The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

Sortign anti eolontal intelligna.

BELGIUM.—A Brussels letter in the Cologne Gazelfe
says :—" I have, unfortunately, bad news to send.
King Lemeld is ill, and, although it is attempted to
conceal the fact, I am assured that hia illness ii serious.
This is the reason for the Duke of Brabant's return
from Southampton."
AMERICA. The intelligence brought by the
Hibernian, which reached Londoilderry on Wednesday,
is chiefly of • political complexion, and is of much
greeter importance in sonic respects than any that has
reached this country from America since the commence•
mast of the war. President Lincoln has communicated
• message to Congress, the importance of which in its
bearing& upon the airive.!ln now going forward between
the North and the South, and upon the interests of
humanity at large, so far as these are affected by slavery,
cannot possibly be giver-estimated. The bead of the
Federal Government has &wildly proposed for the
approval of Congress end the American people--and he
urges Lie proposition upon then with all the earnestness
of a man who feels convinced that he has at last
resolved upon a worthy peicy—a resolution for co-
operation with the Slave States by means of pecuniary
aid for the accomplishment of the gradual emenecation
of the slaves ! If the proposition is not adopted by
Congress, says the President, there is an end to the
matter, but if it doer commend approval he urges the
importance of all interested being at once notified of the
fact, so that they may consider whether to accept or
reject the prole-real. He reminds Congress that as
regards the Federal Government such a measure would
subserve its highest Mtereets, and prove one of the
meet efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders
of the Southern insurrection, he argues, hole that that
Government will, in the long run, be forced to acknow-
ledge the independence of some portion of the disaffected
States ; and that in the event of such a declaration
being made all Slave States north of the line affected
by it would say, "Tie Union for which we have
struggled having already gone we now choose to go
with the Southern section." To deprive them of such is
hope, says President Lincoln, would substantially end
the rebellion, and there can, we think, be little doubt
but that it would go • long way in producing such a
reeult, Ile by no means maple:ores that all the States
would at once take adventage of the offer, and initiate
emancipation, but each an offer equally made would
have the effect, he preemies, of making the more
Northern Slave States ea-operate with the North in the
emancipation of their slaves, this molting it certain to
the more F.outhera and mere deeply tainted with
slavery Ned rebellion States that they coeld never hope
for the former joining with them in their confederacy.
As was to be expected this message has taken everybody
by surpriae. The Northern prey; seems upon the whole
to regard it with favour. The Radicals are said to have
been looking quite blank and dumbfounded ; and, while
claiming that it is • emcee/don to them, they were, it is
said, prepared to give it a eaetious opposition. The
Conservatives were ramekins to give their support to the
,policy announced, but were not sure that • trap might
not lurk in it somewhere which might ensnare
'them into opposition to their chorea policy.
The Kerma] public were astonished, and the
majority of the Senators were unprepared to express
themselves respecting it one way or another. Lincoln
has at least produced a sensation. With respect to the
South there seems ne lack of spirit there in the some-
what untownrd circumstances in which the recent
victories achieved by the North have placed it. A.
strong force of Confederates, it seas said, had been con-
centrated at Suffolk with the view of checking
Burnside's, who, it was reported, had oceepied Winton,
am, was marching on the former place. The arrest of
a millibar of Union men, chiefly Germans, is reported
by the Richmond papers. In the house of one of these,
two American flags were found, and a Goddess if
tiberty painted upon the wall; flags and paintings
'were of °nurse confiscated. The Confederate House of
Representatives had passed a resolution, by 71 to 11,
+noting the destruction by military command of all
tetten and tobacco in danger of falling into the hands
stgf the enemy. It is stated that Mr. Seward was
engaged in the preparation of a despatch on Mexican
•ffaira, in which the determination of America to resist
all European designs having for their object the :stab-
lishment of a monarchy ou the American continent
will be set teeth with great energy. Among the minor
items of intelligence we may mention the fact that the
New York Chamber of Commerce had passed coin-
pliereetary resolutions to Mr. John Bright.
&INES AT FORT DONRIAOS.—AMOng the prisoners
was Lieut. Sweeny, formerly of Brooklyn, N. Y. lie
was stationed in a rifle-pit, and some 60 yards from him
was • Birge'a sharpshooter behind • tree. The lieu-
tenant could not lift a finger above the breestwork
without getting a abet from the rebel stalker, until,
finally, having being shot at half-a-dozen times, his
patience gave out, and jumping up lie bawled out,
Come out from behind that tree, you Yankee !"
"Conte out froin behind that breastwork you cowardly
rebel!" km, was the prompt rejoinder. The lieutenant
instantly seized a musket and sprang over the works,
Birge stepped out squarely from behind the tree, and
then each took three fair shots at the other. Birge's
last shot just lifted the hair above the other's ear,
whereat he sprang back into the rifle-pit, and the other 1
molly resumed his tree and his occupation of popping
at rebel heads. Each, during the duel, was in such a
hurry to kill the other first that both fired with had
aim, and hence the harmless result of his novel
enconeler. One of the most terrible things connected
with the fight is the burning to death of seine of our
wounded. In several places the woods were net on fire
from the wads in the rebel shot guns, which swept over
planes where our wounded men had fallen. Quite a
number of bodies were fennel whose clothing hagl burnt
wholly or nearly off. This feature is almost too horrible
for credence, yet there is no doubt of its entire truth-
fulness. his also believed that during Thursday night
several of our wounded soldiers, who had fallen in out
of the way places, and were unable to drag theineelves
back te camp, were frozen to death.—Nee York Times.

AUSTRIA'—The following stirTing—raddreee- rias- i;;;;;;
rimed to the Viennese :—Vienna has been inundated,
and numbers of families have been reduced by this
scourge of destitution. Shall not the Italians send •
word of sympathy to these unfortunate people? Are
they not bowed down, like our brothers at Venice,
under the heavy yoke of a despot? Do not they also
aspire to redemption, and did they not prove it in 1848
in fighting the acme enemies that we were fighting in
Italy and in the same cause? It is time to cease the
fratricidal rivalries of nations, upon which tyranny has
based its edifice. Yes, brothers, hold out the band to
the unfortunate Viennese, and you will have the
•pplause of conscience, the emancipating spark of the
universe.

NEW ZEALAND.—According to intelligence from
New Zealand by the last wails the Dunedin gold fields
have yielded, the first year, 206,446 ounces of gold.
The population at those gold fields is between 15,000
and 16,000. At Nelson, NE., the customs revenue for
the year was about £20,000. In 1.856 it was only
£9,500.