The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-07-12 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The great battle which is to place Richmond
in the possession of the Federate has yet to be I
fought. Nor is it likely to be fought just yet, '
as almost every mail which has lately arrived I
from America puts us in possession of news that
proves more and more clearly the utter hope-
leuness of the struggle in which the North is
engaged Our readers are well aware that the
"direct road" to Richmond, which Grant had
resolved to keep the a hole summer, if n
has long been given up, and his " ciren=-
bus" march from the North to the South side of
the Southern capital has been equally unsuccess-
ful. On the 22nd ult, he lost an entire brigade,
besides others captured by the Coufederates,
and fire guns, and be hail to withdraw to the
entrencied position he had previously occupied.
In this engagement be loot one entire brigade,
besides many prisoners, and five cannon
were captured. The New York correspondent
of the Deity Neva, • Northerner to the back-
bone, who is ever loa.h to admit • Federal
failure, writing two days after this engagement,
says :—" The movement against Petersburg, it
is not, I tbiuk, too premature to say has failed.
The place is still in the hands of the enemy, and
is likely to remain so. Grant holds the
heights above the towe ; there is • heavy line of
works between him and it, but the town is under
his guns. and he can destroy it at any moment.
But eni bona On the other side of the river
are heights also, which command the town and
are held by the Confederates, and as long as they
are there the town, even if taken, is of course
not tenable. In fact, the situation may be said
to be that of Fredericksburg over again. Beau-
regard is lavishing all the resources of bis art on
the defences of the place in the meantime, so
that it may be said that, attacked from the south
aide, the place can only be taken by regular
ari• roaches. But regular approaches take
time, and when opened against • place which
cannot be invested, and which is defended by a
large army, they can only be successful after
mouths or (see Sehistopol) even years of effort.
Grant, therefore, must do something elm.
'Mere are but two things to do—turn Petersburg,
by moving further to the west, and throwing
himself boldly on the Danville road. and offering
battle, wit ruin before him in case of defeat,
or else re-crossing the James and moving up its
left bank. People are every day asking why
he does not make Bermuda Hundred his base,
and push up from there. The reason is that
there is no room on it for his army. The Con-
federates have cooped Butler up in it by heavy
earthworks so effectually that no start can be
made from it by a large army. Upon one
of these courses Grant decided, with his usual
prompitude. several days ago, and he is now
executing the movement. Again, the Now York
Herald, which boldly predicted that when Grant
started on his march, that Richmond would be
, in his bands in the course of a few weeks, now
thinks "that it is not likely to fall this
summer." General Hunter has arrived in Western
Virginia, after an expedition to Lyuchburg, in
the Shenandoah valley. He says that he
has destroyed railway property sod supplies,

and that in every engagement with the Con-
federate. he was successful. Successful generals,
however, are not apt to run away from their
successes, but General Hunter exeuses himself
in this respect, by stating that he was abort of
powder and provisions. Perhaps after all his
expedition was not so successful as he pretends,
as we learn from Southern sources that the
Confederates captured 23 of his cannon, and in-
flicted a heavy loss in killed, wounded, and
prisoners. Federal General Sherman has
suffered a defeat in Georgia. In an attempt
upon the Confederate position at Kennesaw, he
. .

was repulsed with
:foes,
.acoording to his own

acoouni, of 2 500, but Southern aocounta give a
much higher estimate. Two of his generals are
reported mortally wounded, besides several
colonels. On Sherman's rear, the Confederates

under Pillow. were operating; and the hat
named general had taken the town of Lafayette.
A most significant commentary on the opinion
of the North, at the present time in regard to
the war, is the announcement that gold had
reached 2b9'

The announcement made on Monday by the
Morning Star, which affected to have rimeited
official authority as the Mgan of the novernment,
that there would be a dissolution under any air-
cumstances, caused the greatest excitement in the
Hones. It was generally believed for a time,
and it is said that • heavy bet was offered
that there would be a dissolution within

three weeks. The nett day, however,
the panic subsided, as it turned out that the
Government was using the threat of dissolution
to give edge to the somewhat blunt whip. of Mr.
Brand and his colleagues. Those gentlemen do
not seem to have either the suariter in modo or
the fortiler in re which their predecessors had,
and Sir William Hayter's services have been once
more placed in requisition. The impression now
is that ministers, having obtained a majority of
18 in the Commons, although they were in a
minority of 9 in the Lords, will not dissolve.
There is no reason to compel them to do so. The
business of the session is concluded, and members
who have been unwillingly detained in town.
may go to any part of Europe. Lord Russell
will once more be able to write lectures in the
Foreign Office to every court in Europe, and no
one will know anything of them until next
session. when a general election is inevitable.
Denmark having been destroyed by false
friends, is compelled to treat with open foes.
The lingering hope that England would assist
her in her mortal strife was dispelled by the
announcement which Lord Palmerston made on
the 27th ult. The leaders of the gallant nation
which had fought single-handed for so long and
with such ill-success, in the expectation that her
bravery and her weakness would induce her
counsellors and her friends to give something
more than •ords, saw then that resistance was
hopeless, and that peace must be restored at a
heavy sacrifice. This conviction was strengthened
by the heavy disasters at Alien, where six per
cent, of the whole Danish army perished in a
fruitless attempt to resist a force three times
larger. King Christian, therefore, called a
Council of Ministers, and it was there decided
that the Danish Monarchy could be saved in only
one manner, and that, painful as the sacrifice
might be,it mustbe made. They saw no advantage
in waiting for the catastrophe which Lord Pal-
merston had pictured—the bombardment of the
city in which they were deliberating the
massacre of its inhabitants, the captivity of the
sovereign who presided over their deliberations,
seemed too great a sacrifice for them to incur
when the only compensation which the English
Minister could offer them was the possibility of
a Cabinet Council meeting, at which the British
Government would re-consider its resolution to
give Denmark aid. Far more definite promises
than this bad come to nothing, far more decisive
pledges to resist, far less grievous misfortunes
had bean forfeited. It would have been insanity
to place any confidence in the last promise, even
if it were of any value. So it was decided that
an ambassador should be sent to Berlin with in-
structions to sue for peace on the basis of the
entry of Denmark into the Germanic Confedera-
tion. The; little country, with its esaiirt
coasts and splendid ports, has long been an
object of ambition to its neighbour,. and
the Danish king and statesmen thought
that by sacrificing their position as an in-
dependent Eutopean power, they might avert
the ruin impending over them. It was a
question between political independence and
territorial integrity, or rather between amalgama-
tion with Germany and conquest and annexation
by Prussia. When there is but one course open
there is little room for praise or blame. To con-
tinue the struggle against inch fearful odds would
have been madness on the part of Denmark.
Isolated as her King pathetically lamented, there
was no choice but submission sooner or later,
and an early submission would give better hopes
of better terms than a late one would obtain.
Whether Prussia will acoept these terms is
doubtful; but should the new programme which
Denmark, deserted by her allies, is forced to
propose be adopted, England will have little
cause for self-congratulation. The obliteration
of an independent State from the map of Europe.
will be at once a bad precedent for the other
powers, and a proof that England, in spite of
all her moral influence. is powerless to prevent
the perpetration of a great national outrage.
We do not look into a clerical journal, in a
general way, for a defence of fox-hunting ; but
the Guardian last week contained some remarks,
so shrewd and pertinent, relative to the subject,
that we transfer them to our columns. Our
contemporary in announcing the recent sale of
Lord Henry Bentinck's hunting stud, observes
with a frankness which is quits refreshing:—" It
is certainly a great pity that country gentlemen
should not support fox-hunting. Much pains
are taken now-a-days to provide recreation for
the lower orders; but we should not forget that
it is at least as important that the higher orders
should have innocent and healthful amusements.
If fox-hunting and other manly sports were done
away with, we should have our nobility and
gentry passing their winter days playing cards,
like Italians. The Duke of Wellington, himself
an exeellent sportsman, used to say that the
best officers were fox-hunters; because, of course,
riding to bounds gives that knowledge of country
which is the prime requisite for a good officer,
much more effectually than any chamber
study. It is recorded of Sir George Cornewall
Lewis that one day as he was stepping into his
carriage to go to a London dinner-party, be ob-
served with a sigh, Life would be very tolerable
if it were not for its amusements.' If be bad
sought amusement in fox-hunting he could
haidly have made that observation, and would
probably have now been alive to serve his
country." There is practical, honest common
sense contained in these sentences.
A good deal of curiosity has been naturally
excited in political circles by the publication, in
the columns of the Morning Pod, of a series of
documents purporting to contain covenants
entered into by Austria, Prussia., and RUSSiII
with one another, amounting to a conspiracy
between those Powers against the just interests
and independence of Europe. Count Bismark has
unequivocally and vigorously denied the genuine-
ness of these documents; but recent events
in connection with Denmark prove how little
faith can be placed in anything he may say.
The Daily News and Daily Tslagnipla, oomingto the
aid of their contemporary, the Peet, also aver the
letters to be genuine; and there is, we think, little
doubt that they are authentic in fact, if not in
form. It is said that although these diplomatic
papers were first printed in London, they were
really sent from the Foreign Office in Paris, with
which the Morning Pod is in intimate connexion.
They were, it is averred, sold to the Veen&
Government for a good round sum by one of
the confidential complain of M. von Bismark, the
Prinsian Minister—a thing not difficult to
believe, seeing that German Governments
receive into their confidential employ men who
in England would not be considered fit to be
apointed door-keepers in a public office. The
circumstance has caused more interest in Francs
than in England, and the cams to which this
may be attributed is that the French understand
Continental politics better than the English
people do. and consequently see grave significance
in facts which to the latter appear of no impor-
tance. This startling discovery of the forma-
tion of a "Holy Alliance" by the three great
Western Powers, will no doubt bring about a
better feeling between France andtogland, the
former having suddenly become alive, as is
observed by the tone of the Parisian press, to
the advantage of being close and intimate friends
of perfidious Albion.