that all the cabinet disapprove of it.” On the 5th of December Mr. Johnson wrote to Mr. Seward that he just had an interview with Lord Stanley, who “expressed no willingness to change the mode of appointing the arbitrator who is to decide the question of the liability of this government for the Alabama Claims.” In the same letter Mr. Johnson announced the resignation of the Disraeli government, and the necessity of postponing all further negotiations. On the whole subject see “Diplomatic Correspondence,” 3d Sess., 40th Cong., vol. i., pp. 361–391. Soon after the Gladstone-Clarendon government came into power the subject was again taken up, and a Protocol was agreed upon between Mr. Johnson and Lord Clarendon, providing that “_all claims_ should be submitted to arbitration.” This treaty was submitted to the Senate of the United States, and April 19, 1869, was rejected with but one dissenting voice. The grounds of objection were that the Alabama Claims were so obscured by minor matters that they would not receive due attention. The Johnson-Clarendon treaty is given in the “Diplomatic Correspondence” and in “Ann. Reg. for 1869,” p. 282. The subject was not again renewed till the outbreak of the Franco-German War, in regard to which see note 63. NOTE 62, p. 270.—At the conclusion of the Crimean War the great powers in the Treaty of Paris agreed to impose and enforce the neutrality of the Black Sea. The waters and the ports were “perpetually interdicted to the flag of war of either of the powers possessing its coasts,” excepting certain small armed vessels to act as a sort of maritime police. As was not unnatural, Russia chafed under this interdiction. The Franco-German War broke out in July of 1870. In October of that year, when France and Germany were so occupied as scarcely to be able to protest, Prince Gortschakoff addressed a circular despatch to the European powers, stating that Russia no longer recognized the obligations of the Treaty of 1856. This despatch called forth a courteous but firm reply from Lord Granville, in which the obligatory nature of the treaty was insisted upon. It was feared that Prussia had secretly assented to the claims now put forward by Russia, in compensation for grants made to Prussia on the Baltic. Accordingly Mr. Odo Russell was sent to the German head-quarters at Versailles to ascertain the attitude of the Prussian Government. Count Bismarck assured the English ambassador that Prussia had given no sanction to the step, and proposed that the whole question should be submitted to a conference of the powers, to be held at London. This proposal of Prussia was assented to by England and Russia, and the conference took place in January of 1871. The result was the neutralization of the Black Sea was abrogated. The prediction of Beaconsfield, that “the entire command of the Black Sea will soon be in the possession of Russia,” has been amply justified by subsequent history.—“Ann. Reg., 1870,” 109; 1871, 3–17.