The seizure of a British schooner by the American authorities
is an inopportune incident which might spoil the favourable prospects of an agreement about a twelve-mile limit of search if it were handled unwisely or if popular passions were aroused. In spite of the inopportuneness, however, we should be greatly surprised and disappointed if thue were another Trent' affair. A solution of all the difficulties raised by the Prohibition law in America is sincerely desired on both sides of the Atlantic by all decent people. Therefore common sense is nearly sure to prevail. The British schooner seized is the Island Home,' and representations have been made, as they were bound to be, by the British Embassy at Washington. After the seizure of the ' Island Home ' another schooner, the Tomako,' was seized, but in this case it seems most likely that the vessel is American. Some American newspapers, according to the Washington correspondent of the Times, have justified the seizure of British vessels on the ground that a " tacit agree.' ment " about the twelve-mile limit already exists between Great Britain and the United States. Of course, it would be impossible for the British Embassy to recognize an arrangement which at present is only a hope, and it hardly needs to be said that the State Department at Washington will not join the newspapers in using any such argument.
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