18 MAY 1872, Page 1

It is very difficult to form any judgment worth having

as to the success of this proposed Supplemental Treaty, which is s4r1 to begin by reciting the British and the American views and stating that the President of the United States 4' adopts for the future" the principle of barring "Indirect Claims," and then enacts that "the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, consents that he will make no claim on the part of the United States in respect of the Indirect Losses as aforesaid before the Tribunal of Arbitra- tion at Geneva." The wording is very probably not authentic, being, as we have elsewhere shown, inadequate to our purpose, but the intention of the provision to withdraw these claims from the consideration of the Arbitrators is universally admitted. The President, however, as it clearly appears, has not himself recom- mended this additional article to the Senate, but only asked the

Senate if they would recommend it to him. There are, it is said, at least ten anti-Administration Republicans, as well asabout seventeen Democrats, in the Senate, and as a minority of more than twenty- five,—a two-thirds' majority is required to carry the clause,— would defeat the provision, the issue must be extremely doubtful.