§ MR. BAXTERsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If any further progress has been made in the negotiations with the Government of the United States of America regarding the Alabama claims; and if the claims made by British subjects arising out of the late War exceed in amount those on the other side?
LORD STANLEYI cannot say that we are making rapid progress in the Alabama negotiations; but, at the same time, nothing that has occurred leads me in any way to despair of those negotiations being brought to a satisfactory settlement. I may, perhaps, further state that, whether the correspondence be concluded or not, it is my intention before the close of the present Session to lay all the Papers on the subject upon the table, for I think that the House and the country are entitled to know what has been going on. With regard to the latter part of the Question, which relates to the amount of the claims of British subjects arising out of the late War, I am afraid that is a matter on which it is impossible for me to give any answer. Very many claims have been put forward; but many of them probably will not bear minute examination, and others would, no doubt, be considerably reduced in amount upon an inquiry, so that no approximate sum can be given. I believe, moreover, that many more large claims have not yet been brought forward, it having been well understood that, while the Alabama negotiations were pending, the American Government had declined to go into such claims. There may, therefore, be many with which I am unacquainted.