On Thursday week in the United States Senate the Anglo-
American and Anglo-French Arbitration Treaties were amended in such a way as to be deprived of all their peculiar purpose. Clause III., which provides (in ease of disagreement between the principals) for the reference to a Joint High Commission of Inquiry of the question whether a matter is suitable for arbitration or not was entirely deleted. The objection raised by the Senate was the one we bad fore- seen and called attention to, that the clause deprived the Senate of its Constitutional powers. Every new foreign treaty requires a two-thirds majority in the American Senate. In other words, the American Senate has an absolute control over foreign affairs, and it invariably exercises its right. There is no more jealous and no more powerful Second Chamber in the world. On Thursday week the Senate also exempted from arbitration questions of alien immigration and the indebtedness and territorial integrity of States. In their emasculated form the Treaties were adopted. But it will hardly be worth while to proceed with them in their present form.
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