The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-01-11

Times, whose rapturesover the astonishjnr
race are inexhaustible, breaks ont sgair
on the 9th December with this burst o.
enthusiasm:
"The Americans have once more done
a thing never attempted by any other peo
pie. They have set three pleasure yacht!
to race against each other at headlone
spced across The broad and stormy ocean
from New York to Cowes; and not conten'
| with the longest race, they have added "
the daring feat by rewarding the V'o0
with about the largest money Pi"0 e'si
proposed in such contest, &c
All! this is deliciously tickling US IN the
tenderest poist-the largest, the longest,
the, broadest-everything on the tallest
scale And you, bold Americans, have
done the daring feat. Alone You did 1t
We suspect the Times of little touch Of
irony In all this. In the same Article, the
writer says:
"No observer of American character will
be surprised at the interest which this I'M
precedented contest excited on the other
side Of the Atlantic. For some days before
the start New York was aliUe Nth ercite-
ment, and the Se,SMion ,caS all the more IN.
tense, de-"
The Times has been an observer OF Anne
rican character to some purpose. Indeed,
the British Government and people have
studied that interesting character very
anxiously for the last two years; and they
aattcr themselves they now know how to
fool the Yankee to the top of his bent !;
namely, by extolling the greatness THAT IS
larseness) of his ideas and performances !;
by stimulating his favorite sensations, and
puf,iug all his performances; also, by a
little aristocratic notice bestowed on the
"heroic yachtmen."
But he is not yet SO supplemented as
they think. All these praises and compii-
ments are very well; but what about the
I" Alabama claims 7" We accept grace
fully the compliments of our "Anglo-
Saxon brethren; but you do not pay Ala
bama claims with chatr: neither do fair
words butter our parsnips. The offer of
the British Admiralty to replace any lost
spar Of the Henrietta is truly handsome !;
but who is to replace the hundred and
fiftv ships burnt from keel to top by Con-
fcderate cruisers?
Within the last day or two the British
minister at Washington has been in
Structed tn make a new proposal to the
American Government, to leave to arbi-
tration the whole subject of these claims,
and also the questions of international law
which arise upon them. This proposal,
it is true, is judiciously made at moment
when Americans are in good humor with
England; when Osborne House and Wind
sor Castle have been opened (undcr minis
terial advice) to our "heroic yachtmen y;
but we imagine that no Washington admit
nistration will be soothed into letting go
one lot or one title of the clear advan-
tage it possesses in the case in question.
England will pay those millions at last, and
without arbitration she cannot afford to
let the precedent she herself established
about building ships for belligerents re-
main in force. There is but one way of get
ting rid of it, and that is by paying the
damage; and she will never pay it in CAL
culated courtesies to our "heroic yacht
men," Let the Times " observe Ameri-
can character little more still.