The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-08-07 00:00:00

NOT OF THE WEEK.

PEACE OF THE CONTINENT HI DOW
considered secure. All the combatants, with
the exception of one or two of the small
States of South Germany, have respectively
concluded armistices, and they have a month
to consider the terms upon which they can
henceforth live in peace together. As the
chief points of the conditions of peace have
been settled beforehand, it is hoped and
expected that there will be no resumption of
hostilities. Austria has already passed
through the bitterness of defeat, and she will
not stickle at any minor concessions
that may be demanded- Considering the
fortune of war to each party, it is curious
how moderate the tone and claims of Prussia
arecompared with those of Italy; but if Prussia
and Austria come to an understanding, Italy
will count for little. It is now asserted that
there is • ropprockernext between what may
be still called for convenience, the two great
German Powers, with the object of excluding
the influence of France in concluding the
terms of peace. Some of our journals go so
far as to reckon up the united military and
naval resources of Austria, Prussia, the South
German Stater, and Italy, as compared with
those of France, in view of a possible com-
bination against the "Arbiter of Europe ;"
but very few people think such a contingency
probable. What the Emperor of the French
will most likely do is to promote the meeting
of a Congress to consider, in relation to
Europe generally, the territorial and political
re-arrapgements which the late belligerents
seem determined to make amongst themselves
exclusively; but such an assembly can do
little more than ratify what Prussia will
already have effected for herself and for
Italy.
ll.—Tne ATLANTIC CABLE has hitherto
brought so little news that there seems to be
• hitch somewhere. One day last week a few
items of intelligence appeared in the morning
papers, with something additional in the
evening journals, dated "New York, tkia
Lay," which was a sensation in itaelf, con-
sidering the seven hours' difference in
American and British tithe. But this seems
to have been only an exceptional occurrence,
and no arrangements have apparently been
made to give to the public the daily state of
of the New York money market, ttc. So the
great merchant firms have been able to obtain
exclusive intelligence, worth far more to them
than even the heavy charges for private tele-
grams. Whether Mr. Reuter is negociating
with the Telegraph Company for more
favourable terms, or the newspapers have
"struck" against his charges, we cannot say,
as there is a mysterious secrecy observed
about the matter; but very soon, with an
Atlantic Cable laid, we must have daily
intelligence from America.
lII.—A HEAVY VISITATION OF CHOLERA
has set in, and the mortality from this
disease, in the few but populous districts
attacked, has already about doubled the
general death-rate. Fortunate indeed for us has
been the cold, damp, and windy weather, ao
unusual at this season; for it has done more
than. our " authoritiea " (as we term the
multifarious bodies and officers who misma-
nage our local governments) have yet done,
or are likely to do. It is all very well to
put a few additional scavengers on the
streets, to flush our sewers, and pour disin-
fectants into them, but the conditions which
I invite cholera to our midst are in and about
the dwellings of the poorer classes. Foul
and ill-ventilated houses, rotten and dirty
water-butts, reeking dust-pits, badly
contrived and neglected water-closets and
sinks—these dump abound, and there seems