The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Our German critics affect to laugh at the
assembling of our COWS! Motes in the Downs. '
They say that it took us three months to get to '
OW, and it would have taken a deal more time
to get any farther. Nevertheless, things looked
very ugly on Saturday week. The weekly
London papers were almost unanimous for war.
The Economist did not oppose it, but simply
cautioned Englishmen to maculate well the great-
ness of the enterprise, and the risks it involved.
Even the Saturday Review, German as it
been throughout, calculated on a change of
Ministers and a cheers of policy. Lord
Clarence Paget's contradiction of Sir George
Grey's denial as to the sailing of the Aurora to
the North Sea, and the tumultuous excitement
crested by Lord Robert Cecil's speech, wore in-
dications of very stormy weather. The Prince
Consort, relieved from attendance upon Her
Majesty, and • large number of supernumeraries,
were Coder orders to join the Channel Fleet.
The Titltel also despaired of the Conference, and
advised that it should be abandoned. The
announcement, therefore, made by Earl Russell
on Monday afternoon that • suspension of arms
for one month had been agreed to, was • diplo-
matic surprise, and • success which will go some
way to retrieve the reputation of the foreign
politicians of the Cabinet. The jubilant article
of the Timis of Tuesday, the great sign of relief
that was audible in the passage which announeed
the safety of the Ministry, and whiCh told the
Conservatives that they " tnust wait a little
longer," indicated that the leading journal
supposed the present Cabinet would resign office
rather than go to war. It is possible that certain
members of the Cabinet would have preferred
that alternative, for there is •strnng pesos party,
because • strong Court party in the Cabinet.
But it does net follow that because Lord
Clarendon and Lord Granville were prepared to
insist on peace at any price, that Lord Palmer-
ston would have allowed his political opponents
to hoist the battle-flag, and attpeal to the
patriotism of thiz nation.
M. Rouher, irspoleon's speaking Minister in
the Oorps Legislatif, has been giving his brother
members a lecture on Denmark, Poland, and
the Congress. With regard to Denmark, he
denied that the treaty of 1862 obliged Francs to
make war to defend the resolutions of the Con-
ference, or to maintain the integrity of the
Danish Monarchy. If it were resolved to up-
hold the treaty by force, England, he said, mild
obtain easy victories by sea, bet France would
have to march upon the Rhine and traierse
Germany before she could get to Denmark,
which would be a work of great difficulty. If
the policy of France was one of sentiment she
wonld have moved her armies for other misfor-
tunes and other sorrow,; but Franco WU not
sentimental She had accepted the treaty of
1862 as • means of obtaining peace, and she
trusts that the Conference will be successful.

Those Powers that refused proposed Con-
grass of the Emperot as the best method
of settling the disorders of Europe, fiL
Rouher considers had inflicted the greatest in-
jury on themselves; wheresa Prance is as great I
and glorious and powerful now as she ever was. '
Well, it is some advantage to know that the
Emperor has no intention of going to ear to
"an idea" any more.
The details of American news place in a
stronger light the recent successes of the Con-
federates, albeit the accounts are mainly derived
from Federal worms, than we were at first led
to suppoee. The Confederate capture of
Plymouth, in North Carolina, vu • most com-
plete success. The stories of the enormous Con-
federate loss, as well as of inhuman conduct to
captured Federala, we may now dismiss as
wholly unworthy of credit. These report. of
Southern barbarity appear to be the latest re-
cruiting device adopted by the North. It is
right to add that the scene of the capture of
Fort Pillow seems to have been sanguinary and
terrible, even taking the authority of Southern
despatches; but the slaughter was apparently
due to the determined resistance of the garrison,
and was not a subsequent IIIIIMISOTI) in cold
blood, as the Northern papers would have
us believe. The remaining details are un-
usually. interesting, and betoken military and
. _ . .

Itiaterai prooseduegs of great future importance.
Burnside, with 40,0)0 Mani is under-
stood to have joined Grant in Virginia. General
Lee has likewise received reinforcements, and
General Louptreet barn taken ups very threat-
ening position on the flank of the kederal army.
It is thought that General Banks, who com-
mended in person on the Red River during the
recent disastrous engagements, will be recalled.
The state of feeling in New Orleans is described
by the Federal Journals as, if jo.sible, more
bitter against the Northern invader, than at any
time since the commencement of the war.
If Mr. Gladstone is sometimes conspicuous
for want of prudence, no one will doubt that he
did a wise thing the other day when he Dent for
the Working Men's Garibaldi Committee, and
placed himself in their hands to declare all that
he knew with respect to the departure of
Garibaldi Even such men as Mr. ?Amend
Beaks, attorney for distansed nationalities, and
Mr. Nsgretti, tLsre ometsrui&ksr and Maaainn
are not to be despised when they have got u
of a story in which the country puts a half-and-
half belief. Bo long as Mr. Beaks went about
ths country in company sith that most soon wis
a Rom, who is for ever giving notion of
0/0600% postponing thus, and altar making
than, withdrawing than—Lord ittratitsds• to
wit—ha was not lOtsk, to do say harsh en 4