The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-01-14 00:00:00

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NOTES OF TB'

'X K.

Federal America has _ its Mason-Slidell
leek. The Trent affair has been adjusted;
although, if we are to believe the New York
Herald, this compliance with a just demand will
leave a debt of revenge to be paid hereafter by
America, and, by way of foretaste of the penal
consequences we may ultimately expect, it urges
upon the Federal Government the immediate
adoption of a tariff in favour of French goods,
and the total exclusion of English manufactures
from the American market. According to this
journal we are everything that is bail; we have
taken a cowardly, mean advantage of America;
but still we must be conciliated till America has
settled her own quarrel, and then we may pre-
pare to have the life squeezed out of us. We
are represented as being "arrogant," "blood-
thirst'," "remorseless ;" and to have sown the
seeds in America of "everlasting hatred." The
precise mode in which we are to be humbled is
pointed out with great particularity. At the
close of the present war, the Union party will
have a million of armed men, and will want
employment for them. What then is to be done
with this fighting mass? It must be directed
against European dominion. "Mexico must be
made free to chose her own destiny without
European intervention, and Cuba and Canada
must be annexed at one blow with the United
States." All the West India islands must, of
course, go along with Canada, and then we are to
, have the era of a great military Republic, one
and indivisible, which will reduce the neigh-
, touring nations to her sway, and annihilate
Ituglish power for ever. Of course no one in
" this country will attach more weight to these
extra-official opinions than they deserve, but
they nevertheless indicate a certain current of
public opinion. They show what is passing in
the American mind, and that it is the duty of
England to be well prepared to defend our
American possessions against all comers. For
years past our American cousins have formed
the most exaggerated notion of their own impor-
tance. They have so accustomed themselves to
bluster, that at length they have schooled them-
selves into the unalterable conviction that
America is really at the head of all nations in
everything constituting greatness • and, assuming
the position of Sir Oracle, fancy that when she
! opens her lips, no other dog has a right to bark.
' There is, however, a bound to all things, and the
Mason-Slidell affair must have given our over-
bearing relatives a somewhat rude shock. There
is no better method of silencing a bully than to
pu'l off your coat and to show him you are in
earnest. He will be sure to behave more re-
spectful hereafter; and so we shall find it with
America hereafter. The teaching will also be
advantageous to Europe. We have of late been
go subjected to the threats of braggadocio's that it
1 has become a positive nuisance. We shall bear
less of this in future, and a better feeling will be
engendered between all parties. As out of evil
frequently comes good, so do we fervently hope
ft may be in the affair of the Trent.
The Firebrands of Ireland and the know-
nothings of Federal America have been long
-prophesying that Canada was ripe for revolt.
. For years past the Canadians had been (die-
affected towards the mother country —they had
long desired to join the Union, and the Irish
and French population especially, as well as the
Germans and a vast number of the English, were
only waiting for a war to break out between
England and America to give them a pretext
for throwing off their allegiance to the British
Crown. Well, we have seen how likely this
prophecy was to be fulfilled when the Cana-
dians as well as ourselves supposed we were on
the bergs of another American war. Surely
England had never better reason to be proud of
Canada than in the crisis now happily terminated.
Something more than praise in due to her popu-
lation for the admirable spirit with which they
ranged themselves on the side of the mother
country and her just demand. Every city,
town, and county, in both provinces, has taken
steps to organise and equip its quota of volun-
teers for active service, and the success of the
movement we are told is beyond doubt. The
most laudable enthusiasm prevails among all
classes of the community, every section of
the people seems to be animated by the most
devoted loyality, and the strongest determina-
tion to uphold the honour and sustain the dignity
of the British flag in all its integrity and at any
sacrifice. And a suggestive feature in the
organisation. of Volunteer and Militia force is
the anxiety and determination manifested to
have none but experienced officers to command.
At a large meeting held at Montreal composed
exclusively of Irish Roman Catholics, Mr.
Thomas D'Aray M'Gee, one of the Irish Poli-
tical exiles of 1848, whose dreams of revolution
have given way to more enlightened views by
his experience of the workings of the United
States Government, said :

" I learn from New York and Boston, in both of
which cities there reside vast numbers of my original
countrymen, that the impression prevails there, not
only with them, but with Americans generally, that the
Irish Inhabitants of Carted& are largely disaffected to
the Goverumout under 14414 they Liu,. Though this

is an error obsoletely groundless, yet, lest it should be I
made a means of misleading anyone into an expedition '
against Canada—if unfortunately it should come to
,that—l feel bound at the very first proper moment to
'refute and repel it. This I should do most emphatically
if I spoke at your festival on Monday night. I declare,
I than, moat absolutely—and it is well the assailants of
Canada should knovr the fact in time—that the Irish
inhabitants of this province will be found embattled as
one man in the defence of the Canadian Constitution
and the Imperial connexion. There is hardly • group
of Irish settlers in Upper or Lower Canada that I have
not personally visited during the last four or five years.
There is note man of noteamong them, layman orcleric,
that I have not met, mdi declare that I have yet to
meet the first man of all those bodies and orders of men
who does not frankly and loyally prefer our own Canadian
institutions to tboseof the United States. Formerly, I
believe, it was different with many among them (as I
own it was soap years ago with myself), but since the
era of the • Know-nothimemovement the oestageof poli-
tical preference for the United States has disappeared
among the Irish here. There is • keen and exquisitely
painful sense that a war on our frontier with the
Northern States would be for the Irish, in truth, a
fratticidal war: but, for all this, no Irishman in
Canada will hold back from the defence of his own soil;
and if other Irishmen, misled by false reports of our
discontent, should come here as invaders, their blood be
wpm their owes heads, not on ours."

In the same city, at a meeting, held by the
French portion of the population, it was re-
solved unanimously— "That the French Cana-
dians, as well as all other subjects of Her
Britannic Majesty residing in this province,
would look with profound indignation upon any
invasion of Canada by the United States, and
that they are ready and willing to prove most
energetically their loyality and fidelity to the
British flag by taking up arms for the defence of
the country, should it be required." Can
stronger assurances be given of Canadian
patriotism? At the signal of peril the country
sprang to arms, her colleges, her manufacturers,
and her tradesmen formed volunteer rifle com-
panies, and her railway navvies and mechanics
commenced drill in earnest with make-shift
weapons. Because this admirable attitude turns
out no longer necessary, we must take care to
remember how necessary it wits; nor should we
forget that in all probability we owe to Canadian
good feeling, as much as to anything, that peace
was possible, and that the Washington Govern-
ment was free to be just.
The Peace-at-any-price party have certainly done
their best to involve this country in a war with
America. Professing great anxiety to prevent
an "insane quarrel, they remonstrated against
English " overbearing " and Britisk "intole-
rance." They put weapons into the hands of
the Americans, by raking up all manner of musty
precedents, to show that Captain Wilkes was per-
fectly justified in boarding an English steamer in
neutral waters, and capturing her passengers.
They declared the act to be in strict accordance
with international law, and that the British
Government in demanding the release of those
who had been carried away captive, had not a
leg to stand upon. As far as they were able,
they strengthened the hands of the New York
mob against England. According to their logic,
we had no right to demand the prisoners, and
the Americans were perfectly justified in refusing
to give them up. Fortunately for America, and
happily for England, their voice was not listened
to by the Federal Government, The Lincoln
Cabinet had to choose between peace and war.
By surrendming their prisoners they might
preserve the former; by taking the advice of our
peace-at-any-price party, they would assuredly
have secured the latter.—On the 20th of
January, Lord Lyons would have left Washing-
ton, and a declaration of war would have speedily
followed. The grand array of precedents which
were daily published by our peace organs to
bolster up the American cause, have, however,
turned out to be either obsolete or to have no
bearing on the case in question. Every Euro-
pean Government have, unsolicited, given their
verdict against the outrage on our flag, and even
the Washington Cabinet have avowed that for
the "error" which Captain Wilkes committed,
"the English Government have a right to
demand reparation." "If," says Mr. Seward,
"I decide this case in favour of my own Govern-
ment, I must disallow its own cherished principles,
and reverse and for ever abandon its essential
e. The oountry cannot afford the sacrifice.
f I maintai. . • .tinciples and adhere to that
policy, I must eurren -r the case itself." Surely
this must be one of t e most cutting reproofs
our anti-national part • could receive. Their
attempt to make out a cage against England,
having so utterly fa ed—even the Cabinet at
Washington being .e judge—they must feel
themselves in a pretty contemptible position.
The two Southern Commissioners and their
Secretaries, who got us into trouble with the
Federal Government, are now on their way to
this country, if they have not already landed on
our shores. We have heard it frequently asked,
during the last few days, when they arrive, how
will they be received I Our peace organs, who are
at all times the champions of everything and
everybody opposed to English interests, more
than hint that they should be booted, horse-
whipped, and blackguarded out of society. This
advice, we trust, will have about as much weight
with the British public, as that which they
tendered the Washington Government, to detain
them as prisoners, despite the dispatches of Earl
Russell to our Minister at Washii.gton. Still
it should be remembered, that Messrs. Mason
and Slidell are not the men to be lionised. They
are about the most worthless prize we could
have rescued from our bretheren of the Stars
and Stripes, and the civility that is due to a foe
in distress is all that they can claim. Their
hatred to this country has for a long series of
years been known. Their abuse of England, by
pandering to the worst passions of humanity,
alone raised them to the position they held in the
States,—the fruits of which are now seen in the
blind hatred which they engendered against this
nation amongst their own countrymen. It is
not because they were Southern Commissioners
that England has gone to millions of expense to
deliver them from a Federal prison—it is from
no prejudice in favour of slavery that they are
precious in our eye., for we would have done
just as much towards rescuing, two of their own
negroes under similar circumstances. We would
desire that ne offence be given them, neither
should an ovation be got up in their favour.
We are bound to be neutral, for at peace with
the South we are not at war with the North.
We welcome them to our shores simply in one
capacity—not as Southern Commissioners, but
as injured passengers and as living proofs that
the sacredness of the British flag is as dear as
ever to the people of this country.
The Confederate aar steamer Sumpter seems
at present to have taken the place on the sea
once occupied by the Flying Dutchman and the
Sea Serpent. The other day we heard of the
vessel at Martinique, laughing defiance at
Captain Palmer, of the Federal war ship
Iroquois. More recently somebody had seen
somebody, who had seen somebody else, who saw
the Sumpter off Dover, and on Tuesday last we
were told that the übiquitous Sumpter, with the
officers and crew, 42 persons in all, of three
Federal merchant vessels which she had
destroyed at sea, arrived on the sth inst. at
Cadiz, and solicited permission to enter the
port. The American consul demanded this re-
quest should be refused, but the Government
having been conanited, the Sumpter was
admitted into the port, without being saluted.
It is now said the Sumpter is daily expected in
the Southampton waters, probably with a view
of looking after the Federal corvette Tuscarora,
which in its turn is watching the Nashville,
which is still in the Southampton docks. On
Thursday night three armed men and an officer
belonging to the Tuscarora were discovered close
to the Nashville'i bows, by Mr. Hodge, the
superintendent. They were provided with dark
lanterns and combustibles for the purpose of
signalling the Tuscarora, should the Nashville
attempt to leave. We trust that these "com-
bustibles" were for the comparatively harmless
purpose mentioned, but we must say the affair
has a very Guy Fawkes-like appearance' and
smells of powder. The clone proximity of these
two vessels I.as attracted the attention of our
Government, and, lest they should attempt another
Shmanott and Chesapeake affair, have forwarded
the Dauntless, a steam- frigate of 21 guns, to
act in case of an emergency. It is stated that
the commanders of the two steamers have now
forwarded to the Admiralty written pledges
that no collision shall take place between them
in the Southampton waters, and that one will
not leave the port until 24 hours after theother.
_

The Tentonia, from New York, arrived at
Southampton on Saturday, but the greater
portion of her news had already been anticipated.
Further details of the official correspondence
between the Federal and the English Govern-
ments, reapectik the Mason and Slidell affair,
are published. Is seems that some of our fault-
finding contemporaries have been complaining of
the waste of public money in sending out arma-
ments to Canada, when the Government had
received a full assurance of the intention of
the American Government to make reparation for
the outrage in a letter from Mr. Seward to Mr.
Adams. The Globe bass few sensible remarks on
this discreditable outburst, and fully justifies Go-
'regiment for acting as it did. "It is plain," says
out contemporary, "on the face of Mr. fieward's

. • •. A r:
first dispatch, that Mr. Adams wee not instructed
to explain anything, or to iikoniise eriythifig.
The first movement was tobe left to our Govern-
ment, and the only deduction to be drawn was,
that as Captain Wilkes had acted without having
been 'specially directed,' the whole matter was
left open for discussion." In reference to the
expenditure occasioned by the transmission of
troops to Canada, during the threatening period
that has passed over, our contemporary re-
marks :—"We will be bound to say that never
was an excess in the estimates met with more
cheerfulness than that which will be proposed to
the consideration of the House of Commons,
when it meets at the usual time; for the house
and the people know that it is the price of
peace.' Amidst the short period of doubt, the
people maintained a steady deportment, because
they knew their leaders, upon whom they
thoroughly relied. There was not a moment of
indecision—no uncertainty—no vacillation—no
'drifting into war.' The promptitude, the justice,
the moderation, the preparations of England,
have combined to place her one pinnacle of power
never exceeded in the proudest and palmiest
period of her nobleand progressive history."
The bustling Hibernian ecclesiastic, Father
Daly, has come to grief. His bishop, alarmed
evidently at some of his recent escapades,
enjoined him to leave the world and the things
of the world—postal navigation, politics, and
profane Queen's colleges—to the children of the
world, who on these matters may fairly be con-
sidered to be wiser even than those children of
the light, the Papal priesthood. The Father,
however, turned a deaf ear to the injunction,
and continued to beard the Secretary of State
for Ireland, and other things irrelevant, if not
irreverent, in an anointed priest. Accordingly
the bishop has suspended him, much to the
disgust of the Padre and of Galway. The latter
were so excited, that it was deemed imperative
to call in the aid of 200 armed policemen and a
large number of _military; and the former it is
said, has posted off to Rome to lay his grievanoes
before the Bishop's master. It is an "illegant
quarrel entirely ! Lord Castlereagh denies that
he signed the so-called protest of the Roman
Catholic gentry against the Queen's Colleges.
The agitation, we are happy to say, that was
got up in Father Daly's favour, went off like
the gas from a ginger-beer bottle. The excite-
ment cooled down in about a couple of days.