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

NOTES OF, THE WEEK.

President Lincoln has just startled the
American world by a message to Congress pro-
posing to end the war by purchasing the slaves
of the Secessionists. He says that be believes
that the Cotton States persist in their rebellion
in the hope that the Border States will stand by
them in the struggle, and join their Confederacy
when the struggle is over. He concludes, there-
fore, that if this hope could be rendered
obviously desperate and futile, the Cotton
States would either give up the contest in
despair, or be easily beaten, if they were rash
enough to continue it. "Now" he argues "if
the Border States cease to be Slave States,
their only ground of sympathy and "solidarity"
with the more Southern or Gulf States is gone,
and they)bacome naturally and definitively a
portion of the Northern Federation. Let as,
therefore, at once clench their loyalty and secure
their co-operation by proposing to them to pro-
claim emancipation and accept pecuniary com-
pensation for their slaves. In other words, let
Congress offer to purchase the freedom of the
negroes of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Virginia—the emancipation to be gradual and
the valuation liberal ..—these States, being then
virtually and prospectively free soil, will be ipso
facto loyal and Northern. The cost would not
exceed the current expenditure of the It ar, and
the adoption of the scheme would terminate
the war. We offer the proposal of gradual and
purchased emancipation to all the States; but
of course we only anticipate its acceptance by
the Border States. if they agreed to it, our
object is gained, and the game is won." The
tone of the message is earnest and that of a
man who really conceives that he has hit upon
a method for ending a deplorable and deso-
lating conflict, but it is more than probable
that there will be great delay, even if the
question is seriously taken up by Congress.
The message has perplexed, and evidently not
greatly delighted the American public. The
press is divided as to the merits of the scheme, and
it is almost certain to encounter strong opposition
from the Abolitionists, who have always denounced
given compensation to the slave-owners as a sin and
an extravagance. It will be equally unwelcome to
the sanguine enthusiasts who fancy they have already
got possession of the Border States. But oven sup-
posing the opposition of these two parties to be
insignificant, how is the purchase to be effected
There are upwards of twelve hundred thousand
slaves in the Border States, and as the average value
of negroes—men, women, and children—is usually
estimated by their owners at 400 dollars, or £BO,
their aggregate value would be just one hundred
millions sterling. A single year of the war, as now
carried ou, no doubt amounts to as much; but hew
is either hundred million to be raised? Few believe
that the North can carry on an aggressive war three
months longer, with a perfect flood of expenditure
from day to day, and augmenting with every step
they take into the enemy's country—with taxes
not yet voted, and with paper money already
beginning to fall into discredit. But if the
, measure were carried, would any of the Free States
—even the Border States when they thus imams
.• free—consent to have a million and a quarter of free
negroes within their territory? Would they permit

them to be idle? Would they not compel them to
work? Would they treat them with decency sad
toleration? We know what the feeling of the North
is towards the half a million of free people of colour
already raiding there ; what would it be were the
number three times aa many? Undoubtedly, under
any circumstances, slaves in the Border States will
become a precarious property, but the remarkable
proposal of Mr. Lincoln will, we think one may
safely infer, be barren of any direct practical
results.

China is at present divided like a broken plate.
At Pekin, in the North, a Government of the
Empresses has been established under the title of
" Tung-chee," or "Union in the cause of law and
order." We will not say under the protection of
this government, and that of the late Emperor, but
at all events by its permissian the laborious Chinese
have developed a vast and most productive trade,
internal and external, amongst each other, and with
foreign powers. The foreign trade in silk and tea,
and their European equivalents, passing up and
down the Tang-tse-kiang, and through the port of
Shanghai, is alone worth £30,000,000 sterling; and
this trade has grown up under the Imperial Govern-
ment. It is clear, therefore, that this Government
is at least semi-civilized, capable of respecting in-
dustry, and to a certain extent encouraging it. At
Nankin, in the South, the rebels, or Tae-pings, hold
authority under a kini who bears the pretentious
name of "Heavenly kather ;" and if the reports
revolved of them by the Foreign Office are to be
trusted at all, the Tae-pings are a mere horde of
depredators, who, like the locusts, eat up everything
in their track, and depart again, leaving ruin and
devastation behind them. They establish no settled
government at all in the districts they conquer—
organise nothing but the destroying army—and
abandon one place for another as soon as they have
exhausted it. In short, they are not a political
party at all, only a guerilla camp. At our last intel-
ligence the Tae-pings had approached Shanghai in
enormous numbers, and were mildly requesting the
European settlers to oblige them with that town.
But it seems, according to Mr. Layard's statement
in the House of Commons, on 'Tuesday night, that
we have declined to make Shanghai over to them,
and for this reason—that if we were to do so, tho
trade of our merchants there would probably be
extinguished, and that, too, after launching into two
expensive wars to support our commercial rights in
this region of the globe. The Tae-ping rebels are
said to be a crowd of undisciplined plunderers, who
shrink from the first show of determined resistance.
They advanced on Shanghai in 1860, when the ap-
pearance of a few marines on the walls frightened
them away. Again, on the present occasion, when
the demonstration against the city was met by the
discharge of a few French cannon, they scattered at
once in confusion in every direction. Mr. Layard
anticipates, therefore, no complication of the nature
of a new Chinese war, from our resolve to defend
the parts granted us by treaty from the Imperial
Government.

It is, no doubt, somewhat ungenerously to worry
and watch for the shoes of a dead man, but we have
as little doubt that such is the attitude of Italy at
present with respect to his Holiness the Pope. It is
quite true that the Pope does not die with the person
of the reigning Pontiff, but when the present
occupant of the Papal chair departs this life, an
opportunity will pi client itself for the solution of
the Roman question more favourable than has yet
been presented. And the demise of Pin Nono is an
event which, humanly speaking, seems not far off.
During the last few months we have had frequent
intimations indicative of a condition of physical
health, which shows that his constitution is in
process of breaking up. Now we are told that he
has been ill during the past week—that he has been
confined to his bed during the greater part of the
day—that his strength is much prostrated—and that
all audiences have been suspended. The Pope was
born in 1790, and has consequently exceeded by two
years the three score and ten, the•usual limit of
human life. . . . .

English securities in the market during the past
week have been extremely buoyant. The absence
of any politficil question calculated to create uneasi-
ness at home, is in itaelf sufficient to induce confi-
dence, but the tendency of quotations has been still
more powerfully influenced by the extraordinary
plethora of money, the accumuha ion of bullion at
the Bank of Engand, and the prospect of increased
discount facilities. No variations of importance have
taken place in Exchequer Bills. In the market of
foreign securities a large amount of business has been
negociated. Turkish bonds have attracted much
attention, and at one time they manifested consider-
able buoyancy, but much of their improvement has
been subsequently lost. It is stated that the affairs
of Sir Henry Muggeridge, trading as Menem. H.
, and E. Muggeridge, will presents vvryunsatisfactory
result. The regular meeting of creditors will not
yet be held for some slight period. Ate meeting
on Thursday of Mr. J. W. Shillito, carrying on busi-
ness as Shillito Brothers, wholesale grocers, the
statement exhibited disclosed liabilities of £24,282,
and assets of £12,208, or about 10s. in the pound.
A proposal to pay 9s. secured was not immediately
adopted, and an adjournment for a week, to see
what better offer Mr. Shillito could make, was
eventually resolved on. On Thursday the Bank of
England meeting took place, when a dividend of 44
per cent was declared for the half year. The net
profit to the 28th February last was £609,818 14e 2d
for the half-year, making the rest on that day
£3,633,827 18s. At a meeting of the Ottoman Bank,
a dividend was declared for the half-year of 10 per
cent, per annum, free of income-tax. The remarks
of the chairman—Mr. H. A. Bruce—had reference
principally to the improvement in the position of
Turkish finance. He added his testimony to the
earnestness with which the present Sultan and his
Ministers are bent upon financial reforms. A new
joint-stock bank, to be called 'The Public Bank of
London and Liverpool," is in course of formation.
The first capital is to be .C 1,000,000 with power to
increase to £5,000,000. On • report that the
Alliance Bank of London and Liverpool was about
to be amalgamated with the private bank of Messrs.
Mom and Co., of Liverpool, the shares advanced
from par 4 prem., to 244 prem., and afterwards to
4 4 prem. A meeting of the Atlantic Telegraph
Company was held on Wanesday. The American
Government have very recently addressed &despatch
to their Minister in this country, offering in a very
handsome manner to uo-operate with the British
Government in adopting such measures as may be
necessary for carrying into execution the telegraph
between Newfoundland and Ireland, and for render-
ing it inviolate when complete, even in time of war.
The directors still feel hopeful that this undertaking,
notwithstanding its past troubles, will eventually
weather them all, and become a permanent and pro-
fitable enterprise.