GENERAL SUMMARY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 27, 2 January 1862, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL SUMMARY.

(From the Some News, Oct. 26. There is but little to relate of the progress of the war in America. Some fighting has occurred at Missouri, and the Confederates have gained a victory at Lexington. Near this place the North has also put in a claim for the honor of a victory. The few particulars that are given of the latter affair are in the gigantic style of Tom Thumb. The Confederates are represented as numbering 30,000, and the Federalists 3,500, and we are told that the 30,000 were scattered by a bayonet charge, not of the 3,500, but of the Irish Brigade, which, we presume, formed only a small part of the whole force. In another part of Missouri, a skirmish is reported in which 600 Confederates were routed by 1,500 Federalists. This is more probable. But no imattaches to any of these affairs ; and we must wait till General M’Clellan appears at the head of his army in the field before any decisive blow will be struck. The rumor of General Fremont’s recall turns out to be unfounded. It is true, however, that his proclamation was in excess of the powers of the constitution. No choice was left, therefore, to Mr. Lincoln but to request General Fremont to modify his proclamation accordingly. The affair with Colonel Blair has produced much controversy; but the goverment are evidently desirous of avoiding a rupture with Fremont. The army of M’Clellan now reckons up its 180,000, if the newspaper correspondents are to be credited; and the Confederates, hovering upon the Potomac with a force of unknown strength, were said to be maturing a plan for crossing the river above and below Washington, so as to open a simultaneous attack in the front and the rear. But this rumor has been contradicted by the subsequent withdrawal of the Confederates from their positions on the Potomac, which are now occupied by the Federalists. In Missouri the Confederates won an important victory, forcing Fort Lexington to surrender, and taking a large sum of dollars which the brave defender of the place had buried in the earth. But the victory was of short duration, the conqueror having evacuated the place almost as soon as he had taken it. Fremont is said to have gone in pursuit of him, with a view to cut off his junction with M’Culloch, and thus prevent the combined force from attacking Jefferson City. Here then are collected on the plains of ill-fated Missouri all the requisite elements for a deliberate conflict; and, in the bombastic language of the American journalists, a battle of magnitude may be speedily expected. The North upon the whole is looking up. Notwithstanding its appeal for skilled help from Europe its difficulties about abolition, and the derangement of its social economy, it has kept its grouud, and has, apparently, succeeded in getting together an army equal to its needs. We know little about what the South is doing ; but as far as we know the North, and not the South, has attracted such little stray chivalry as Europe has had to spare from its own necessities in that line. We do not hear of princes and peers offering to enrol themselves under the palmetto flag nor it is within the range of probability that Jefferson Davis will ever be surrounded by a staff one hundredth part as brilliant as that which will ride with M‘Clellan to his first field. We are dazzled by the titles of honor, culled fresh from feudal Europe, that are collected about the' Federalist general, the last volunteers being the Count de Paris and the Due de Chartres, who will not only serve in the retinue of the American general, but serve without pay, purely for the glory of the thing. Such adherents as these will not turn the tide of battle bv the momentum of a feather ; but they impart a'prestige, notwithstanding, to the cause they espouse, which will not be wholly without its value. The last intelligence brings two important items. A Confederate expedition, organized for the recapture of Fort Hatteras, has been signally defeated ; but this peace of good luck is balanced by a disaster at New Orleans, where a Federalist squadron, which had blockaded the town, was attacked by a fleet of gunboats and driven ashore. The great expedition South is still talked of, and said to be in motion ; but the failure at New Orleans may check its progress. The governor of Lousiana had interdicted the entry of cotton in New Orleans. The condition of Hungary is becoming every day more dangerous : and the Austrian government has taken the initiative in a line of proceeding from which they cannot now recede, and which commits them to an armed contest with the people. It will be in the recollection of our readers that the leaders of the Comitat of Pesth, immediately after the dissolution of that body, convened a general assembly of the members, for the purpose of considering the measures adopted by the government. The intention to hold thss assembly was no sooner known in Vienna, than the meeting was forbidden by an imperial order, the prohibition being accompanied by a menace which left no doubt as to the nature of the steps that would be taken to enforce submission. The Austrians were even in advance of their threat. The building devoted to the Comitat was filled with soldiers, and such members as presented themselves were met by bayonets at the door and a lieutenant, with extra zeal, stood on the steps with a drawn sword in his hand. Of course the assembly did not take place. But a no less significant expression of public opinion followed. The whole of the functionaries resigned, and in a single hour Pesth was left without the semblance of a local administration. To crown this patriotic movement Count Karolpi has since returned to the government, unopened, a despatch which was addressed to him, and which is understood to have contained an order, or request, that he should remain in office. Such is the state of Pesth. The official seal of the Comitat has been deposited in the National Museum, and the most alarming excitement prevails in the town and neighbourhood. The certainty is that matters will become worse before they mend. The vacant offices must be filled up, and as it is quite certain that there will not be a solitary Hungarian amongst the new functionaries, the effect upon the passions of the populace of a batch of foreign mercenaries thrust upon. them to enforce the despotism of Austria may be anticipated. The Commissioners who have as yet appeared in Hungary to assume the

vacant ofiices have found every door closed upon them, even to the public buildings. A spirit of tacit resistance has set in everywhere. The Gomitat of Gran has been dissolved ; and the Assembly of the Comitat of Zalo has set the example of refusing to recognise any ordinance of the government that shall be in contravention of the constitution, specially protesting against the now organisation of the Comitate, and declaring that it will, yield only to force. The Austrian Government, finding it impossible to obtain a parliamentary sanction, there being in fact no Parliament, Las issued an imperial decree for the collection of the taxes, a measure which has much gratified the mouied interests in Vienna, but increased the exasperation existing in Hungary. A disturbance has broken out in St. Petersburg, of all places in the world, amongst the students of the university. The causes which led to this result are rather complex; but they may he briefly summed up in the natural resistance offered by the youth who are in training in the colleges to new imposts'and checks put upon them by the government. Education in the university has been hitherto almost gratuitous—au anomaly under a despotic system. The authorities have recently thought it necessary to make the students pay certain fees, not very large, but operating, nevertheless, practically as an expulsion upon many students now going through their course, and effectually excluding hereafter a largo class who would otherwise have been entitled to the benefits of the curriculum. The distinctive dress of the students was abolished at the same time. These proceedings, which bore all the appearance of a tyrannical pressure, were followed by meetings of students, these meetings by arrests, arrests hy fresh demonstrations, and in the middle of the uproar the Gordian knot was cut by the shutting up of the university. It would be a mistake to suppose that there are not political and social influences at the bottom of these disturbances. Poland is in flames, the spirit of liberty has been awakened hy the acts of the Emperor himself, and there are signs abroad everywhere of the spread of political intelligence. But we must wait for further information before we can determine to what extent the movement of Young Russia may bq ascribed to these causes. At the town of Lemberg, in Austrian Poland, there has been a popular outbreak, attended by serious results j and the editor of a national paper there has been condemned to five years’ hard labour, forfeiture of his nobility and half his deposit, with deprivation of the right of ever exercising his profession again, for exciting the people to sedition. . Pitting the strain on the people to the last possibility of endurance can bring about a sanguinary retribution, the government appears determined to effect that object. In Warsaw the Council of State was opened with a “ congratulatory” address from Count Lambert, who, apparently conscious of the difhculties of his position, did not venture to do moie than invoke the best exertions of the council to learn the real wants of the country—-as if anybody in Warsaw can honestly pretend ignorance of what they are. But if any such ignorance existed it must have been dispelled by subsequent events. On the anniversary of Kosciusko’s death, the city held a solemn ceremony, and notwithstanding a prohibition from the governor, all the shops were closed. The people thronged the churches to offer up prayers, and there was not a single symtom of disturbance. In the midst of the stillness the military appeared, sin-rounded and entered the churches, arrested hundreds of persons, paraded the streets driving the people before them and committed many acts of savage barbarity. In consequence of these proceedings, the clergy have shut up the churches, under a solemn protest against the despotism of government. The Council of State has suspended its sittings, and the city has been placed in a state of siege. We have had a report from Italy, which at first was generally credited, but which turns out to be untrue, that Garibaldi had left Caprera. At such atime, such a step would be indicative of a movement for which, we imagine, the national party are not yet prepared. Italy and Hungary must move together. Yenetia and Hungary will rise at the same moment, and when they do, the doom of Austria will not be far distant. A conference of Hungarian chiefs has been held at Genoa ; but, beyond the prophecies that may be drawn from that significant gathering, the future is still dark. It is understood the Emperor of the French has sent a definitive answer to Ricasoli’s project for the settlement of the Roman question. He will not consent to it. His troops will continue to occupy Rome ; but how long, or under what conditions, or to what end, no man knows. The difficulty thickens. Ratazzi, a lawyer and well-known Italian patriot, who is expected shortly to join the Ministry, is in Paris, and is said to have had an interview with the Emperor. Cui hono ? A little time will show. If Ratazzi joins the Ministry it may be accepted as an augury ' favourable to Italian liberty ; for no one in or out Italy knows better than Ratazzi that the minister who is not prepared in the next session, again prorogued out of the very fear that impends over it, to announce some action in reference to Rome, must at once lose his prestige with the people, were he the most popular chief in the kingdom. At Rome, the Abbe Passaglia’s book has been condemned, and his house searched. The abbe himself is said to have secured his safety by flight. In France the paramount subject of discussion not unmixed with anxiety and apprehension, has been the state of the food market, affecting all interests in its influences upon prices generally, xhe new treaty came into effect under circumstances so exceptional as to render its working rather alarming at first and to deprive it for some time to come of beneficial consequences which are likely in the end to recommend it to the reluctant approval even of the French protection--USO harvest had fallen short, and the price of bread had risen suddenly to an unusual height. The consequent necessity of providing gold for the purenase of extra supplies in foreign ports not only raise,* toe current value of money, but seriously interfered with the facilities of credit. Free trade, therefore, has been inaugurated in France under inauspicious conditions ; and we must not bo sur-

prised to find the people dissatisfied with its operation. Nor is it. at present producing for us the advantages that must ultimately accrue from it. Partly from the deficiency of raw material in our manufacturing districts, and partly from the causes to which we have alluded, our exports to France are as yet very limited, nor can much be looked for even next year. But indications are thrown out of the expectations entertained in France of the great feature that lies before the country in its trade with England. Fast establishments are already in course of organization, based upon Joint-stock capital, for the sale of English manufactures. Through these great entrepots our woollen linens, and cottons will he introduced into France ; but as the trade diffuses itself over the country’ these agencies will become inadequate to respond to a demand which must bo finally met by direct transactions between the manufacturer and the retailer.

. home, if there be any disturbance of trade, it has arisen, not from the French treaty, but from a piece of internal legislation. The abolition of the paper duty is telling severely upon the newspaper press and periodical literature in general As yet it has had no effect, and is never likely to have much, upon books ; but it touches seriously the cheap sheets that are circulated with current intelligence, and that are not intended to outlive the hour of their birth. Here the competition is alarming, and the results cannot fail to be injurious for a considerable time to come, although they may ultimately, at least one hopes so, prove beneficial to the masses. The encouragement of wild and unprincipled speculation is only one form of the evil ; the flooding of the country with flimsy coarse, and idle publications is a still more lamentable consequence of the change. Most of the existlnS journals have taken of from their price more than they will save by the abolition of the duty, a proceeding which must inevitably end in bankruptcy in many cases ; and competition has reached such a height as to narrow the question of final success to a bare calculation of the relative length of purses. New periodicals have started at prices, which cannot under any conditions realize a profit; End the enterprise which would not long since have hesitated at embarking in a quiet sixpenny paper, now rushes headlong into an illustrated halfpenny journal. Tins astonishing mania will wear out in time, and, doubtless, things will themselves somehow at last. But in the meanwhile great mischief will be done, and the prestige of the old solid press will have perished in a revolution, the distant issues of which no man can foresee.

. -f le speculation and curiosity excited by the visits of the Kings of Prussia and Holland to the Emperor of the i rench, have been thrown into the shade by the interests attaching to the coronation of tlie King of Prussia. The event itself, with its traditional and pictorial accessories, was sufficiently attractive to occupy intmmerous columns of public journals. The newspapers, as well as the crowned heads of Europe, were duly represented on that august occasion ; and certainly no similar incident in our time has produced so profound a sensation. But this is not attributable to the gorgeousness of the show, or to any of the circumstances ordinarily attending such ceremonials. The fact that the Kiug of Prussia, with an ostentation aud parade apparently designed to draw universal attention to the proceeding, formally revived the obsolete doctrine of Divine Grace, and even undertook to explain and enforce it, has naturally awakened much more notice than the llorid accounts ot the state processions and diplomatic bravery that for a few days kindled up a new life in the old streets of Konigsberg. The English press, as might be expected, has severely criticised the resuscitation of a dogma which recent history has utterly, and for ever, set aside; but the protest does not end here. The German press is beginning to murmur and remonstrate ; and it is clear that the new King, in spite of all the popularity which followed and cheered him in the hour of his coronation, has placed himself, by this most illjudged act, in a false position towards Ins own subjects-