way as to relieve the naval force at Cuba, so as to operate against
Peru, orders were given to prevent their departure. No further steps
having been taken by the representative of the Peruvian Government to
prevent the departure of these vessels, and I not feeling authorized to
detain the property of a nation with which we are at peace on a mere
Executive order, the matter has been referred to the courts to decide.

The conduct of the war between the allies and the Republic of Paraguay
has made the intercourse with that country so difficult that it has been
deemed advisable to withdraw our representative from there.

Toward the close of the last Administration a convention was
signed at London for the settlement of all outstanding claims between
Great Britain and the United States, which failed to receive the
advice and consent of the Senate to its ratification. The time and the
circumstances attending the negotiation of that treaty were unfavorable
to its acceptance by the people of the United States, and its provisions
were wholly inadequate for the settlement of the grave wrongs that had
been sustained by this Government, as well as by its citizens. The
injuries resulting to the United States by reason of the course adopted
by Great Britain during our late civil war--in the increased rates
of insurance; in the diminution of exports and imports, and other
obstructions to domestic industry and production; in its effect upon the
foreign commerce of the country; in the decrease and transfer to Great
Britain of our commercial marine; in the prolongation of the war and the
increased cost (both in treasure and in lives) of its suppression--could
not be adjusted and satisfied as ordinary commercial claims, which
continually arise between commercial nations; and yet the convention
treated them simply as such ordinary claims, from which they differ more
widely in the gravity of their character than in the magnitude of their