THE ALABAMA CLAIMS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 5, 11 May 1872, Page 3

THE ALABAMA CLAIMS.

Tiik u New .Purssian (Cross) Gazette" of Feb. j 17, in an article on the Mbove subject lias the } following :—• I j " The unprecedented nature of this demand I becomes clearer when it is considered that i ilie American (government calculated the j direct injury caused by the shifts in question j nt not more than 1 G,ooo,ooodols. Had the j (loverntneiif' al. any time since the conclusion , of the war with the South demanded sword- j in-hand of England compensation for the j indir(;ct damages indicted, little could have j been said against this course from the stand- j point of a certainly somewhat antiquated i practice of international law. Hut that the 1 .American (lovernment should come forward j ■with a claim so exorbitant that it. naturally j could only be enforced by a war for life or ' drath, and after England had just stretched j out. the hand of reconciliation and peaceful ! equitable liquidation, can only be accounted j lor by certain bad habits, and by the demoral- | i/.ation in the internal political life of the! I'nited Stales, a, glimpse of which was lately j vouchsafed on the occasion of the discoveries j relative to the administration of the city ofj New York. In the American case the trouble ! has scarcely been taken to cover the claim j raised with a certain juridical gloss. Ihe ; whole proceeding is in the style of the Irish j mob, who ]>1 ay a political part in the United j States. Evidently no one in America thinks j of a war with England. Everyone has sufli- ' . eient common sense to estimate the danger j arising in such an enterprise from the unquestioable naval superiority of England. ! The loud shrieking of the United States will | not lead to a favourable result for them, and j their moral position in the world will certainly • not be improved. Wc are convinced that, not' a single jurist of any international standing" | will be found to undertake the justification of the American claim. i