A remark of Mr. Burlingame, already quoted, requires one word of comment. He mentions, as a possible course, the distribution of the fund among “disappointed claimants, and those Chinese in the employ of our citizens who suffered severe losses in consequence of their connection with them.” Of the Chinese mentioned the Committee know nothing. No claims in their behalf have been presented. But since the award of the Commissioners three different cases have occurred, coming under the head of “Disappointed Claimants.” The disposition of these is mentioned at the end of this Report.[129] It does not seem advisable that the fund should be kept to meet such applications. The awards of the Commissioners have been approved by our Minister in China, and the proceedings closed. If they were opened in the case of the Neva, it was because the claimants there had not been heard in China. It is not supposed that any other occasion can arise to open these proceedings. The fund in question cannot be regarded as a charity or largess for the gratification of “disappointed claimants,” nor would it be proper for the United States to play such a generous part at the expense of China. Our country has no house for its legation at Peking or for its consulates in other places, nor does it possess any buildings in China which it might use as courthouse or jail; and latterly there has been a strong disposition to apply this fund in this direction. Mr. Seward seems to have inclined this way, as appears from his Report to Congress,[130] and Mr. Fish also, as appears from his Report to Congress.[131] But this disposition proceeds on the admission that the fund differs materially from other moneys of the United States,--that, if it does not belong to China, it bears the Chinese earmark so strongly that it cannot be treated as belonging to our national assets. In point of fact, all attempts to cover it into the Treasury have proved unsuccessful. Petitions from opposite quarters with regard to the disposition of the fund attest a prevailing interest. At a meeting of citizens in New York, March 11, 1870, a distinguished committee was appointed, with Isaac Ferris, Chancellor of the University, as chairman, with whom as associates were William E. Dodge, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Frederick S. Winston, E. D. Morgan, E. C. Benedict, A. A. Low, John C. Green, James H. Taft, Stewart Brown, and William P. Jones, many of them having large interests in China, who adopted resolutions on this subject to be forwarded to Congress. The first resolution declares,--