The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-12-13 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The reported marriage between the Princess
Mary of Cambridge and Viscount Hood gives
rise to a good deal of talk in drilla *here most
interest is felt in Conti doings. It has long been
known that this marriage bad been desired by
the parties most interested, but it has been for-
bidden by the Queen, who, by the Act passed in
the 2nd year of George 111., has the power to
prevent this marriage of any member of the
Royal family with • petsou not possessing
Royal blood. n is now currently reported that
the marriage has actually taken place, though,
unleu the Queen consents to it, it will not be •
legal one. The Princess Mary is thirty-one
years of age, and Viscount Hood, who Is the
descendant of the famous Admiral, is only
twenty-six.
The death of Mr. John Fowler, It the early
and so often fatal age of thirty-seven year*, is •
grievous loss to his friends, and no slight one to
agriculture. Mr. Fowler was • member of •
much-respected Wiltshire family. His father
was • man remarkable for the strength and
earnestness of his convictions, which be carried
out to his own pecuniary loss Brought up to
the wine trade, Mr. Fowler, senior, abendoned
• most lucrative business on becoming a convert
to total abstinence, and would neither hold it
himself, nor sell it to anyone else. The son was
in physique the model of an Englishman. Over
six feet high, of proportionate breadth of figure,
with features remarkably striking and handsome,
he seemed endowed with a stock of health and
strength to prolong his life to extreme old age.
His mental vigour also seemed ineshaustable.
Though so young, he may fairly be styled the
father of steam cultivation. For several years
he devoted all his energies and • very large
capital to working out the details of the now
well-known steam plough. The superiority of
his invention over those of others, and, in some
cases, not very ecru pulons rivals, was so undeniable,
that he soon found work accumulate upon hint
to an extent which now appears to have been too
great for his strength, He established • large
manufactory at Leeds, and its capabilities were
soon tested to the uttermost. Not lonikaio Mr.
Fowler received an order from the Egyptian
Government for • hundred steam ploug and
as the lolling price of these implements is not
far short of £l,OOO, it may be imagined that the
undertakiug upon which he entered, to complete
ttie order within a few months, was • very
arduous one. His health at last gave way. He
was compelled to leave Leeds, and reside at
Harrowgate, and other neighbouring places. But
it is difficult to restrain • man of active mind
from thinking upon the works to which he has
devoted his life. His physicians recommended
hunting to divert his thoughts, and in following
their prescription he unhappily met with an
accident which, following upon • broken con
stitution, proved fatal on Sunday week. Mr.
Fowler married the daughter of Mr. Joseph
Pease, M. P. for South Durham, and by her
leaves five young children. Be belonged to the
sect of Quakers, but did not indorse all the
socientricities of that body.
The mortality which has placed eci many valu-
able preferments at the disposal of the present
Ministry has by no means spared the inistry
itself. Of the men who came into office in June,
ISM, no less than ten have died, the majority
of them having by no means attained • great
age. The Government has been deprived roo..
cessively of Mr. Fitsroy, Lord Herbert, Lord
Campbell, Admiral Sir IL S. Dundasl Lord
Canning, Sir George Lewis, Lord Klgin, Sir
William Atherton, the Duke of Newcastle, and
to this long list must sow be added the Earl of
Carlisle. l'he last, like moot of the others, had
not fulfilled the ordinary term of life, and It is
but a short time ince be was in full health and

strength, and holding a position of honour, and
not a little responsibility. In the meanwhile
the aged bead of the Ministry preserves his
mental and bodily faculties unimpaired, and
sees, with emotions of a kind that time must
deepen rather than allay, one after another Of
his colleagues departing from him, and leaving
him compelled to seek for successors among men
young enough to be his grandsons.
The intelligence from the seat of war in
America is increasing in interest, as from the
position of the contending armies, the means
and appliances of each, and the objects proposed
to be accomplished, tre can come to no other
conclusion than that it is the last despairing
effort of the North to accomplish, by a general
coup-cle-siaiit, what it has been found impossible
to accomplish during the three previous cam-
paigns, when to a superabundance ef men and
money was added an enthualasm, so widely and
extended, as to threaten to carry everything
before it. With the wreck of armies they
are venturing on the hazard of the die. The
movements of General Sherman, although they
seem to be hilly known and anticipated at
Richmond, are not so correctly given as to
enable the most skilled in military tactics to
with any degree of accuracy as to what may
judge
the result. On the 19th November the
Richmond papers report that he was fat !South
of Atlanta, and still moving forward; other
reports state Itim to be moving through Georgia,
for either Savannah, Charleston, or Beaufort,
with 60,000 troops in two columns, having
8,000 cavalry and 125 pieces of cannon. One
column goes by way of Macon, and the other
direct to Augusta, where both will meet The
routs he has proposed to himself extend/ full
300 miles, every mile of which takes him farther
from his basis of support, aarrring him into the
very heart of the enemy's country, and cutting
off all retreat in ease of Whirs. Re it said to
have prorisionsi his men for 30 days, and pur-
poses to capture Macon and Augusta; at which
latter place, should he be successful enough to
reach it, he will make his stand. This step,
rash as it is, is no doubt taken with the full
consent, if not the direct orders of his Govern-
ment, who have all along told us that the white
population in the Interior are in favour of the
North, and who probably suppose that Sherman
will And many friends of the Union as he
marches along. Or, it may be, as the northern
General is devastating the country through
which he passes, he fancies he may be
able to reach them through the defection
of the slaves. Otherwise it would be mere
Quixotism to beard the lion in his den.
Sherman appears to be influenced, as Grant was,
by the certainty of lIICONd ; but, like the latter,
he may probably find, when too late, that he
had deceived himself. The country through
which he now threads his way is difficult to
traverse, from the many natural obstacles placed
in his way, but spread out as he will, its scanty
population affords but little hope of sustenance
for men or horses; and should Beauregard, pro-
bably joined by poised' l reinforoementsi fail
upon his artny, scattered at they India be in
search of plunder, he must be utterly annihilated.
Or, if Beauregard permits him to advance, It
will be only to allure him into • net from which
he will feel it difficult to disentangle himself.
The orders of Sherman are to devastate and lay
waste the country as he premeds, like Sheridan
in the Shenandoah Valley. This will be • great
loss to the Southerners in that extensive district,
but it will tell with equal force against himself,
should he not snowed as he is cutting off his
own retreat. One false movs qn the part of
either Grant or Sherman, and the strength of
the Northern army is broken down. Beaure-
gard calls on the Georgians to lay waste the
country in the path of the latter: and promises
to come to the rescue directly ; his united forces,
including the army under Rood, are esttmaceo
at 65,000 men.