The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-01-10 00:00:00

FOREIGN ITEMS.

THE SoDTHERE POWDKR Mitts. —The largest powder
mills in the South are at Augusta. They, as well as the
arsenal, are under the superintendence of Colonel Rains,
who is inexhaustible in his ingenious eontrivanees to
overcome the want of hundreds of thipgs neoesaary to
his manufacture, and yet hardly to be procured in the
South. The mills turn out 8,4001 be. of powder in 13
hours. In 15 hours over 10.000Ibs. have been made.
They began to work on April the 27th, 1862, and since
then one and a half million of pounds of powder have
been sent to Richmond alone. At the present time,
most of the powder is sent to Charleston, which, with its
many heavy guns, consume an enormous amount.
Percussion caps used to be imported from the North,
and we new a lot which had been manufactured at some
place in Connecticut, but they are already independent
of the enemy for this important article. At one time
so many were sent from the North that they were
absolutely a drug in the market. The • charcoal is
excellent, being made of cotton wood, a sort of white
poplar, which has no knots like the willow. Of sulphur
they had large stores when the war commenced ; and
saltpetre is imported a good deal through the blockade.
The powder magazines are uuder ground, and are,
moreover, divided above ground by thick brick
traverses. The roofs are of zinc, and very light;
so that if one magazine blows up, it cannot set
fire to its neighbours. We were much struck
with the powder made for the enormous Blakeney
gees at Charleston. A charge of this powder looks
more like a bag of coals than anything else, each grain
being as big as a hen's eeg. The guard duty at the
powder-mills is done by laden! from 16 to 18 years of
age, of whom there is a battalion of 500 at Augusta.
Another day, Colonel Rains obligingly lending us his
carriage, we visited the old U. S. arsenal, a couple of
miles from the city, where small-arm ammunition,
percussion-caps, hand-grenades with sensitive tubes, &c,
were being made up under the superintendence of
Captain Pinny. Small-arms had been made here, but
the workshops were being removed to the city for the
convenience of transport. We also went over the
government cannon foundrv,which is under the personal
superintendence of Colonel Rains. The colonel informed
us that he could turn out a Napoleon a day here, but at
present it was not necessary. In addition to the cannon
captured from the enemy, the Confederates had
manufactured and imported above a thousand since the
war commenced. They were then making Napoleons of
Austrian metal—a composition of copper, tin, wrought.
iron, and sine, very strong and very light, and had
already turned out 70. Colonel Rains uses a polygonal
core of sand and clay in manufacturing his hollow
Projectiles, which, by weakening the iron in regular
lines, causes a round shell to burst into 11, and a
conie.l shell for rifled guns into 19 regular eections.—
Blackwood.

EXECUTION OF A WOLF. —A wolf was kil'od at
Clterier (Loire) a few days back, under rather singular
circumstances. A peasant and his wife were eut,ing
wood in a thicket, accompanied by their tv&h dog,
when the animal was attacked by a large evil.
struggle between the two took place, during which they
rolled over each other downs ravine, but in the descent
the wolf's neck became fixed between two short stumps
of shrubs. The man then held the animal in that
position with a large stake, while the woman knock, d
its brains oat with an axe. _

It has recently been determined by the Prnssian
authorities that marriages concluded simply by dissent-
ing clergymen, and not by the ministers of the
Evangelical or Catholic Church, have no official validity.
All the children of each marriages are declared
illegitimate, and are to have none of the righta assured
by the law to legitimate children. In all official lets (as
the census, police, catalogues, &o.), and in all judicial
proceedingathe mother is to bear only her maiden name,
and the same is to be the case with her children.

The Times of India, under date Secunderabad, 7th
December, says :—"This station has been thrown into
a state of excitement by the following melancholy event
which took place yesterday. It appears a Mr. Gilbert,
a resident at Secunderabad, left home yesterday morn-
ing for the purpose of seeing the races at Mout Alli.
On arriving at the race course he allowed his horse to
grim in an adjacent field. After the races were over
he discovered that his horse had strayed from where he
left it, and immediately went in search. While doing
so he wandered into a jungle near the Moe! Alli rock,
when to his utmost surprise be was suddenly seized by
a tiger, who caught him by his side, and irilicted a deep
wound with his teeth. The occurrence was witnessed
by several men, who rushed instantly to his assistance,
and thereby saved his life, but not jb time to prevent
him from sustaining serious injury, He was conveyed
at once to the garrison hospital, where he still lies in •
very precarious state, and but faint hopes are enter-
tained of his recovery. Several officers have gone out
in search of the animal, and, doubtless, they will
succeed in its capture or destruction. Last year a
native was carried away and torn in pieces by one of
these monsters, which, I believe, has not yet been
captured. During the years 1861-2, no less than three
cheetahs were shot near the same place, and subse-
quently a trap was net, but no more were captured.".

•
AIitRIOA RAKING HER OWN RAILROAD IRON.—It has
now become certain that the whole demand for railroad
iron can be supplied by American mills. The amount
cc •sired for the repairs of existing railroads is about
118,000 tons, and that for extensions does not usually
exceed 160,000 tons more. The aggregate is far within
the limit of the productive capacity f oar mills. Such
being the case, it is a grave question, whether the con-
ditions which invite heavy importations for an article
which gives employment so largely to our own skill and
capital do not demand legislative action in support of
the interest of the internal revenue system, especially
in view of the diminution of the home production
which they indicate. —A merican Paper.
TRADE WITH AMERICA. —British and Irish produce
and manufactures were exported from the United
Kingdom to the United States of America to the
amount of £11,584,256 in the first ten months of 1862,
P 11.847.039 in the first ten months of 1863; and
£15,403,017 in the first ten months of 1864. In 1860,
before the war, our exports thither in the whole year
were under £.22,000.000. But in quantity less goods
have now been sent for the same money. The cotton
piece goods exported from this country to the States in
the first eleven months of 1864 were to the quantity in
the corresponding period of 1860 (counting millions of
yards) only as 62 to 193—that is, less than a third.—
Times.
NORTH AND SorITH.—A Paris letter contains the
following :—Private letters of the latest dates from
New York contain some items of information which
may be of interest to your readers. The prompt
approval of General Dix's "order" for the invasion of
Canada, both by the press and the people, is an manis.
tskeable indication of the latent hostility to Great
Britain which pervades the InUfl of Yankeedom ; and
the popular indignation at the repudiation of that
"order" by the government at Washington shows that
the people are ahead of the "powers" in their readi-
ness to fight John Bull. But the people will soon
mould the powers to their will, for in this "model
republic" the people rule their "rulers" "This was
some time a paradox, but now the age gives it proof."
War between Great Britain and the United States is
inevitable, and is simply a question of time. The
organ of Mr. Seward in the city of New York openly
proclaims, nor only its eagerness, but readiness for the
conflict, and what with the fomenting of the 'sessions
of the " Fenian brotherhood" at home, and the spread
of Radicalism in England, the leading demagogues of
America predict that the British dynasty has not five
years to live I Our fanatics are quite as hostile to
British flunkeyism as English philanthropists are to
American slavery; and they insist that a war for the
relief of the paupers of England and of " down-trodden
Ireland," will be just as holy, and what suits their pur-
poses better—jest as popular as a war for the liberation
of Southern slaves. With the reo ,nt reverses to the
Confederate armies, the government and the people of
the North are assuming a more insolent and imperious
tone, not only towards the "rebels," but towards
England, France, Mexico, and "all erection." The
" Reciprocity Treaty" with Canada in abolished;
and a fleet of armed steamers will be immediately
put upon the lakes, while an army of cavalry will
he called out to patrol the border; the Canadian
authorities will send a military police on similar duty;
and opportunities for a collision will not long be want-
ing. The question arises will England back up Canada,
or leave her in the lurch to share the fate of Denmark?
This question, however, is of more importence to
England then to the United States, on the letter boasts
of being able in an emergency, to "lick all creation."
Seward's month-piece declares that "a million of men
are ready at this moment to volunteer in a war with
England." But should the war be deferred by the fears
of the Lincoln administration to a more convenient
season, it is aura to come, and the how and why are
already foreshadowed by Senator Chandler's "resolution"
in Congress. There will be an indemnity demand made
on the British government for all the property destroyed
by the Confederate war cruisers. And not only in-
demnity for the actual loss on ships and cargoes, but
for "damages" done to American commerce ! This
almost incomputable sum even Lord Russell would
think rather too much to pay for the "price of peace,"
and a refusal of this preposterous claim will result in
war. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The Con-
gress of the United States is also mapping its fingers in
the face of the Emperor of the French. Mr. Lincoln,
in his message, declares Melloo in a state of civil war,
and virtually declines to recognise the empire of
Maximilian ' • and now the House of Representatives
rebukes Secretary Seward for his abandonment of the
"Monroe doctrine" by a vote of 118 to 8 I Were this
a House of Commons' vote the censured minister would i
resign at once ; but &sensed will probably hold on
and instruct his representative at Paris to assure the
Emperor that "a vote of Congress means nothing."
From Mexico I learn that affairs are going on well.
The Emperor would like to recognise the Southern Con-
federacy, and form an alliance offensive and defensive
spinet the aggressive power of the North, but he dare
not violate the instructions of his master. The French
minister, biontholon, is doing all he can to maintain an
entente eardiale with Washington; but when he gets a
copy of Lincoln's message, the snub contained in that
document will probably induce M. Montholon to be, as
' well as to a. em, friendly to the independence of the
Southern Confederacy. Baron Stoeckel, the Russian
minister at Washington, has refused to obey the order
;ifthe Czar to go to Mexico, and "felicitate Maximilian!"
is presumed that the baron has been tampered with
,Iry some potent advocate of the "Monroe doctrine,"
it is also presumed that he will lose his official head
diplomatic disobedience. But then he has married
a, Yankee wife, and has a enfficient fortune to render
Wm independent of kings or kaisers. The Confederates
Paris are a little blue over the latest news from Hood
kid Sharma*, but they are far from despondency or
despair. They begin to complain of the removal of
General T. Johnston, and think that if he remained in
command, either to precede or to follow Sherman, the
latter never would have reached the coast with any-
thing more than a ragged remnant of his army. Now,
ety the "rebels," we will" pat the niggers in ;" and if
_. our large armies are broken up, and our large intim
taken, then guerilla squads and predators bends, under
a locomotive government, will keep up the ball for the
• 30, 50, or 100 year..
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