asonable that
England should invite the arbitrators to judge the _Alabama_ case
according to one rule in the past, and then to lay down another rule for
the future?

A minor objection raised by Mr. Gladstone gave much alarm to his
commissioners, and it is too characteristic to be omitted. Speaking of the
ardently desired treaty, he writes to Lord Granville (April 12, 1871):--

With regard to the preamble, it designates the late war in America
as "the rebellion." I do not think it is right for us now to adopt
a mode of speech different from that which we maintained
throughout the struggle. Further, it tends to discredit our
recognition of belligerency. And if we declare it a rebellion, we
have given an example available to be quoted hereafter for the
dealings of a foreign power with rebels as belligerents. If, on
the other hand, the Americans object to speaking of the "civil
war," it is quite easy (so I think) to leave out the words "during
the recent rebellion in the U.S." altogether, and to say in the
years 186--or even to begin "Whereas H.B.M." perhaps inserting in
after "U.S." "in respect of such depredations."

This is an instance of the tenacity with which he sometimes held his
ground after its relations and bearings had entirely changed. Something
too may doubtless be set down to the lingering remains of his old feeling,
of the strength of the constitutional argument of the South that sovereign
states had a right to withdraw from the union if they pleased. If the
proposal to drop the word "rebellion" had been brought without warning or
preparation before the full commission, assent would have been hopeless,
but by the discretion of informal interviews, the matter was canvassed
beforehand, the obnoxious word was silently left out, Mr. Gladstone's
point was gained, and things went prosperously forward. "I am quite sure,"
wrote Sir Stafford Northcote to Mr. Gladstone (March 17), "that there was
no other way in which you could have hoped to settle these questions than
by such a commission as ours.... What may be our fate I do not presume to
guess, but if we succeed, it will be mainly due to de Grey's excellent
sense, tact, and temper." In the end, notwithstanding the power of the
senate over treaties, the want of control by the American government over
its party, and the exigencies of Canada, all at last fell into decent
shape, and the substantial objects in view w