partial, on account of the many objects of charity then before the community, and especially on account of the large contributions to the sufferers by the Chicago fire. The Boston fire has crippled some of the resources on which he was encouraged to rely when an appeal should again be made. We believe that no one became conversant with his plans, and especially no one became intimate with the wisdom, energy, and devotedness which he impersonates, who was not profoundly impressed with the grandeur of the enterprise, with its promise of untold wealth of civilizing and Christianizing influence, and with its momentous bearing upon the future of the Mussulman empire. If these pages fall under the eyes of any who would perform eminent service to the undivided and inseparable cause of learning and religion, we beg them to consider whether there be a more worthy object for their benefactions than Robert College. This enterprise has aroused the emulation of the Protestant Armenians in Central Turkey. The inhabitants of Aintab have pledged themselves to an amount equivalent to 60,000 dollars of American money, which is more than twenty dollars for each church member, toward the establishment of a new college in that city. It is considered as certain that the plan will be carried out; the situation is eminently favorable, and the Moslems and the old Armenians of the city are strongly interested in the means of superior education which will thus be provided for their whole community. We should be glad to follow our author through the remaining Eastern missions, among the Jacobites, the Bulgarians, the Roman Catholics and the Jews in Turkey, and among the Mohammedans, who are to be found in large numbers in all the regions covered by the operations under the auspices of the American Board. The results are eminently satisfactory and hopeful, except among the Jews, who, however, have been very largely supplied with the Old Testament in forms in which they can read it intelligently, and who, it may be hoped, may at least in some instances be led through Moses and the Prophets to Him of whom they spake. Among the Turks many thousand copies of the Scriptures and of religious books have been circulated, and not a few genuine conversions to Christianity have been reported. It is of the best omen for the Christian cause that not only the death penalty, but all legal disabilities and forfeitures for the abjuration of Moham medanism have been repealed; and though there will in that slow people be still individual instances of persecution, it may be even unto death, there can be no doubt that ere long the last vestige of systematized intolerance will disappear. The rapid assimilation of the Turks to the people of Western Europe in costume, manners, and customs is a hopeful sign. Every reapproachment of this sort multiplies points of contact and avenues of influence; and while it cannot be too carefully borne in mind, that civilization and Christianity do not necessarily move with equal step, it is none the less true that the higher the standard of civilization, the more genial is the soil for the seeds of the Divine Kingdom. We cannot dismiss these volumes without again expressing our obligation and the obligation of our whole Christian community to the venerable author, our thanks to God that he has been spared for a work which must gladden the hearts of all who seek the prosperity of Zion, and our fervent prayer that his old age may yield us yet more of such rich fruit for the edification of the churches and the praise of their Redeemer and Head. ARTICLE IV.-THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON IN 1871. II. THE GENEVA ARBITRATION. THE claims generically known as the "Alabama claims," after vain attempts to have them settled, were at length submitted to a Tribunal of Arbitration. It is not our intention to retrace the course of negotiation until it came to this successful end. On the part of the United States untenable ground was taken in regard to the Queen's proclamation at the beginning of our war. On the part of Great Britain, there was a feeling that municipal law was the measure of international duties, and a seeming willingness that this country should fall to pieces, which gave rise here to indignation and disgust. The war came to a close with the union preserved; cotton was exported; intercourse and industry returned into their old channels. Meanwhile that healthy opinion in regard to the breadth of international obligation, which such men of state as Cobden, and such jurists as Phillimore, had professed, found other open advocates. Even members of the cabinet expressed regret at the escape of the vessels that violated the laws of neutrality. It was felt that in another turn of things the United States would observe their neutrality law with one eye shut. Expeditions on the land must follow the same rule as those on the sea. Who could tell what unneutral want of due diligence, what boldness in relying on the carelessness of officials in the United States, what Fenian raids, what chronic hostile feeling, the conduct of England might provoke. Exemplo quodcunque malo comittitur, ipsi One evidence of a wiser state of feeling in Great Britain was the appointment of a Neutrality Laws Commission in 1867, which after twenty-four meetings reported in 1868.* This This report, with a valuable appendix on the neutrality laws of other countries, was published at the time by itself, and was afterward, with the same supplement, annexed to Vol. iii. of the British case before the Tribunal of Geneva. body, consisting of some of the leading publicists of the kingdom, as Phillimore, Twiss, and Vernon Harcourt (Historicus), as well as of eminent judges, and of lawyers, such as Roundell Palmer, with one warm friend of the United States, Mr. W. E. Foster, represented, of course, various shades of opinion, and sought for light from various persons who were not members of the Commission. The report recommends, among other things, that any person, within her Majesty's dominions, who shall fit out, arm, dispatch or cause to be dispatched, or shall build or equip any ship "with intent or knowledge that the same shall or will be employed in the service of any foreign power in any war being waged" against any belligerent power not at war with Great Britain; or shall commence or attempt to do, or shall aid in doing, any of these acts, every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. Extensive powers also are given to the Secretary of State, or other persons beyond the seas having chief authority, to issue a warrant for the arrest, search, and detention of such ships, until they can be condemned or released by process of law. The owners or agents can apply for their release, and the nearest Court of Admiralty is to act upon the application, with the usual Admiralty appeal to the Privy Council. But from this resolution are excepted foreign commissioned ships, and also those foreign non-commissioned ships,* coming into the country under stress of weather, upon which "no fitting out or equipment of a warlike character shall have taken place in the country." Two other special recommendations made by the commission deserve notice. One is that prizes, "not entitled to recognition as commissioned ships of war," when captured by vessels violating the neutrality of Great Britain, shall, if brought within British jurisdiction, on due proof in the Admiralty Court, at the suit of the original owner or his agent, be restored. This is not to hold, however, when the ship is brought into the realm without due notice of the unlawful fitting out of the capturing vessel. The other is that no vessel of a bel * We remark in another place on this exception, as it appears in the foreign enlistment act of 1870. It greatly injures the law. ligerent, built, equipped, fitted out, armed, or despatched contrary to the act, shall in the time of war be admitted into any British port. Mr. Vernon Harcourt dissented from this report, as it respects the building of vessels. A law, constituting this, under the conditions supposed, a misdemeanor, would, he thought, be difficult of execution; would impose a new responsibility by its non-execution; would be odious within the country, and if not executed, give just ground of complaint to foreigners; and would put the trade of the country at an uncalled for disadvantage. A foreigner is unable to see the great benefit of building ships of war within any given jurisdiction, especially if a license is to be purchased for this by paying fifteen and a half million of dollars. And if a ship of war cannot legally be dispatched, why allow it to be built, unless for the purpose of putting a temptation to commit a misdemeanor before the righteous soul of a shipbuilder of Birkenhead.* Other persons who were consulted by the commission, expressed very strict notions of the duties of neutrals. Sir Robert Phillimore would be expected to do this, in regard to munitions of war obtained by a belligerent within a neutral territory, since in his commentaries (iii, § 230, 233) he had a number of years since advanced the same opinion. He says that "in the memoire justificatif [i. e., the memorial written by Gibbon, the historian], it will be seen that England then considered that the permission, accorded by the French government for the export of munitions of war from French ports to the revolted colonies, was one justifying cause of the war which England had declared against France." And although a neutral may be impartial in allowing both belligerents to supply themselves with the means of mutual destruction within the neutral territory, yet the theoretically equal permission to both belligerents may be practically illusory and false. He adds, that to such a degree "may the advantage of this permission preponderate in favor of one belligerent over the other," "that it may be a necessary measure of * For a good suggestion made by the same gentleman, in regard to ships taking commissions on the high seas, see pp. 299-300, infra. |