The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-08 00:00:00

TUB INTERNATIONAL BOAT-RA CB.

The American papers, arrived on Tuesday morning,
devote an enormous space to the description of the boat-
race. They have a snap of the country round about
Putney and Mortlake, a full account of all sayings
and doings up to the time of the encounter, a wood
portrait of the various competitors, and a column of tele-
grams describing the actual contest. All this matter,
amounting to about a page of type, appears in the New
York journals simultaneously with the English narratives
—that is, the morning after the race. The description of
the race is thoroughly impartial, and the comments
of the fairest character. The news leached New York
just 23, minutes and 13 seconds after the winning bolt
arrived at Mortlake, this time including the trans-
mission from the winning-pest to the nearest
telegraph station, three quarters of a mile. The
result was awaited with the most extraordinary
excitement in the great American city. When the news
came, says the New York. Tribune, it was near the hour
for Wall-street to empty itself, and some very gloomy men
sat down to dinner. The word ran like fire. " Oxford
ahead" was upon everybody's lips. Hotels, club-rooms,
and billiard-rooms took up the theme. "No use,
Bob," said a porter to a hackman at the Fifth-ave.
Hotel, ' them English boys have the staminy ; its
some think in the climate gives cm the hadvantage."
This reasoning (lid not please the hackman, nor, it is
believed, the generality of people. . About the boating
clubs great regret at the result was manifest. The Gulick
boys forgot their customary rally, and sat talking low in
the dark-. The Hoboken Club seemed to be ready for a
funeral. The boat's crew, on the Hudson for practice,
rowed quietly, and the oarsmen sighed as they went up
from the landing to the boat-house. No bad feeling enters
the breast of a true oarsman. " Don't let them beat us in
good stature," was often said, and the occasional drain of
comfort in " Better luck next time," was gladly received.
All did not seem to be lost with the toatmen, although
the field was lost. At the Metropolitan a large crowd
discussed the result, and many were of the opinion that
the Harvard mcn should have retained Pass and nice,
who were set aside for Fay and Lyman, and others,
thought that Simmons should have been replaced. The
fair.play shewn by the Englishmen was the subject of
flattering comment. Old gentlemen walked slovenly
ovar the marble blocks of the hotel floors, alternately
damning the English and boasting of Yankee pluck. "We
can beat 'em the next' time, can't we, pa?" were the
words of Young America. Almost every naturalised face
bore a shade of disappointment. The "Irish jintleman "
took a chew of fine cut, and said, "O, ye have got to git
up in the Morning if ye weal to beat them there
Britishers ?" The young man lately from Liverpool
thought it queer that the Americans should dream of
rowing with men who have ruled the seas for centuries.
" Well, there is nothing like letting people know where
they stand. If the Yankees will not learn at home, why
they must go abroad and pay dear for their knowledge."
The genuine American said that we can afford to wait. •
In their comments on the issue the American journals
universally praise the fair rlay shewn by the English. The
Tribune says the result is a sore disappointment, but not
a surprise. "It could .not be forgotten that the art
which at Oxford is based upon the accumu-
lated experience of generations, at Harvard is
almost an acquisition of yesterday. Neither
could it be forgotten against what fearful odds the
American crew went into the contest. Pulling in strange
waters, with a strange organisation, in a strange climate,
against men who were perfectly at home and knew
every inch of the course by heart ; pulling, too,
against the very finest crew that England had
ever put into a boat, it was nothing short of a despe-
rate encounter into which they had thrown them-
selves, and their success would have been little less than
marvellous." The New York Times says:—" In common
fairness we maintain that the Oxonians ought to
give them the chance of a return match. Let
the accidents which told in this race against the
Americans be courageously faced by the Englishmen.
Then the two systems of rowing will have been satisfac-
torily tested. The Oxonians have shown themselves •a
spirited foe—it is not too .much to expect from them
a chivalrous emulation of
,the, course taken by our
representatives. If they come over here they will be,
during their stay, the most popular men in the
country. The whole nation would take a pride in in-
suring for them generous treatment and fair play.
Whether they won or lost the day, their reception would
be a thing for them to remember all the rest of their lives.
There is no civility or hospitality which has been extended
to the Harvard crew which would not be repaid here to
the Englishmen four-fold."

The money remitted to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer by divers persons, for conscience' hake, in the
financial year ending March 1869 amounted to £4,194. In
1868 the amount was £4,668.

A SCIENTIFIC CONUNDRUM.—The Engineer kindly
gives the following information to velocipedists, by which.
it is to be hoped, they will profit :—" The keeping of the
balance in mounting a velocipede depends on the fulfil-
ment of one or other of two conditions—either that the
line of motion of the centre of the mass of the rider at the
instant when he alights in the saddle must be in the same
vertical plane with the line of motion of the centre of mass
of the velocipede and the track of the wheels, or should
that be impracticable, the rider must be prepared instantly
to correct the deviationby means of the steering apparatus."

The paddlewheel steam frigate Terrible, 19,
Captain H. Earle, from Bermuda (which landed
mails on Saturday at Falmouth), sailed thence on
the 12th of August, came home under canvas nearly
all the passage, and experienced very fine weather.
She arrived at Plymouth on Monday, and brought
the following passengers :—Mrs. Osborne, wife of
Lieutenant Osborne, 61st Regiment ; Mrs. Pilleau
and child, wife of Lieutenant Pilleau, 61st Regi-
ment; Mrs. Check and family, wife of Lieutenant
Check, R.N., Misses Wainwright (4), daughters of
the Captain Superintendent of the dockyard at Ber-
muda, Mr. Obiunille, Glst Regiment, cn leave; and
Dr. Moore, R.N., with six n•tval and 16 military
nvalids, two women, and three children. The
iTerrible spoke, August 27, lat. 32 N., long. 24 51
W., the Tanta!lon Castle, homeward bound, and
the Ismael and Susanna ; 29th, the English brig
Rosehall ; Sept. 2, lat. 48 30 N., ,long. 15 8 W.,
the ship Bosphorus, from Quebec, 47 days out ; and
Sept. 3, the French ship Egmont and Hoorn, home-
ward bound.