Yesterday's News, Today
A letter from New York on the position of Maryland is published in the Washington Constitution of yesterday. The writer views the arguments of Governor Hicks, in refusing to convene the Legislature, and says:
Maryland is now the great trump card of the Republicans, and is being skilfully played against the more western border States, as will be seen by the numerous Northern complaints to Gov. Hicks for his patriotism, (which word sometimes means love of an office in one’s own State, ) and in the very many articles, so called, of the Herald of this city, (see this day’s issue,) done, apparently, to order, as Bennett does everything, for the laudable motive of increasing the sale of so many more copies of that ever-inconsistent, yet powerful sheet, for good or ill.
Baton Rogue, Jan. 26, 1861
The delay ordinance, moved to be substituted for the secession ordinance reported by the Committee of Fifteen, was voted down yesterday by an immense majority.
Commissioners Manning, of South Carolina, and Winston, of Alabama, made eloquent addresses in favor of immediate secession.
There was an animated debate last night on the resolution for submitting the secession ordinance for ratification to the people. The advocates of immediate secession abstained from all debate. There was no extreme opposition to the ordinance.
The project of tunnelling a passage from England to France under Dover Straits is still talked of in England. The London Daily News of December 25 says of it:
“The plan of tunnelling beneath the Straits is not altogether a new one. Probably the success with which the Mont Cenis tunnel has been worked through the solid backbone of the Alpine range has attracted new attention to a scheme which on the face of it seems far from being impracticable. It must be remembered, however, that the difficulties to be encountered in tunnelling beneath the Straits of Dover are of a totally different character from those which the French engineers have had to meet with in tunnelling through the Alps. The soil to be traversed in the former instance would probably be the ‘second chalk formation,’ which may be assumed to extend in an unbroken course from the place of its uprising in England to the place in which it makes its appearance in France. It need hardly be said that the difficulty of perforating this soil would be very much less than that of perforating the hard and complicated material which has been encountered by the French engineers. On the other hand, however, there are dangers and difficulties in tunnelling under the Straits which more than make up for the comparative ease with which the mere process of perforation could be pursued. It needs but a slight acquaintance with the history of the construction of the Thames Tunnel to enable one to recognize the fact that the workers in the suggested tunnel beneath the Straits would be exposed to enormous risks from the effect of the pressure of the sea upon the stratum through which they would have to work. Again and again the water burst into the Thames Tunnel, and drove the workmen out. Brunel himself nearly lost his life during one of these irruptions. Now, if this happened beneath the Thames, what might be looked for from the effects of the enormous pressure of the sea to say nothing of the increased danger during heavy storms? And then the workmen in the Thames Tunnel had but a comparatively short distance to run, when they were threatened with an irruption of water, if such an event threatened workmen engaged nine or ten miles from either outlet of the suggested tunnel, escape would be hopeless. In a short time the whole length of the tunnel would be filled with the waters of the sea, and the labors of years would be rendered useless.
By the arrival, on Monday last, of the clipper ship Fair Wind, Capt. Crowell, in 8 days 17 hours from San Francisco, we have received that city’s journal to the 12th inst., containing telegraphed news from the East, to December 23 from St. Louis, and December 16 from Queenstown, Ireland, and Australian papers to October 12th.
The passage of the Fair Winds the quickest ever put on record between this place and San Francisco. By it we are in receipt of European news only 30 days old, and 24 days from the Eastern States.