The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-26 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1861.

110 N ESTE A UDA X.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Tu E are visible distinctions in social life
HeeeStßiTV RS they are ornamental. But
tlwre is a (lead level on uhich the high and
low, the rich and the poor meet, and are one.
Seen from that sunny table-land where all
are peers, the decease of a beggar may ap-
pear as momentous an event as that of a
Royal Duchess. But on the plane of our
present existence, the one leaves behind a
greater ripple on the surface of the waters,
and excites a far wider sympathy. In both
eases, however, the old tact stems society in
the face, that ranks and dignities and degrees
111% but the evanescent eke tanees of life,
and that always and everywhere there crops
from all, the same common primitive human
nature. The Duchess of Kent has been long
in the midst of us, a quiet, unassuming, and
respected presence, content to shine in the
lustre of her royal daughter, and feeling
happy ever as she saw the illustrious occupant I
of England's throne revered, beloved, and I
honoured. Her whole career as the wife of a
Royal Duke and the mother of our Sovereign,
has been truly commendable. Our country
she cheerfully made her country, and our
I:cuple her people. She gave us the most
popular and beloved Sovereign that ever
s ayed a sceptre or wore a crown; and pro-
bably the lessons Queen Victoria learned
from a mother's lips, are now reproduced in
those noble traits which have at once
s;,rengthened the foundations of the throne,
and shed an unparelleled lustre on her who
is seated on it. A good mother is a child's
greatest and most precious treasure, and
generally speaking, it is the mother rather
than the father who is perpetuated in the
temper and intellect of the child. We look
at the departed mother in the light and glory
of her royal daughter, and place her image in
memory as in a picture raillery, as the &Wi-
lla and affectionate mother rather than as
the Royal Duchess, more enobled by the
lessons she instilled at the fireside, than by
the rank she filled beside a throne. Her
noblest epitaph is short, but rich in meaning
---" HERE SLEEPS THE MOTHER Or guzEs
Vtcroaiz."—This will live in the heart and
shine in the memory of England, when other
reminiscences, however brilliant to the
common eye, have perished.
President Lincoln delivered at Washington,
on the 4th March, his inaugural address, as
Chief Magistrate of the United States, in the
presence of 30,000 spectators. Some of the
American papers denounce it on account of it,
ambiguity; yet there appears no difficulty in
appreciating its true meaning. The new ruler
of America is resolved to abide by his oath, and
to respect the constitution. The oath is, that
he shall maintain the Union and give effect to
the law in all the States comprised in it; and
the Constitution is, that the Republic has a
central government for general purposes, and
that the local legislatures are supremo upon all
.local questions. No State has the power of
withdrawal from the Confederacy, therefore he
cannot sanction such withdrawal. He will not
employ force to compel any of the seceding
States to rescind their resolution, but be will
treat the Southern States as if the secession had
not taken place. He will forward the mails as
usual; he will hold, occupy, and possess all
property and places belonging to Government,
and will collect the duties imposed. Beyond
what is necessary for these purposes, there will
be no resort to force. Where the hostility to
the United States is so great as to prevent citi-
zens from holding offices, he will not force '
obnorions strangers upon the inhabitants. Be
has no objection to an amendment of the Con-
stitution, pledging Congress not to interfere
with the domestic institutions of the South, and
consents that such amendments shall be irrevo-
cable. To quiet the South, he repudiates the
laws passed in some of the Northern States for
the purpose of protecting fugitive slaves, and
deities the right of Congress to abolish slavery
wherever it now exists. The broad result of
this new Republican platform is, that the
Cabinet at Washington will act upon the offen-
sive in no direction whatever, but merely under-
take to administer the laws as they have been
handed down under the guardianship of his pre.
decessors ; and that therefore, should conflicts
ensue, they must be attributable alone to the,
malignity of seditious factions. But how will
, these factions act'? They cannot remain in
their present attitude and assert it to be one of
neutrality. For what is it but aggression to
i besiege a Federal fort, to hold one that has
surrendered, in defiance of Federal troops, to
resist the collection of the revenue voted by
Congress / Preshleiit Lincoln adjures his
fellow-citizens to avoid incurring the guilt of a
fraticidal war. "The mystic chords of memory,"
he tells them, "stretching from every battle.