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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 252, 12 September 1861, Page 4

August 30, 1861. Sir, —There can be no doubt but that every one will rejoice at the prospect of peace, which now seems more -prubable than it has done for some time. But, with the peace, will not the large Imperial force at present in the island return home? And'how is the colony to be guarded in case the good effects of the negotiations should not prove of a permanent character ? Still, supposing it should prove lasting for even a considerable length of time, ought not some means to be adopted whereby the country, at a moment’s notice, could bo placed in a state of readiness for an emergency,? JPbuld it be right to relapse into the same unprotected state we were in previous to the Taranaki war ? 1 think not. X will now, Mr. Editor, suggest a plan, by which a permanent standing army may be raised in New Zealand, which-would n*-t only he a disciplined and effective one, but one which would have the weal of ,the country at heart, ever the greatest spur in an army who have to take the field. I need scarcely say that I refer to the llifle Volunteers, and Volunteer Militiamen. But to render the insti tution a permanent one in a colony where every one’s time is fully occupied, und but little to spare. I should suggest that each Volunteer, after a jeriod of years, say for instance five, receive a grant of land as compensation for the time be has lost in fitting himself to defend his country. 1 think, sir, that if this plan were adopted, Volunteers would become ten times more numerous than they even now are, with a prospect that their services would be recoguised at the end of a terra of years. Then, again, the advantage in a financial light is great, for Volunteers cost the country a mere nothing and the few acres of land would be but little loss to the colony in comparison with the advantages it would.derive, in having a permanent armed force of men who have a stake in the country, and whose services during peace are not paid for in cash. I think this is a time when some such plan should be brought forward, and if a permanent Volunteer force could be established in the colony, we should have but little to fear from foes, and the mother country might pass any number of acts charging upon the colonies the expences of their own defence. X.

AMERICA. The following extracts from the letters of ihe Times conespondent will be found interesting:— The people of the south are at present strong enough, they suppose, in their domestic resources, and in the difficulties presented to the advance of a hostile force by the na'ure of the country, to bid defiance to the invasion, or, at all events, to inflict a very severe chastisement on the invaders, and their excited manner of speech so nets upon their minds that ihey begin to think they can defy, not merely the United States, but the world. Thus it is Diet they declare they never can be conquered, that they will die to a man, woman, and child first, and that if 50,000, or any number of thousands, of Black Republicans, get 100 miles into Virginia, not one of them shall ever get out alive. Behind all this talk, however, there is immense energy, great resolution, and fixed principles of action. Their strategy consists in keeping quiet till they have' their troops well in hand, in such numbers and discipline as shall give them fair grounds for expecting success in any campaign with the United States troops. 7’hey are preparing with vigour to render the descent of the Mississippi impossible, by erecting batteries on the commanding ievees or embankments which hem in its waters fof upwards of 800 miles of bank, and they are occupying, as far as they can, all the strategical points of attack or defence within their borders. When everything is ready, it is not improbable that Mr. Jefferson Davis will take the command of the army, for he is reported to have a high ambition to acquire reputation as a General, and in virtue of- his office he is Generalissimo of the armies of the Confederate Sta Us.

The Confederate States rely on the power of cotton, and on the interest of France and England in favour of a free-trading community. It is intended to buy up all the cotton crop which can be brought into the market at an average price, and to give bonds of the Confederate States for the amount, these bonds being, as we know, secured by the export duty on cotton. The Government, with this cotton crop in its own hands, will use it as a formidable machine of war, for cotton can do ■anything, from the establishment of an empire to the securing of a shirt-button. Not one bale of cotton will be permitted to enter the Northern States. Thus Lowell and its kindred factories will be reduced to ruin, it is said, and the A'orth to the direst distress. If Manchester can get cotton, and Lowell cannot, there aro good times coming for the mill owners. The planters have agreed among themselves to hold over one-half of their cotton crop for their own purposes and for the culture of their fields, and to sell the other to the Government. For each bale of cotton, as / bear, a bond will be issued at the fair average price of cotton in the market, and this bond must be taken at par as a circulating medium within the limits of the Aluve States. T his forced circulation will be secured by the Act of the Legislature. 7'he bonds will bear interest at 10 per cent., and they will be issued on the faith and security of the proceeds of (he duty of one-eighth of a cent on every pound of cotton exported. AW vessels loading with cotton will be obliged to enter into bonds or give security that they will not carry their cargoes to Northern ports, or let it reach Northern markets -to their knowledge. The

Government will sell the cotton for cash to the,foreign buyers, and will thus raise sums amply sufficient, they contend, for all purposes. I make these bare statements, and leave to political economists the discussion of the questions which may and will arise out of the acts of the Government of the Confederated States The Southerners argue, that by breaking from their unnatural alliance with the North they will save upwards of 47,000,000 dols., or nearly .£10,000,000 sterling annually. The estimated value of the cotton crop is 200 million dols. On this the North formerly made at least 10,000,000 dols. by advances, interest, and exchanges, which in all came to fully 5 per cent, on the whole of the crop. Again, the tariff to raise revenues sufficient for the maintenance of the Government of the. Southern Confederacy is far less than that which is required by the Government of the United States. The Confederate States propose to have a tariff which will be about 12g per cent, on imports, which will yield 25,000,000 dols. 7’he Northern tariff is 30 per cent., and as the Eou'h took from the North 70,000,000 dols. worth of manufactured goods and produce, they contributed, they assert, to the maintenance of the North to the extent of the difference between tbe tax sufficient for the support of their Government and that which is required for the support of the Federal Government. Now they will save the difference between 30 per cent, and 12h per cent. per cent.), which amounts to 27,000,000 dols., which, added to the saving on commissions, exchanges, advances, &e., makes up the good round sum which I have put down higher up. One great fact, however, is unquestionable—the Government has in its hands the souls, the wealth, and the hearts of the people. They will give anything—money, labour, life itself —to carry out their theories. “ Sir,” said an ex governor of this state to me to-day, “ sooner than submit to the North, we will all become subject to Great Britain again.” The same gentleman, is one of many who have given to the Government a large portion of their cotton crop every year as a free-will offering. In his instance, his gift is one of 500 bales of cotton, or j£sooo per annum, and the papers teem with accounts of similar “ patriotism” and devotion. The ladies are all making sand bags, cartridges, .and uniforms, and, if possible, they are more fierce than the men.

Speaking of the issue of letters of marque, the correspondent says:—“ But it may be asked, who will take these letters of marque ? Where is the Government of Montgomery to find ships ? The answer is to be found in the fact that already numerous applications have been received from the ship-owners of New England, from the whalers of New Bedford, and from others in the Northern States, for these very letters of marque, accompanied by the highest securities and guarantees ! Here is a description of the new Congress. At the end of a long street, on a moderate eminence, stands a whitewashed or painted edifice, with a gaunt lean portico, supported on lofty, lanky pillars, and surmounted by a subdued and dejected-looking little cupola. Passing an unkempt lawn, through a very shabby little wooden gateway in a brick frame, we ascend a flight of steps into a hall, from which a double staircase conducts us to the vestibule of the chamber. Anything much more offensive to the eye cannot well be imagined than the floor and stairs. They are stained deeply by tobacco juice, which has left its marks on the white stone steps and on the base of the pillars outside. In the hall which we have entered there are two tables, covered with hams, oranges, bread, and fruits for the refreshment of members and visitors, over which tw’o sable goddesses, in portentous crinolines, preside. The door of the chamber is open, and we are introduced into a lofty, well lighted, and commodious apartment, in which the Congress of the Confederate States holds its deliberations. A gallery runs half roundthe room, and is half filled with visitors—country cousins and farmers of cotton and maize, and haply seekers of places great or small, flight and low semicircular screen separates the body of the house, where the members sit, from the space under the gallery, which is appropriated to ladies and visitors, /nside this fence are rows of seats and desks disposed in semicircles, and there is a similar disposition of armchairs close to the table, at which sit the two or three official reporters and officers of the house. 7'he clerk sits at a desk above this table, and on a platform behind him are the desk aud chair of the presiding officer or Epeaker of the Congress. Over his head hangs the unfailing portrait of XFashington, and a email engraving, in a black frame, of .a gentleman unknown to me. So much for the brick and mortar part of the building. 01 its living furniture one might have more to say than I have if he had fuller opportunities ; but, as far as I could judge, an assembly of more calm, determined, ami ju-dicial-looking men could not be found in any country in the world. No one who cast his eye over those grave heads, some massive and full, others keen, compact, energetic—could doubt that he was in the presence of men with a great work on hand, and with great capabilities for the execution of their task. Seated in the midst of them at a senator’s desk I was permitted to “ assist,” in the French sense, at the deliberations of the Congress.

The Speaker (Mr. Howell Cobb) having taken the chair, a white-headed clergyman was called upon to say prayers, which he did upstanding, with outstretched hands and closed eyes, by the side of the Speaker. 2’he prayer was long and sulphureous —one more pregnant with gunpowder I never heard, nor could ought like it have been heard since “ Pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, /Fas beat with fist instead of a stick.” The rev. gentleman prayed that the Almighty might be pleased to inflict on the arms of the,

United States such a defeat that it might be the example of signal punishment for this President might be 'blessed, and that the other President might be the other thing—that the gallant, devoted young soldiers, who were fighting for their country, might not suffer from exposure to the weather or from the bullets of their enemies; and that the base mercenaries who were fighting on the other side might come to sure and swift destruction, and so on.

The President was engaged with some gentlemen when / was presented to him, but he received me with much kindliness of manner, and when they had left entered into conversation with me for some time on general matters. Mr. Davis is a man of slight, sinewy figure, rather over the middle height, and of erect, soldierlike bearing. He is about fiftyfive years of age ; his features are regular and well-defined, but the face is’thin, and marked on cheek and brow with many wrinkles, and is rather careworn and haggard. One eye is apparently blind, the other is dark, piercing and intelligent; He Was dressed very plainly in a light gray Summer suit: lii the course of conversation lie gave an order for the Secretary of War to furnish me with a letter as a kind of passport in case of my falling in with the soldiers of any military posts who might be indisposed to let me pass freely, merely observing, that I bad been enough within the lines of camps to know what was my duty on such occasions. I subsequently was presented to Mr. Walker, the Secretary at War, who promised to furnish me witli the needful documents before I left .Montgomery. In his room were General Beauregard and several other officers, engaged over plans and maps, apparently in a little council of war,-which,was, perhaps, not without reference to the intelligence that the United States troops were ’marching on Norfolk Navy yard, and had actually occupied Alexandria. On leaving the Secretary, / proceeded to the room of the Attorney General, Mr. Benjamin, a very intelligent and able man, whom I found busied in preparations connected with the issue of letters of marque. Everything iu the offices looked like earnest work.

jumblin’ tiie joodgement. —“ A clergyman in the country had a stranger preaching for him one day, and meeting his beadle,; lie said to him, ‘ Well Saunders, how did you like the sermon to-day ?’ ‘ I watna’, sir, it was rather o’er plain and simple for me. I like thae sermons best that jumbles the joodgement and confounds the sense: Od, sir, I never saw ane that could come up to yourself’ at that."’ —Dean Ramsay’s Reminiscences . French Prayers.— “ During the long French war, two old ladies in Stranraer were going to the kirk, the one said to the other, * Was it no a wondet ful thing that the Breetish were aye victorious over the French in battle.’ ‘ Not a bit,’ said the other old lady, 4 dinna ye ken the Breetish aye say their prayers before ga’in into battle.’ The other replied, 4 But canna the French say their prayers as weel ?’ The reply was most characteristic, ‘Hoot! jabbering bodies, wba could understand' them.”— Abid.

44 Aust soph.” 44 Poor Mrs JFauchope, when very ill, sent for 4 Aunt Soph,’ and said to her, 4 Soph, I believe I am dying, will you always be kind to my children when I am gone ?’ 4 Na, na; tak y’r spoilt deevils wi’ye,’ was the reply, 4 for /’ll hae naething ado wi : them.’”— lbid. the gas. “ Another lady was equally discomposed by the introduction of gas, asking, with much earnestness, What’s to become o’ the puir Whales?” deeming their interests materially affected by this superseding of their oil.” Ibid.— FRENCH ORIGIN OF SCOTTISH EXPRESSIONS “ The following may be added to the list of Scottish expressions derived from French language. I have a distinct recollection of hearing, when a child, more than sixty years ago, the dairymaids at Fasque calling to the cow, 4 Prutchoe, mou ; prutchee, inadame.” 7’his invocation, it seems, is common in Nithsdale, and is simply a corruption of the French, ‘ //pprochez moi; approchez, inadame (‘ Come near me; come, my lady.’ Again, the large clasp-knife, common a century ago, such as sailors use, or larger, was in my remembrance called a Jockteleg. It derived this name from its maker, a 3 they were all made by Jaques de Liege.— lbid.

Holloway's Ointment, — Whitlow Gathering, Abscesses.—No diseases tax the fortitude more.-'than boils and their kindred complaints. The,severe inflammation with which they.. .all commence is exceedingly painful, indeed almost intolerable. If the particular part afflicted be fomented for some time in warm water, dried, and immediacy afterwards thickly covered with Holloway’s Ointment, the pain will gradually grow less, the. throbbing soon subside, aud'the rising fever speedily be repressed, and the patient, free from pain, will be able to obtain some sleep, which will brace again his shattered nerves. In inflammation of the fingers, whitlow, &c., this Ointment prevents all contractions of those members, relieving the sufferer from all doubt as to the preservation of the hand’s entirety. 50