Parliament has separated for the short Whitsun holiday with- out
doing anything in particular worthy of chronicle, except renewing on Monday night the interminable discussion as to the Alabama arbitration, at the invitation of Mr. Bentinck. The only new point in the debate was the reference to the publication of the despatch from Mr. Fish to Mr. Bancroft Davis,— a despatch not communicated to our Government, and to which, therefore, it has nothing to say,—in which the American Secretary of State comments sharply on Chief Justice Cockburn's judgment at Geneva, and declares that the United States may some day take advantage of his declared opinions, published by the authority of the British Government. Some day, we suppose, means whenever the United States happen to be playing the part of a neutral, and Great Britain that of a belligerent. The publica- tion of this despatch was not wise on the part of Mr. Fish. It lays him open to the charge that he has looked at the whole controversy simply as an advocate, that he knows perfectly well that if he had been in our place, he would have urged our pleas with far more tenacity than we did, and that he is prepaang to change sides whenever we may happen to change parts. That is not a noble moral position to assume. It is one that, if seriously taken, and not the result of a temporary and perhaps excusable irritation,, would undermine the reciprocal trust of the two Governments.
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