The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-18 00:00:00

AQUA7ICS.

THE AMERICAN BOATING CHALLENGE.
The committee of tho Oxford University Boat Club have
received a letter from the committee of the Harvard Boat
Club definitively abandoning the champion match, which
was originally proposed by the rowing men of the Ameri-
can University. The American oarsmen say :—" We
understand perfectly well your objections to engaging
in a contest in which the systems are so different ; but
we still think that you do not entirely understand
on what grounds we aro unwilling to change our
method of steering, and why we think that it would
not place the competitors on an unfair footing. We
have learned the art of steering by means
of wires connecting the rudder with the bow oars-
man's feet. A coxswain would, therefore, be only a dead
weight for us; and we see no justice in a crew being
obliged to carry a dead weight in the form of a coxswain,
more than it should be required to carry ballast to equa-
lise the difference in the weight of boats, which is often
very considerable, or that coxswains should be of the
same weight. A crew selects a coxswain of as light a
weight as possible ; and it frequently happens that the
difference in the weight of the coxswains of two con-
testing crews amounts to twenty pounds ; and crews
rowing under such conditions are considered fairly
matched. American crows merely follow out this prin-
ciple of selecting as light a coxswain as possible, and
find it possible to dispense with one altogether. You
have objected to having the race on a broad and per-
fectly straight course. We make this stipulation because,
according to the best information we could procure, there
are straight courses of three miles' length in'several parts
of England, sufficiently sheltered for the lightest shell
boats, and because we think a straight course furnishes an
opportunity for a more fair and satisfactory race than a
winding course, on which one crew necessarily has an ad-
vantage in regard to position and knowledge of the water.
Not that it is at all impossible for a crew to be steered
without a coxswain on such a course as the Putney course
on the Thames, or the course on the Ouse, which you
speak of in your last letter; for we row daily on the
Charles River, which is narrow and winding, has a strong
tide, and is obstructed wich bridges."

DIPLOMATIC PENSIONERS.—The following is a
list of diplomatic pensioners at this moment. The pen-
sions of those marked with an asterisk are in abeyance, the
holders being in active service. The total amount is
£28,000, of which £3,900 is in abeyance. In 1861. Mr.
Hammond stated the total amount to be £23,500, of which
£2,600 was dormant; so that there has been an increase
of £5,500 for pensions in the last seven years:—£l,7oo :
Sir H. L. Bulwer, Earl Cowiey, *Lord Napier, Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe, £1,300: Lord Dunferm-
line, *Lord Howard de Walden, Sir James Hudson,
Sir J. IL Milbanke Huskisson, Sir Richard Pakenham, Sir
Hamilton Seymour, Mr. Justice Sheil. £900: Right
Hon. 11. U. Addington (with additional £6OO
a year as ex-under secretary), Hon. Sir John Bligh, W.
D. Christie, Hon. F. R. Forbes, Sir A. Malet, Hon. P.
Campbell Scarlett, *Sir Charles Wyke, £7OO ; C. Bank-
head, P. Browne, A. S. Douglas, Percy Doyle, Hon.
George Edgcumbe, Torrick Hamilton, Sir Thos. Waller,
£3OO ; Hon. H. G. Howard. The pensions aro divided into
four classes, according to the Act 2 and 3 William IV.,
c. 116—X1,700 for ambassadors, £1,300 for envoys extra-
ordinary and ministers plenipotentiary (confined by Fo-
reign-office practice to certain missions), £9OO for minis-
ters plenipotentiary (by Foreign-office practice for en-
voys extraordinary, &c., of certain other missions), £7OO
for charges d'affaires and secretaries of embassy and le-
gation ; there is one solitary pension of smaller amount.
The act under which diplomatic pensions are given is en-
titled, "An Act to provide for the salaries of certain high
and judicial officers, and of payments heretofore made out
of the Civil List revenues." The diplomatic pensions
come under the last head, described in the body of the act
as " the charge of the salaries and allowances of his Ma-
jesty's diplomatic servants employed at foreign Courts,
and of the pensions which have been granted,
or may hereafter bo granted, to persons having
served his Majesty at foreign Courts." Two of the
pensions in the foregoing list, those of Sir Charles Wyke
and Mr. Christie, have been assigned for a period of 15
years' service, partly consular ; according to the Foreign
office List, Sir C. Wyke's 15 years are helped out with ser-
vice from February 5, 1852, to October 21, 1854, as consul-
general, and Mr. Christie's as agent and consul general from
May 25, 1818, to February 20,1851. Mr A ddington, who has a
pension of £9OO a year for diplomatic service, has received an
additional £6OO a year for 12 years' subsequent service as
Under-Secretary of State in iho Foreip.;n.office. But there is
an express provision in the Act 2 and 3 William IV., cap. 116,
that every diplomatic pension shall be subject to "suspen-
sion or abatement in any case in which the person holding
the same may be appointed to any office of profit ender the
Crown." That is, if Mr. Addington, having a diplomatic
pension of £9OO a year, were appointed• to an office of £6OO
a year, so much of his pension would bo abated. It does
not seem consistent or according to the spirit of the act
that a second pension can be added to the diplomatic pen-
sion. Mr. Hammond stated before the Committee of 1861
that "it would have been very hard upon a man who had
served in an office whore the labour and responsibility were
much more severe than in the employment for which he
received a pension that Ito should have retired without
any addition bei,.g made to his pension." That is a natural
sentiment foe an Under-Secretary. of State; but is the
office of Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign-office
more laborious and responsible than that of the chief of a
distant mission like China, or Greece or Persia ?—Pall-Mall
Gazette,