi would be crowned with a great, and glorious treaty of peace, satisfactory to both sides, honorable to both parties, aud broadly fore-shadowing a new era of peace, prosperity and progress, not only to the English-speaking peoples of the earth, but to all the nations of all languages and to all the races and tribes of men upon our bustling little j planet.

The crowning result, we think, justifies'our high anticipations. Considering the delicate and difficult questions connected with the Alabama claims, the North-eastern fisheries, the North-western boundary dispute and navigation of the StY Lawrence, there is certainly no cause for serious complaint on our side touching the terms of adjustment and pacification agreed upon in the disposition of any of these questions. The High Commission on the part of England and on the part of the United States seems to have met with the common determination of a mutually satisfactory and comprehensive treaty of peace, and with this common idea that, as peace is' manifestly the true international policy henceforward of the United States and England, all existing embarrassments to perfect harmony between the two nations must be removed.

The ways and means adopted between the high contracting parties for the settlement of the Alabama claims, the fishery disputes and the boundary question do. certainly, all things considered, embrace con -essions to United States, in the matters both of American claims and international law. which ought to be satisfactory to the State. Concerning tho navigation of the. St. Lawrence canals, in having conceded to us the same rights as the Canadians, we have unquestionably secured all that we could ask. It Appears, too, that in the British claims allowed as offsets to our Alabama claims all those classes of British claims not clearly within the pale of international law upon our own construction have been thrown out, and that Borne American claims, considered as hardly within the jurisdiction of the High Commission, have been considered and provided for. Entertaining the opinion that the treaty stipulations entered into will be, ratified and in good faith carried out on both sides, we adhere to our original impression that the appointment of this Joint High Commission will henceforward' be an important landmark to the historian, the opening of a new chapter in a new and higher order of international reciprocities and obligations than the civilised world has known heretofore. "With all the concessions from either side in this budget of conventions from the High Commission, the greatest concession is that of the paramount necessity to England of peace, aud of our manifest obligations of peace to ourselves and to the world at large. As a war between the United States and _ England would be one of the heaviest of misfortunes to both, par-r ties and to the general cause of human progress, so these new bonds of peace between England and the United States maybe regarded as fruitful of blessings to the United States, to England and to all her different races and nationalities, including old Ireland, and to the general, cause of the whole family of mankind.