The Times of last Monday had a telegraphic report from
Phila- delphia that the Joint High Commission had signed a convention -for the settlement of the Alabama claims,—the contracting par- ties agreeing to a rule that a neutral is responsible for depreda- tions on a friendly power by a vessel fitted out and manned at a neutral port, and that a Commission was to be appointed to decide -on the liability of Great Britain for the Alabama and her consorts under this rule. The details concerning the Commission are, however, so confused and improbable, that it is not easy to give the report much credit, especially as Lord Granville dis- tinctly denied on Thursday night that any settlement has yet been arrived at, and declared that the Commission intended to keep its proceedings absolutely secret till some result had been obtained. Lord Granville added, however, that he saw "no reason whatever to complain of the spirit in which -negotiations had been carried on,"—with which, we suppose, we must be satisfied. It is a good omen that the leakages, or reputed leakages, of news from the Commission savour of agree- ment, however mythical they may be, —nay, it would even be of good omen because they are mythical. For no one doubts that England desires an understanding; and if popular opinion in America is favourable enough to air understanding to invent rumours of one, we may fairly hope these rumours are the -shadows of coming events.
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