Mr. Cremer has started for America with a memorial in
favour of a treaty of Arbitration between this country and the States signed by three hundred and fifty-four Members of the House of Commons—i.e., considerably more than half the House—which is to be presented to President Cleveland and both Houses of Congress. A resolution requesting the President to invite our Government to conclude such a treaty is now before Congress, and it is hoped that the memorial will help the passage of the resolution. We sincerely hope it may. We cannot express much enthusiasm for international Arbitration in general, noting as we do that the Arbitrations are almost invariably given against England quite apart from the merits—possibly on the principle of the French jugs de pair, " Vous &es riche il est pauvre : payez cc qu'il demande." The case of America is, however, quite different. The notion of war between us and the Englishmen across the Atlantic is utterly intolerable, and we should most gladly see a formal and precise declara- tion that in the case of the two branches of our race the ultimo ratio was no more to be contemplated than is civil war. But such a formal declaration can only be made by a perpetual treaty binding the two Powers to refer their disputes to Arbitration.
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