The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-01-07 00:00:00

THE PEACE-AT-ANY-PRICE PARTY.

Birmingham has at length thrown off its
allegiance to the Peace-at-any-price party, and,
in language the most unmistakable, has declared
itself in favour of the policy of Lord Palmer-
ston's government. Last week a meeting was
convened at the ldirmingham Townhall for the
purpose of denouncing the step that had been
taken by Her Majesty's government in the Trent
affair, and urging the desirability of referring
the ease to arbitration. Every effort was made
to pack the hall with anti-national secta:ies,
and the management, the speeches, and the cut-
and-dried resolutions were mon.polised by those
who are pleased to consider themselves the
Apostles of' Peace. It is said there were not
less than six thousand persons present, and
all went on for awhile to the heartfelt satisfac-
of the men who would sooner see England
trampled in the dust than avenge an affront ; but
at length a working man got p and moved an
amendment, favourable to Lord Palmerston's
government and hostile to the peace-at-any-price
faction, and carried his amendment too by a ma-
jority of ten to one. As a mstter of course, neither
the working man who moved the successful
amendment, nor the rev, gentleman who
seconded it, desire war; nor do we believe that
the course they took is the one calculated to
provoke it. If such a dread calamity is to be
evened; if peace is to be maintained;
if an enormous addition to our ex-
penditure is to be avoided; if the honour of our
flag is to be vindicated; if the prestige of our
power is to be augmented; if England is to
maintain her position as a nation, able to enforce
her demands and execute her policy—she must
show herself capable of meeting any emergency
that she may be called upon to endure. As
Lieut. Welaford justly remarked at the Volunteer
Artillery dinner on Friday night at Portland,
"Nations, like individuals' to be respected must
respect themselves." But why call for arbitra-
tion in the matter of the Trent I Have not
France, Prim* Belgium, and Austria already
delivered their voices in our favour? The courts
of Europe have given a decisive opinion on the
subject; we have the world on our side, and
unless we would degrade ourselves in the eyes
of the world before the violence of one young,
headstrong State' we must proceed in the way
we have begun. But, say the Peace-at-any-price
party," by demanding reparation, you humiliate
a popular government, and retard negro eman-
cipation." We would recommend these credulous
beings who fancy that Mr. Lincoln desires to
promote emancipation, to peruse the narratives
of what took place after General Phelps had
issued his proclamation to the South-west.
There was almost a mutiny in the camps. Both
men and officers declared that they had come
to fight for the integrity of the Union--.-not for
the abolition of slavery; and a large portion of
the officers threatened to resign. Our Peace
party may say what they please about the
Federal heroes as abolitionists, but they are no
more abolitionists than President Jefferson him-
self, and they never made use of the cry with
any other object than that of cheating the
English into a false sympathy. If the North
mall desired the abolition of slavery
there are means, such as England long since
adopted, of honourably bringing it about. But
this the Federala will not do. If the Confederates
would return to the Union to-morrow, the
Lincoln Cabinet, so far as it had the power,
would guarantee the continuance of slavery in
the Southern States for ever. We leave it to
our anti-national bigots, who can see no crime
and no barbarism except when charged against
an Englishman, to sympathise with a Govern-
ment which can make war at sea by dispatching
cargoes of granite 'stones to choke for ever the
entrance of commercial ports, and by land em-
ploy worse than assassins to burn down peaceful
habitations, and risk the lives of women and
children, of the aged and the helpless indis-
criminately. And this is what the Federalists
are doing. It is now perfectly understood that
the horrible conflagration at Charleston a few
weeks since was the work of a Northern incen-
diary. Indeed, seven attempts were made im-
mediately afterwards, within the two days, to
set Montgomery in flames; and it has been
openly boasted that other rebel centres are to
perish like the Cities of the Plain. We all of
us hate and dread war quite as much as our
special-pacific pleaders do, but we hate and dread
dishonour more. We all see now, how within
the last few days, the mob and that execrable
print, the New York Barak/ have changed their
tone as regards the late outrage. This has not
been in consequence of the memorials that have
been presented to the British Government to
submit the affair to arbitration, but in conse-
quence of the promptitude and determination
shown by the British Government, the unanimity
of the English people, and the energetic arma-
ment of the navy. The coaling of the Warrior,
too, for the North American station has been
rather a persuasive argument. We trust our
American cousins, for their own sakes, as well
as ours, will now no longer suppose that Great
Britain is neither so dependent upon Northern
breadstuff', nor so afraid of Northern privateers
and the terrible French Emperor, as, on any
future occasion, to shrink from the defence of
her honour arid. h,er -

DORCHESTER PTTCHXD COIN MARKET, Saturday,
January 4.—We had • large attendance and a plenti-
ful show of samples. In the wheat trade prices
were firm, and millers were purchasing freely.
Malting barley brought more money, especially the
beet samples. Oats and all corn for feed( plentiful,
and a dull trade. -

MEESE& BAKER AND EMMA'S REkOSIITORY SALE,
Saturday, January 4.—The ripply of fat meat waa
large, and of good quality. Many dealers from a
dirance were present. /Pat beasts sold at from I la.
to 12s. per score; and barreners and other store
boats were remarkably high. Fat sheep were in
better demand than of late, and the appearance of
the trade was healthy. Veal sold from 64d. to 9d.
per lb. Some of Mr. Alanfield's fatted calves were
purchased for Her Majesty's table at Osborne. At
the afternoon sale the usual amount of business was
done.

Tan GAME LAN*. The Chief Constables to
England and Wales &eve signed a strong memorial of
the Home Seer ry on the subject of poaching.
"Deeply impre
the with the very serious evil salere-
sulting from e p nt anomaly of the game laws,"
they "earnestly pray for a remedy in such a manner
as may be thought advisable by Her Majesty's
Government." The "very serious evils" to which
they desire to call the attention are, that "this is
the only law of the land openly set at defiance by
gangs of armed men at night, who by violence over-
power all oppoition, and so inflict a moral injury
on the general supremacy of law and order ;" that
the increasing outrages committed upon gamekeepers
have a pernicious influence upon the criminal classes
generally, who, in consequence of the example thus
placed before them, become more and more violent
in their opposition to the police; that poachers,
from their habitual contempt of law, readily resort
to other kinds of crime when game fails; and that
a demoralieing effect is produced upon the rural
population by the dissipated habits and nocturnal
exploits of these adventurous ruffians, whose bold
,pd,...aycceseful defiance of legal enactments is in-
vested—With a halo of spurious romance.
FIRM. —On Tuesday afternoon, the 31st ult., a fire
broke out in some premises in the South Walks, the
ground floor of which was occupied by Metiers.
Hartley & Co., wholesale grocers, and consumed a
quantity of grocery goods, and the loft above by
William Mantield, Esq., who bad stored a large
quantity of wool, wheat, and clover seed there.
The fire is supposed to have been caused by a spark
' from the stove on the ground floor, or from the over-
heating of the flue. The premises were, we are
informed, left about a quarter past one, when the
, employeas went to dinner, and about a quarter before
, two an alarm of tire was given; the employeas,
&misted by several neighbours, quickly commenced
, to remove from the lower end of the building as
I much of the stock as it was possible to secure, but
: they only succeeded in recovering a small portion as
the beat was so intense, The fire engine and hose
was sent for as soon as the alarm was given, but un-
fortunately they did not arrive until after two
o'clock, . when the water from the hydrant
was at once brought to play upon the
building, and before four o'clock the flames
were so far subdued, that a search was made
for the books of Messrs. Hartley & Co., which were
I found scarcely injured. We feat that Mr. Manfield's
1 loss will be very considerable, and Messrs. J. Hartley
, & Co. will also suffer to a large amount, as they
were only partially insured in the Liverpool and
: London office.

CHURCH Or ENGLAND SCRIPTURZ READIRS'
ASSOCIATION. —The Marquis of Westminster has
announced his intention of placing in the hands of
trustees the muniticeat sum of £6OOO, the interest
of which shall be given to the Scripture Readers'
Friendly Society for the purpose of providing
pennons of £36 per annum for Scripture Readers,
whoa iv...sdadv-ved for farthra duty by reason of old

age, Mohnen, or infirmity. Lord Ehury, brother of
tbe noble merge* oNatribitt,ed i... 500 a few years ago
towards the eamenbject.

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closed. It was resolved that the committee shonlci
meet that evening, tuid the other " orders of tho
day" having been disposed of the meeting adjourned.