“’May it please the Umpire, I ask the protection of this tribunal from any such imputation as the gentleman’s insinuation would leave me under,’ said the General, almost bursting of anger.

“There seemed to be a nice little difficulty brewing, which threatened a readier dispatch of business than that which had marked their efforts in the settlement of claims outstanding.  Here again the Umpire, with the aid of his two Commissioners, interposed for the peace and respectability of Mr. Pierce’s family.  And here Mr. Smooth is happy beyond his power of expression to state, that after a very few unmeaning explanations, the gentlemen Councillors bowed politely to each other, laughed with buffoonish good-nature, nor seemed a whit less than the very best of friends.  ’If General—­will proceed with his argument!’ said the Umpire, gravely, by way of what writers call parenthesis.  ’Then, to the point of this case:  now, ye see, the law on our side of the water aint a bit like it is here, on this; ’specially with cases of this kind.  This is the case of a vessel with niggers on board, bound from one part of the United States to t’other, but driven by what sailors call stress of weather into a British port called Bermuda, where the natives (report says they are not very enlightened), not having the fear of God before their eyes, nor understanding the constitution of the United States, nor comprehending the principle by which certain democratic States in the free American Union make good property of such things as men, did regardless of the laws of those States, insult the sovereign flag, which was alike the protection of property and citizen, no matter in what part of the world it floated, and set all the niggers free!  After consuming an hour in arguments of this stamp, the General claimed to have made out his case, inasmuch as the niggers being property to the laws of the States to which they belonged, and the flag of the United States being absolute in its character of a protection,—­no matter under what local jurisdiction,—­the claim against England for compensation was as just an one as ever man could present for man; did she withhold payment, it must be at her peril.’

“His legal brother now rose, a good-natured smile playing over his sharp face.  Before commencing, he would say he wished his learned brother had taken a more dispassionate view of the case, and laid down a basis of broader principles.  Much of the difficulty in settling the many claims that had been presented for adjudication arose from the fact of his learned brother laying down rules to suit his own case, which he would not admit when applied against him.  Further, he had not the most faint idea of the nigger question being dragged before this tribunal for adjudication.  He had hoped that that question might be left for settlement on the soil of America, where those best acquainted with the evil could most readily find a remedy.  But if it were true that the flag was