The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-02-28 00:00:00

so evident that this was the immoveable determi-
nation of the Feder&ls when they went into the
conference, that the Confederates did not even
venture, whatever they may have had in their
minds, to put forward their own counter etiptila,
tions, The reports make all this perfectly clear,
and,to all appearances, the belligerents are as far
off an understanding or settlement as they have
ever been since the first shot was fired at Fort
Sumter. Then IN hat was all the talk about?
Mr. Seward is very communicative, and he
tells us, and we find that it is pre-
cisely what might have been foreseen
and foretold it would be. "What the in-
surgent party seemed chiefly to favour," says
Mr. Seward, "was a postponement of the ques-
tion of separation, upon which the war is waged,
and a mutuai direction of the efforts of the
Government, as well ai those of the insurgents, to
some extrinsic poitioy or scheme for a season,
during which, passions might be expected to sub-
side, and the armies be reduced, and trade and
intercourse between people of both sections be
resumed. It Was suggested by them that
through such postponement we might now have
immediate peace, with some not very certain
prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment
of political relations between the Government
and the States, section or people now engaged
in conflict with it." Now the question is
whether this suggestion to combine and fall upon
some neutral point came from the North or the
South? Mr. Seward says it came from the
South. He does not say that it was rejected by
the North because of its flagrant injustice, but
because it would involve the concession of that
truce for which the South was thought to be so
anxious, and which the North were so deter-
mined to refuse. Therefore, although the
belligerents have gone to work again "hammer
and tongs," the proposal may turn up again one
of these days; and if it should, and be agreed
upon, in what condition will the Canadian
frontier be found?

The Peruvian on Thursday bronght New
York advices to the 11th instant. On Monday,
the 6th, General Grant moved forward with his
left wing, but was attacked by the Confederates
in force, and driven back in confusion, having
lost 1,500 men. The movement, it is alleged,
was a feint, intended to cover an advance
against Wilmington, which was commenced on
the morning of the lame day by General Terry,
with 30,000 men. General Sherman is reported
to have entered Branchville, a success which
sent gold down seven per cent., and probably
gave rise to a rumour current in Richmond that
Charleston had been evacuated. A portion of
the Southern army, lately commanded by
Geoeral Hood, had been sent to reinforce General
Hardee in South Carolina. President Davis
and T'resident Lincoln had each made official
statements relative to the late peace conference
The accounts were similar in effect. Mr. Lincoln.
would listen to no terms except the attbmission
of the South to the union and concrrrence, in
the constitutional abolition of slavety. The
Confedetates declined absolutely to yield on the
question of independence. At a mass meeting
in Richmond, the action of the Southern corn-
, missioners was strongly approved, aud war reso-
lutions were carried. Cold closed on the
evening of the 11th at 204 e.
. . . .

Tiler; has been a debate in the House of Lords
on the subject of the defences of Canada, in which
Earls Derby and Ellenborough took part. These
noble lords do not seem to place much confidence
in the pacific dispositions towards this country
of the Federal States, but rather to mistrust
them greatly. The defenceless state of Canada,
and the puny plans of the Government to protect
it from Federal invasion, formed the subject of
their speeches, and it was quite apparent that
they would consider it a national degradation to
surrender our possessions in North America to
either the Federal Government or the re-United
States, if they should ever again form one con-
federation. In this point we agree with them,
and we think it would be a criminal as well as an
infuriated policy to allow the Federals thus to
enrich themselves at our expense. We cannot
understand the taudations poured on Mr.
Lincoln's Government because of the eirancipa-
tion. Proclamation, characterised as his policy,
has ever been by overweening insoleoe3 to this
country. Liberty is but a name in the Northern
republic, and the men who throw up their hats
to the cry of the abolition of slavery pretend not
to see that, under the conscription, any private
citizen they to-morrow be torn from his home,
and consigned to the worst description of
slavery, forced to expose himself to the hazards
of battle with people of his own kin and blood who
never did anything to him. That the men who
have carried fire and slaughter, and desolation
into the homes of the Southerners, should desire
to carry similar devastation into Canada, we can
readily understand, for we believe that they are
becoming more and more demoralised as this
brutal war progresses. But that the British
Government should permit them to do so, is
what we cannot understand. To be forewarned
ought to be fortiarnked ; and England *ill find it
the best of her policy to crush at once any
attempt that may be made to dispute her right
to her own possessions. If she permit Canada to
be wrested from her, she would only allow an
enemy to be strengthened that would one day
use that strength against herself.
The financial embarritslitilinits of the filpanish
Government are now pressing home with right
retributive severity. The people show no
disposition to fall in with the suggestion of
ministers to pay the taxes in advance. Many
petitions have been presented against the
measure, and the general dislike to it having
manifested itself in somewhat ominous forms,
it was announced on Monday that it *mild be
withdrawn, This &indention to public feeling
tat supplemented by a declaration which took
'he Congress by surprise, and which has
created immense enthusiasm throughout the
country. At the instance of the Queen,
Marshal Narvaez brought in a Bill Whereby
the vast properties, totaling the royal
patrimony, excepting the royal residences
and estates entailed upon the Crown, are to be
offered for sale for the benefit of the nation.
This proposition pleased the Spaniards, whose
patriotism, in its vicarious developmenta, is of
the intensest order! They were unwilling to
make a sacrifice themselves; but when the
Queen thus practically eVinded her devotion,
they went wild with delight. The,chAreber, on
the instant, voted an address td Her Majesty,
and went in a body to the palace to present it.
The reeponte of the Queen was simple and yet
ingaestive. She said "I consider myself the
mother of the Spanish people. I wish to be
the first to sacrifice myself for their interests."
I Will her grateful children allow her to be both
first and last in this sublime adventure?
The progressive tendenities of the present
Sultan of Turkey have just received a striking
illustration. He has granted to the Oriental
Literary Society at Constantinople an annual
subsidy of 100,000 piastres, to be 'devoted to the
work of translating the best productions of
European literature into the Turkish language.
The effect of this enlightened measure must be,
within a few years, to break down those baneful
and absurd prejudices which have to so great an
extent cut off the Turks from all intellectual,
moral, and social fellowship with the Christian
—that is, with the civilized world.
The South-Western Rail Way Company are
making serious efforts to provide an easy, trutt-
worthy, and economical means of communigating
between the engine-drivers and the guards, and
between the passengers end the guards of trains
on their lines; and some encouraging prospects
of success appear at last to have attended their'
experiments. On Wednesday a trial wee Made
of an entirely new device, the etplanations of
which, so far, though not so simple as they !
might be, must be considered as not unsatis-
factory. A small glass case is placed on each
side of each compartment of each carriage
forming the train. On breaking the glees case
in a moment of peril, the figure of an arm flies
out at the side of the train at a point indicative
of the place of disturbance, and a bell rings
violently in the guard's van. By a similar pro-
cess the guard can communicate with the driver.
It is presumed that the danger of cutting the
hand in breaking the glass will be a cheek on
any wanton or careless appeals to this curious
machinery. That will not prevent the use of a
stick. The power of inflicting a fine for the
mischievous destruction of property will be the
most effectual check.

DORCHESTER.
Prroxizn CORN MARKET, Saturday—The market
was well supplied with wheat, but the greater
portion being affected by the change of weather,
trade was very dull, but beet qlity realised former
prices. Barley was offered freely, but scarcely
made late rates. Oats in good demand, for seed and
feeding purposes, at full quotations.
The death of Mr. Sidney Gurney, Clerk of Assize,
of the Western circuit, has been followed at no great
interval by that of his colleague, Mr. Horn, the
Clerk of Arraigns, who expired on the 17th instant
in at the oomparatively early age of
Arrourruzarx.—Mr. John W. Beach,
W dielorict, Shrewsbury colleo-
- vapervlsox of Dorchester
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