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The long-talked-of treaty between England and Venezuela has been signed.  These countries agree to settle the question of the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana by arbitration.

In no. 9 of the great round world you will find a full account of the quarrel between England and Venezuela.  It was said that England claimed more land than belonged to her.

You will see, if you look at no. 9, how the United States stepped in, and helped to adjust matters.

The signing of this treaty brings a quarrel to an end that has been going on for upwards of a century.

The boundary line which has been so much disputed has been surveyed several times, but no two surveyors have agreed, and so all the troubles have come about.

The treaty says that the arbitrators are to find out just how much land belonged to the colony of British Guiana at the time it became the property of England, and that they are to work from that point.

The Committee of Arbitration is to meet in Paris, and is to consist of two Englishmen, Baron Herschel, and Sir Richard Henn Collins, a Judge of the English Supreme Court; one American, Judge Brewer; and one member chosen by Venezuela, who is also an American, the Hon. Melville Weston Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

These four arbitrators are to decide among themselves who shall be the fifth man to join them in their work.

If they have not been able to agree on the fifth man in three months after they meet, our old friend, King Oscar of Sweden, is to step in and fill the vacant place.

The treaty provides that within six months after it is signed the committee must meet in Paris, and that the whole work shall, if possible, be completed within six months after the meeting.

The two copies of the treaty, as soon as they were signed by Sir Julian Pauncefote for England, and Senor Jose Andrade for Venezuela, were sent off, the one to London, the other to Caracas, to be ratified by the governments of England and Venezuela.

The ratification must be made within six months of the date of signing, and then the work of the committee will begin.

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Very little headway has been made with our own treaty with England.

The Committee on Foreign Relations has made certain changes in it, and handed it to the Senate with a recommendation that it be accepted.

The changes made strike out the name of King Oscar of Sweden as umpire, and narrow the work of the arbitrators down to dealing solely with matters that concern Great Britain and the United States in their relations with each other.

The idea is to make it impossible for England to interfere if we wish to make a treaty with another country.

Some people think that if the treaty be ratified as first presented, we will be compelled to ask the advice and permission of England in reference to every treaty or similar arrangement we may want to make with other countries.