Office of the Historian

No. 120.
General Schenck to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
London, August 12, 1872. (Received August 23.)
No. 290.]

Sir: On Saturday, the 10th instant, the day on which Parliament was prorogued, I did not receive official copies of the Queen’s speech in time for the mail of that day. I forward now, herewith, two copies.

You will observe what Her Majesty is made to say in regard to the declaration of the Arbitrators at Geneva on the subject of the claims for indirect losses; that it is entirely consistent with the views which she announced at the opening of the session. On the contrary, the ground taken in the Queen’s speech in February last was, that the United States had put forward certain claims which Her Majesty’s Government held not to be within the scope of the Treaty. But the Arbitrators studiously avoided giving any opinion on that point, and confined themselves to an expression of opinion, in effect by the Tribunal, that without reference to the question of admissibility or inadmissibility of such claims under the Treaty, they could not, under the principles of public law, be considered in making up an award, because of their remote or consequential character.

I have, &c.,

ROBT. C. SCHENCK.
[Page 582]
[Inclosure in No. 120.]

Extract from Her Majesty’s most gracious speech.

My Lords and Gentlemen: The time has now arrived when you may properly relinquish the performance of your arduous duties for a term of repose, which has been honorably earned by your devoted assiduity.

I rejoice to inform you that the controversy which had arisen between my Government and the Government of the United States, in consequence of the presentation of the American claims for indirect losses under the Treaty of Washington, has been composed by a spontaneous declaration of the Arbitrators entirely consistent with the views which I announced to you at the opening of the session. In concurrence with your action on the part of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Canada has passed the acts necessary to give effect to the Treaty within the Dominion. All the arrangements contemplated by that instrument are, therefore, now in progress, and I reflect with satisfaction that the subjects with which it has dealt no longer offer any impediment to a perfect concord between two kindred nations.

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