AMERICA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 8, Issue 379, 18 February 1864, Page 4

AMERICA.

f From the Timet , December 2. ] New York, Nov. 20. The long threatened attack upon General Burnside’s position has at last beenmade; General Longstreet advanced a : cross the Tenessee, at Londou on Saturday last, and moved towards Lender, but was driven back to within one mile of the river. During the night General Longstreet crossed the remainder of his troops, and on Sunday advanced iu foroe upon the Federals, who fell back skirmishing, to Lender. Several unsuccessful attacks, upon the Federals were- made on Sunday night. On Monday morning the Federals, finding it impossible to hold their position, retreated to Campbell’s Station, or Con-

cord, the Confederates closely pursuing them. Desperate fighting ensued, lasting throughout the day, the Federate being driven from point to point. Under cover of the night the Federate continued their retreat, and on Tuesday reached their iniier line of defences at Knoxville'. General Shackleford had a sharp encounter with the Confederates on the east side of . the Holstein river, three miles from Knoxville, ou Sunday, and succeeded in checking tlieir advances from that direction. Washington despatches of to day state that advices from General Buimside were received by the War Department thismorning, to the effect that his position was impregnable. It is believed that a great battle is being fought to-day. Despatches from the head-quarters of the army of the Potomac of yesterday announce that no further advance had been made by General Meade. A skirmish between Confederate and Federal: cavalry occurred at Germania Ford on Wednesday, The Confederates crossed the river, and after a short fight, drove the Federate back upon their infantry supports. The loss in killed and wounded was small upon either side, but a number of Federate wei'e captured. On Wednesday morning the Federal outposts on the Kingstown and Dudon and Clinton roads were also attacked, and heavy skirmishing continued until nightfall. Yesterday the attack was renewed, and after a severe cannonading, the Confederates desperately charged the Federate, and drove them from tlieir positions towards Knoxville, capturing a portion of the chief fortifications only half a mile fi'om the town. By thi? latest account, the Confederates had completely invested the town.

The Federal loss on Monday and Thursday was upwards of 500 ; that of the Confederates ou the same days is estimated at 1,400. The Federal General Lundera was severely wounded. Chattanoogo telegrams of the 19th repoit all quiet. November 21. Washington despatches state that the heavy rains have suspended Meade’s operations ; also 'that no unfavourable news has been received from any quarter. Gold, 1535. Cotton, 85 c. Lord Lyons has officially notified the government at Washington of his receipt of information from the Governor of Canada of a plot among the Confederate refugees in Canada to seize certain steamers on Lake Erie, liberate Confederate prisoners at Johnson’s Island, in Sandusky Bay, and attack the principal Lake cities. Secretary Stanton has warned the authorities of these cities, and advised the arrest of,all suspicious vessels in the different ports. An extra regiment of soldiers has been despatched to the island, and an armed steamer is reconnoitring the north shore of the lake. Mr. Stanton has ordered General Dix to proceed to Buffalo and adopt such measures as he may deem necessary for the protection of the frontier.

A German, named Heoflich, residing five miles west of La Crescent, was married in Portage, in November 1860, to a healthy German girl. The week after they married they moved to Minnesota, on the farm which they now occupy. In August 1861, Mrs. Heoflich gave birth to three boys, two of whom lived. In June 1862, she gave birth to three boys and a girl ; two of the boys and the girl are living. On the sth of this month she gave birth t<? two girls and a boy, all of whom were, as late as Tuesday of this week, alive and well. Ten children in less than three years is pretty good, even for this vicinity. The parents are proud of their success in the family line, and point with pleasure to their Company of German infantry. Government cannot afford to draft the head of that family. —American Paper. The Index (the Confederate organ in London), says the Southern force in the field is stronger and better equipped, better fed and more efficient than at any period of the war ; while the enemy is deprived of half his strength by being chawn away from his gunboats. The New York correspondent of the Times writes :—“ The Federal Government is so desperately in want of seamen —whom ?America itself cannot supply, and who, found in the persons of Irishmen and Germans, are not worth having —that a British or a French sailor cannot show himself in public without being inveigled to the nearest rum shop by some amiable Federal shark, Who, after having made him drunk, will offer, him the handsome bounty of S7OO if he will desert his ship and take service in the Federal Navy. The temptation of so large a sum of ready money is too strong for British or French virtue, and gthe men of both fleets are consequently kept to their ships with such extra indulgences in their captivity as may help to reconcile them to their isolation. As it is the object of the Federal Government to stand well with Russia, and give that Powor no cause of offence, the sharks are instructed to leave the Rlissian sailors alone.” A married woman named Clayton has been passed to her home in Minesota, having enlisted two years siuce in the same Minnesota regiment as her husband and been considered a good soldier for a year before she was found out. At the battle of Stone River her husband was killed five paces in front'of her, .and she herself was wounded in a desperate bayonet charge immediately afterwards.—Aew York Tribune. * Our diamond dealers say they have never done a larger or more profitable business than during the past two years. A few days since a diamond merchant entered at the Custom house a single brilliant, which was invoiced in Paris at

40,000 francs, ?the : ; cost, of which, sifter paying the duty of five per oent., wpuld be about $15,000. St range stories are told of diamond purchasers ; a dealer in Broadway tells how, having one day sold a diamond necklace to a lady, he had occasion to ask her to write her address on a card, when she had to confess ; her inability to write her own name. Diamonds so costly as the one we have mentioned as having been reoently entered at our Custom-house are not often imported and there are probably not. many of its size in the country ; but that even one such small mountain of light should be imported indicates a demand for such valuable ornaments, that will surprise many people who do. not know what extravagances our newly made millionaries indulge in. It is a rather startling thought that a little glittering pin worn in the shirt bosom, or on the finger,, re quired 3000 barrels of flour, some 10,000 bushels of wheat, or 1500 bax*rels of pork to be sent out of the country in exchange for it. —New York Independent. General Forey had embarked for Europe by the Panama.

CANADA, x The legislature was prorogued on : the 15th October. In his speechjthe Governor geueral acknowledged the readiness with which both Houses had addressed themselves to the organization of a militia, and the defence of the country. A letter from a resident in Canada appears in the Scotsman of November 7 from which we take the following. Canadian and New Zealand Colonists are regarded with equal suspicion and treated with equal injustice in England:—

“ Even ihe American press are astonished at the vexatious tone of reproach cast by England on Canada, and surely no better censor on the subject could be had, when their own feelings are so embittered against England and everything* English. “It is not, however, on these grounds that I would claim for Canada and the Canadians that respect and esteem which seems to be denied them by the press and public generally in Great Britain. I feel confident in stating that from the bleak and barren shores of Gaspo to the far inland seas of the West, and from the haunts of the backwoodsmen in the north, to the boundary line with the States, there is but one loyal, sentiment prevading the whole population of Canada, of firm attachment and devotedness to our beloved Queen and the rule of the British Government, so much so indeed, that were England involved to-morrow in war with the United States, the whole province would rise as one. man in defence of their Queen and country, and spare no effort or cost whereby this great and yet undeveloped country may ever a remain a bright ornament in the British crown. Instead, however, of picturing such an unhappy catastrophe as follows in the countless evils of war, allow me to indulge the hope that the future of Canada is one fraught with rich promise of future greatness, whereby, being combined with other adjoining provinces, they may some day assume an independent status of their own amongst the nations of the earth; and although such a day may be yet far distant, still watching the course of events and the tone of public opinion, I feel safe in affirming that such a dignified position would most fitly comport both with the immense extent of yet undeveloped country, the energy, perseverance, and enterprise of the whole population, and the inexhaustible resources of inland navigation and mineral productions which characterises the length and breadth of the whole British provin ces in North America. I trust that a -more generous spirit towards this country may animate the public press at home, and imbue the feelings of the community at laige with kinder feelings and nobler sentiments of the future of Canada, and of the sincerity and loyalty of Canadians towards their Queen and mother country.”

The French in Mexico.— The Vlgie of Cherbourg publishes a letter from Mexico, dated the 19th September, which contains the following :—“ You cannot adequately conceive our surprise when we read in the journals which reach us from France all that is written on -the affairs of Mexico. We, who are here in the very theatre of events —who hear all that is saifi —are deeply pained to see how little the public mind is informed on Mexican affairs —how much facts are misrepresented. The enthusiasm of the Mexican people at the sight of our victorious armv is tar from being “as deep, as complete as is pretended ; and the policy followed up to the present time by M. Dubois de Saligny is disapproved by all. Every day our soldiers are attacked ; every day they are assassinated ; and it is only by intimidation that we can 'possibly maintain ourselves in some ot the positions which we occupy. The Mexican people do not rise en masse against us, because there is no unity in the nation ; but on every side parties are formed \ bauds of 'guerillas—soldiers escaped from Puebla and Mexico —attack us everywhere they meet us, and then, reprisals, we impose on the villages which receive these armed band extraordinary contributions, we shoot those who lend them supportsad necessities, which will result in rendering almost impossible any reconciliation between victorious France and vanquished Mexico.

In . addition it must be remembered that Berger pi ay s the canon game only.W Several of the well sinkers who djjg the Warren Farm Well,.near Brighton, which is twelve hundred and eighty-five feet deep, have told me their experiences. It was unaccountably hot and sulphurous down in the green sand. I have seen a marking upon a thermometer, for the accuracy of which I will uot vouch, because it was so near blood heat. But in a hole detween three and four feet in diameter, and 'twelve hundred feet deep, strong men felt so weak that they could not have lifted a glass of water to their lips. When a workman once, in defiance of the sternest prohibitions took a bottle of ale with him to the bottom of the well, the heat made the cork fly out, and the addition of the carbonic acid gas in the liquid to the carbonic acid gas from the respiration of the men at work in the well, instantly put out all the lights—some fifty or sixty lamps and caudles in the stages above, extending nearly a quarter of a mile upward. —AU the Yectr Round.: