The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-10-11 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DIRCRESTER. TUESDAY. OCTOBER 11. 1864.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Whatever be the secret arrangements between
the French and the Italian Governments, they
have been well kept. That part of the treaty which
has been made public has taken by surprise
almost every one, and especially those two
Powers which after Italy, are most interested in
it—Rome and Anstrialhey ootnoain that
they have not been apprisebefore hand. The
first liss some shoat of reason for its complaint,
for the Sovereign Pontiff's authority over the
small remnant of his possessions is most un-
doubtedly threatened. The second seen in the
removal of the Italian capital lean indication of
the renewal of hostilities, which, If the translbr
be such, is a very good reason why the Court of
Vienna should uot have been Informed until the
latest pmeible moment Both are sorely dis-
(plated, The Pope feeble in health as he is,
&els that he may live to 0611 the fall of the
temporal sovereignty • the Emperor of Austria,
strong as he ie behind the walls of the Quad-
rilatved, cannot see without uneasiness a strategic
movement denoting the renewal of the attempt
to deprive him of his last Italian possessions,
and the defence will, even if successful, im-
poveriph his already ill-snpplied eicliequer.
Suspense ins cue of this sort is almost as bad
as actual war. It involves the maintenance of
a large military force, the hasty completion of
work. whose cost might otherwise have been dis-
tributed over a series of years, the wariest
diplomancy. and the most wearing anxiety. The
Emperor of to Iris is one of those few Sovereigns
of hurope who cannot depend upon the assistance
of his subjects in WOO of an invasion. Venetia
hates his rile; would rise with eagerness to
fight with, not against, the invader. It has to
be garrisoned permanently; the inhabitants!
have to be kept down at the same tette that the
foreign Resealing' have to be kept off; and
therefore Francis Joseph may well view with
alarm the symptoms of a war that would, so far
as they wure able, be assisted by a revolution on
the part of the Venetians.
Fortune would seem habitually to frown upon
the Confederate arms in the autumn. In the
spring and summer they appear to be able to
hold their own and even to win some successes,
but as soon as the autumn oemes disaster seta in.
It was so last year and the year Worn, Lei it is
evidently the case this yeat, ii ar as Virginia is
concerned. Daring the past week the Arnericao
mails have brought the intelligence of two
decisive successes of General Sheridan over
General Early—at Opequau Creek and at
Strasburg. It would appear that the losses sus-
tained by the Coufederate forces at Opequan
Creek were so heavy as to entirely destroy their
efficiency for either attack ordefenoe, *hi% that of
theFed•rals was also severe. The Time. New York
correspondent says that Early's eutire loss in
killed, wounded, and prisoners did not exceed
6,000; while that of the Federal' in killed
and wounded alone was upwards of 4,500. At
one time the Federal% mowed down by the Con-
federate artillery and musketry fire, were thrown
into confusion, and were on the point of giving
way, when, by a desperate charge of all his
cavalry, Sheridan turned Early's right ank and
compelled him to retire. Early then retreated
in • southerly direction along the valley
until he came to Fisher's Hill, two and • hall
miles mita of Streaburg, where be again made
• stand. Sheridan attacked him but was re-
pulsed, but on the following day he renewed the
attack, and after a severe ooufluit, lasting until
dark, forced Early to evacuate the position with
the loss of 18 cannons. The loss in killed and
woutided on either side is not given. The
Northern chronicles, in describing this engage.
ment, say that Early had taken op • particularly
strong position; but a glance at the map will
show at once that althongh, perhaps, it was the
strongest of which Early could avail himself
while hotly pursued, it is by no men, a position

that could be held long, unless there had been
ample time to give it artificial strength. How-
ever, the stronger the position the greater it
redounds to Northern gallantry at having oon- ,
quered it. It is said that on the day following
this Sheridan sent • heavy force of cavalry in
pursuit, but there seems some reason to believe
that Rawly made good his retreat into Central
Virginia. Confederate accounts from Georgia
say that General Hood's troops are in excellent
condition. The Confederate War Department
in Richmond has ordered the enrolment of all
white males between the ages of 17 and 50 who
are not already serving in the field. Preniont
and Cochrane are now withdrawn from the Pre-

sideutial %canvass, and the only remaining candi-
datum are Mr. Lincoln and General M'Clellan.
Messrs. Fernando Wood and Vallandigham.
after a good deal of wavering on the part of the
latter, have expressed their determination to
abide by the resolutions to which they assented at
Chicago; and the peace democrats generally have
resolved to support M'C lel bin, so ill at his prospects
of success have considerably brightened. On the
other hand, the popularity of Mr. Lincoln,
which was at one time on the wane, has been
revived by the recent successes of the Federal
arms The hopes of his Government have gone
up as gold has come down, and if the Federal
generals can only go on "pounding away" for a
few weeks longer with anything like the same
measure of mimesis in any direction, no matter
What, Mr. Lincoln may be considered to be

tolerably safe.
Baron Bunsen, i son of Chevalier Bunsen,
who was for so long a period Parisian ambas-
sador in England, defended the conduct of
Prussia, in reference to Denmark, at an agricul-
tural meeting in Norfolk on Wednesday. The
occasion selected was a singular one, and not
leas singular was the fact that a foreigner should
deem it necessary to set the policy of his
country right in the minds of an assembly of
Englishmen. The baron stated his belief that
Denmark had been in the wrong, the Sleswig-
Holateiners in the right, and the Germans bound
by considerations of national duty and self-
respect to separate the people of the Duobies
from the "oppression of the Danes." If the
I view he took of the matter was false, how was

it, he that —during the lest thirteen years
there had not been one newspaper published in
the Duchies which advocated the Danish view!
. .

It might be said that the war had been carried
on mercilessly towards the Danes, and that the
King of Prussia was going to keep the country
for himself. 'lbis remark of the baron's was

received with strong espressions of assent by the
meeting • but the baron said he was prepared to
give to each of the accusations an unqualified
contradition. With regard to the levies made
on Denmark for the cost of the war, the baron

caused shouts JI lawihter by seriously propound-
ing the extraordinary fallacy that the money had
been mostly spent in the country, Do that the
people were, on the whole, rather better off than
before. Baron Bunsen, who spoke in excellent
Buglisk, announced himself Si one of the King
of Prnasia's loyal but most strenuous oppo-
nent& His spee9h shows to Miro how craftily
and *ell Herr N'on Bismark calculated the
feelings of the Prussians when he hurried on the
war of invasion in Denmark. _

At length the question of the boundary be-
tween Jutland and fileswig—a question which
has beau the main cause of the prolongation of
the Vienna Conferenoe—is narrowed down to
the possession of a single town. The Lanes
claim the small town of Christlanfeld in gleswig,

and the delay in the negotiations is attributed
to the dispute on this apparently trivial point.
The betrothal of the Grand Duke Nicholas
_ .

heir to the Russian throne, and the Princess
Dawns'. of Denmark, sister to the Princess of
Wales, has been officially announced. Another
of the children of King Christian is thus settled
in the world illustriously, and adds a new
instance of the extraordinary luck of his family.
. . . . . . .

Well, it is better to be born'lticky than rich.
Au interesting marriage as celebrated in I
Paris on Tuesday. The bridegroom was M.
Emile Erlanger, a banker of Paris and Frank-
fort, and the bride was the daughter of the Hon.
John Slidell, the representative of the Con-
federate Hovernment or America at the Tuileries.
The bridegroom's best man was It Mocquard,
the Emperor's private secretary, and the cere-
mony was attended by many of the leading
diplomatists of Europe. The Confederate cause
is evidently under no social ban in France.
A somewhat curious illustration of the care-
'sooner with which Asti of Parliament are