E-text prepared by Lesley Halamek, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 26708-h.htm or 26708-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/7/0/26708/26708-h/26708-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/7/0/26708/26708-h.zip) PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI VOLUME 104, MAY 13TH 1893 edited by Sir Francis Burnand MIXED NOTIONS. No. X.--THE BEHRING-SEA ARBITRATION. (_Scene and Persons as usual._ _The Conversation has already begun._) _First Well-informed Man_ (_concluding a tirade_). ---- so what I want to know is this: are we or are we not to submit to the Yankees? It's all very well talking about Chicago Exhibitions and all that, but if they're going to capture our ships and prevent us killing seals, why, the sooner we tell 'em to go to blue blazes the better. And as for its being a _mare clausum_---- [Illustration] _Inquirer_ (_interrupting_). Who was she? What's she got to do with it? _First W. I. M._ (_laughing vigorously_). Ha! ha! that's a good 'un. _Inquirer_ (_nettled_). Oh, laugh away, laugh away. That's you all over. _First W. I. M._ My dear chap, I'm very sorry, but I really couldn't help it. There's no woman in the business at all. _Mare clausum_ merely means the place where they catch the seals, you know; _mare_, Latin for sea. _Inquirer._ Oh! I should have known that directly, if you'd only pronounced it properly. But what does _clausum_ mean? _First W. I. M._ Well, of course, that means--well, a clause, don't you know. It's in the treaty. _Average Man_ (_looking up from his paper_). It used to be the Latin for "closed," but I suppose it's altered now. _First W. I. M._ (_incredulously_). It can't mean that, anyhow. Who ever heard of a closed sea, I should like to know? _Second W. I. M._ (_hazarding a suggestion_). It _might_ mean a harbour, you know, or something of that sort. _Average Man._ I daresay it _might_ mean that, but it doesn't happen to be a harbour (_relapses into paper_). _Second W. I. M._ Oh, well, I only made the suggestion. [_A pause._ _Inquirer._ But what are they arbitrating about in Paris? It says (_reading from newspaper_) "When Mr. CARTER, the United States Counsel, had concluded his speech, he was complimented by the President, the Baron DE COURCEL, who told him he had spoken on behalf of humanity." I thought old CARNOT was President of the French Republic. _First W. I. M._ So he is. _Inquirer_. But this paper says Baron DE COURCEL is President. _Second W. I. M._ Oh, I suppose that's one of CARNOT's titles, All these blessed foreigners are Barons, or something of that sort. _Inquirer._ Ah, I suppose that must be it. But what have the French got to do with the Behring Sea? I thought it was all between us and the Yankees.