moreover, that of those claims which were passed upon, about three- POURTHS OF THE AMOUNT CLAIMED WAS REJECTED as UOt due. Unquestionably the strongest claims were first brought forward ; and if these were three-fourths spurious, we may judge of the character of those introduced at the close of the session. We have seen the eagerness with which the Government welcomed and pressed every claim, however stale and absurd. It is obvious that the Court of Claims, if we may so name it, was a lottery in which magnificent prizes might be drawn, and in which the tickets cost nothing. Every man who had been in Mexico for the last twenty years, and could manufacture a wi'ong, was virtually invited to come forward and try his luck. There is also strong reason to beheve, that, when at the end of the first nine months, all the cases ready had been heard, it was found that the result would be so insignificant as to cast contempt and ridicule upon the Cabinet ; and that, therefore, great efforts were made to induce reckless speculators and adventurers to come forward with claims which would at least swell the un- liquidated demand, andiurnish ground for continued and irritating complaint. But supposing the unsettled claims to have been not less worthless than those which were adjudicated, then one million more would have been added to the award, making a debt due by Mexico of three instead of the eleven milhons claimed.
Congress lately passed a bill for paying to American claimants five millions, due from the French Government, but which ours did not choose to go to war to collect. It was only of feeble Mexico, with her unprotected territor}-, that the Federal Cabinet was ready to collect delfts at the mouth of the cannon.
It may not be amiss to give some specimens of the shameless profligacy of many of these claims, which poH- ticians, for selfish purposes, have found it convenient to magnify into grievous wrongs.
A. O. de Santangelo was a schoolmaster and printer in Mexico. In one of the revolutionary struggles, he was obhged to flee, abandoning his school