The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

joctign ano Colonial intelligence.

INDIA.—The Calcutta correspondent of the Tangs,
in noticing the death of Lord Elgin, pays—Deep is the
sympathy with Lady Elgin, who bad not recovered feom
the blow of her boy's death when her husband was laid
low. There can be no doubt that, not only in ascending
to so high an altitude as the Rotatg pass-11,000 feet
but in taking long walks and scrambling over difficult
routes in the Himalayas, Lord Elgin was imprudent, but
he has only precipitated a disease which must sooner or
later have carried him off in any climate, just as in the
ease of Mr. James Wilson. There is no reason for the
panic which the Viaeroy's death is sure to occasion
among the governing class In England. Up till Lord
Dalhonsie's time the 'Viceroys were as healthy as if they
bad never been in the tropics. That nobleman came out
to India early in life, and subject to. hereditary com-
plaint; but he worked as never man did for eight years.
He refused to go home two years after his doctor had
warned Lim of the courequenaes, and he accepted, in the
spirit of • patriot, the teak of annexing Oude, which the
Cabinet imposed upon him. Lord Canning worked for
six years, and in such tls,eal A cold caught in crowing
the English Channel developed the seeds of liver com-
plaint undoubtedly caught in India, but with care he
might have lived long. In appointing a Governor-
General to India it should be laid downs. artae that no
man stall be atilt out above 40. At that age, and with
ordinary hard work for eve years, • Viceroy's chance of
life is as good in India as elsewhere. It is not the heat
but the rains which kill men who land in India late in
if., and from the rains the Viceroy can always escape
to a great extent, which the man under 40 can defy
them. _ _

We have had news from India to dash with • touch
of sorrow the hilarity of the Christmas holiday., The
war on the frontiers of the Yunjaub has assumed very
serious, not to icy alarming, proportions. Severe
fighting bad occurred on October 300 r, the 6th,
llth, 13th, 19th, and 24th November, and the
lose to our side was very heavy. On the Ott
November • portion of our forces was tar.
rounded, and had to cut their way through the enemy,
which they did in gallant style, but they boat three
officers, four English soldiers, one native officer, and
SO Sepoys killed, and two officers, four English soldiers,
tiro native oaken, and 33 Sepoye wounded. The
officers killed were the gallant Major Harding, who
led the party—who,taken afire, was literally cut in two
from head to foot—and Lieutenants Murray and Dougal,
of Her Majesty's 71st. The last was • volunteer (rpm
another corps. The wounded officers were Lieutenant
Oliphant, of the sth Goorkhas, and Lieutenant Batty.,
of the Guides Corp.. Major Harding fell • victim to
his humanity, as, although menaced by • greatly
superior force, instead of retiring on the main body, be
attempted to rescue a womiled English soldier who lay
exposed to the fire of ties enemy. The survivors in that
terrible hand•to•hand conflict are all worthy of the
Victoria Cross.

AMERICA. —The text of the Message of
President Lincoln occupies three and • half
columns of the Times, while that of the Southern
President occupies more then a page of that
journtl. In contrasting the style of the two document,
the Times says :—The Message of the Southern President
is in style and language much superior to that of his
Northern sisal. He is also fliers generous in acknow-
ledging the services of his military commanders. Mr.
Davis goes at length into the history of the war during
1 the year, which Mr. Lincoln appears to avoid. He
begins by notiaing the Southern reveries at Vicksburg
and Port Hudson, of which he •dmita all Hie im-
portance ; but he does full justice to the efforts that
have saved Charleston from capture and continued such
an effective resistance to the Northern arms in Virginia..
He speaks in a tone of disappointment as to the
relations of the Confederacy with Europe. He expected,
probably, that the sympathy felt for the weaker party
In • life and death straggle would by this time have
taken the more effective shape of action. The South
has doubted, we fear, whether England could be
neutral if she wished, and to And even that the
cotton famine is not to us an overwhelming national
calamity has been a dimppoinment at Richmond. Of
the civil war itself Mr. Davis speaks without despon-
dency, but yet with a degree of feeling eredii ably to his
humanity. The absence of any sentiment of the kind
from Mr. Lincoln's message renders it one of the moat
cold-blooded political documents ever published.