The debate on the Alabama claims raised by Mr. Shaw
Lefevre yesterday week elicited a very conciliatory speech from Lord -Stanley, who argued that to arbitrate on the right of England to 'recognize the Confederates as belligerents so early as she did, >could not be called in question on any intelligible principle, and, if it could, would not have affected the Alabama case, as that vessel did not escape till April, 1862. He concluded, however, by saying that Mr. Seward had more than once thrown out the idea of a general Commission to deal with all outstanding ques- tions of all descriptions between the two countries, and that if Mr. Seward would develop that idea he should not be disposed to make difficulties. Mr. W. E. Forster, after warmly approving the tone of Lord Stanley's speech, pointed out that he, as a parti- zan of the North, had himself desired the concession of bell- gere,nt rights as the only means to a proclamation of our neutrality and the enforcement of our neutrality law against ships fitted -out in England to aid the South. Nevertheless, Mr. Forster would have allowed the American Government to urge its views -concerning our recognition of the South before the arbitrator,— believing that it had no real bearing on the Alabama claims, or, if it had, only proved our desire to be really neutral.
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