he progress of the Civil War a number of fast-sailing vessels
were fitted out in England, and employed in running the blockade of
the Southern ports, to supply them with arms, ammunition, and
manufactured goods of various kinds. Later, several gunboats were
built in British shipyards by agents of the Confederate government,
for the purpose of attacking the commerce of the United States. The
most famous of these vessels was the Alabama, built expressly for the
Confederate service by the Lairds, of Birkenhead, armed with British
cannon, and manned chiefly by British sailors.

Charles Francis Adams, the American Minister at London, notified Lord
Palmerston, the Prime Minister, of her true character. But Palmerston
permitted the Alabama to leave port (1862), satisfied with the pretext
that she was going on a trial trip.[1] She set sail on her career of
destruction, and soon drove nearly every American merchant vessel from
the seas. Two years later (1864) she was defeated and sunk by the
United States gunboat Kearsarge. After the war the Government of the
United States demanded damages from Great Britain for losses caused by
the Alabama and other English-built privateers.

[1] The Queen's advocate gave his opinion that the Alabama should be
detained, but it reached the Foreign Secretary (Lord Russell) just
after she had put out to sea.

A treaty was agreed to by the two nations; and by its provisions an
international court was held at Geneva, Switzerland (1872), to deal
with the demands made by the United States on Great Britain. The
court awarded $15,500,000 in gold as compensation to the United
States, which was duly paid. One very important result of this
decision was that it established a precedent for settling by
arbitration on equitable and amicable terms whatever questions might
arise in future between the two nations.[1]

[1] This treaty imposed duties on neutral governments of a far more
stringent sort than Great Britain had hitherto been willing to
concede. It resulted, furthermore, in the passage of an act of
Parliament, punishing with severe penalties such illegal shipbuilding
as that of the Alabama. See Sheldon Amos's "Fifty Years of the
English Constitution, 1830-1880."

599. Municipal Reform (1835); Woman Suffrage; the Jews.

Excellent as was the Reform Bill of 1832 (S582), it did not go far
enough. There was also great need of municipal reform, since in many
cities the taxpayers had no voice