People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1897 — THE GREAT VENEZUELAN ARBITRATION VICTORY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE GREAT VENEZUELAN ARBITRATION VICTORY.

The four men who will arbitrate the Venezuelan question are all eminent (Jurists. Chief Justice Fuller and Justice Brewer of the United States Supreme court will represent the American side of the controversy, and Great Brltain’B interests will be looked after by Lord Farrer Herschell and Sir Richard Henn Collins, both members of the Supreme court of Judicature in England. Lord Herschell is one of the Judges of the court of appeal, a branch of the Supreme court of Judicature, and la the first lord of his name. He is Just 60 years old, and is the son of a clergyman. Herschell passed through University College in London and the University of Bonn, and was called to the bar in 1860. In 1872 he became a lueen’s counsel and a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. He was appointed recorder of Carlisle in 1873, and he was elected to parliament by the liberals to represent Durham City. In 1880 Mr. Gladstone made him solicitor general, and he was knighted in the same year. In 1886 he was raised to the peerage, and at the same time became lord high Chancellor. He was again made chancellor by Gladstone in 1892, and held the position until 1895, when he resigned to accept his present position on the supreme bench. He is an able Judge, highly cultured, and Just the man to arbitrate an international question. He has the degree of doctor of laws from Harvard and many other degrees from various universities. The other arbiter selected by England, Sir Richard Henn Collins, is a member of the queen’s bench division of the supreme court and is also a member of the railway and canal commission, Which is likewise a department of England's high court. Sir Richard was made a Judge and a knight but recently, yet he has been one of the big guns of the law courts in Fleet street for many years. He is 55 years old, and was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and Downing college, Cambridge, where he was graduated with high honors in the classics and the sciences. He began Jaw practice in 1867, and was created queen’s counsel in 1883. In both branches of the English law, Junior and queen’s council, he enjoyed a large practice. He has long been known as a sound and careful lawyer, and since his elevation to the bench, in 1891, he has proved himself a most cap,l.- ;

able and discriminating Judge. Like bis associate on the arbitration board, Sir Richard won his way from the bottom round of the ladder, and owes his present lofty position to pure merit, unmixed of political influence. No less interesting, though more familiar, are the stories of the rise of the two jurists who will represent America on the arbitration board. Chief Justice Fuller is as high up as he ean get in the American judiciary. From the position of a humble lawyer In Augusta, Me., he rose steadily in his profession, and continued to rise after his removal to Chicago in 1856. He was one of the profoundest jurists in the United States when President Cleveland made him chief Justice in 1888. Harvard, Northwestern and Bowdoin have honored him with their degrees. Justice Brewer was appointed to the supreme bench in 1889 by President Harrison. For many years he had been a supreme judge of Kansas, and hie,,decisions were noted for their fairness and wisdom. In 1884 he became a federal judge, and was advanced to the supreme court of the United States. The court will proceed to business at an early date. What if it should decide that England’s contention in Venezuela must be satisfied? The Monroe doctrine would thereby be indirectly placed at naught, and the new difference that would arise, would go before the general arbitration treaty—if the United States senate ratifies the Paunce-fote-Olney agreement. It is likely, however, that there will be no ratification. With no other treaty or alliance In the way, the Venezuelan dispute can be settled in a manner satisfactory to the defenders of the Monroe doctrine. It will be remembered that at first England refused to submit the dispute to arbitration. She would have maintained her position had it not been for President Cleveland’s special and warlike message to congress. The mes-

sage soon brought England to time. Had it not been for our threat to fight England would have gobbled up tin disputed territory long ago. If in future, disputes in which other great questions are involved, a threat to fight it out on our part should be choked oft by the existence of a permanent board of arbitration, our dignity as the leading nation would be subjected to many severe jolts.

Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller. Justice David J. Brewer. Right Hon. Lord Herschell. Sir Richard Henn Collins. MEMBERS OF THE ARBITRATION TRIBUNAL.