THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1864.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22711, 25 October 1935, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1864.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO.

"We think we are justified in predicting for the civil war in America a conclusion brought about, not directly by military success on one side or the other, but by the force of public opinion. That popular opinion in the Northern States is undergoing a transition no one who has the opportunity of judging can doubt for a moment. The time of rampant enthusiasm has given place to one of deliberation, and the change of ideas is no less striking. After two years and a half of the greatest civil struggle the world has ever seen, the position of the contending parties remains substantially the same. The North entered on the work of subjugation confident in its vast resources and in the justice of its cause. The sentiments of the Northern people were undoubtedly, at the outset of the war, thoroughly enlisted in the cause of the Union, and of what they considered Liberty. The earlier periods of the American War were marked by intensity of feeling on both sides. Apparently there was a strongly defined principle to fight for. For the time being the Northerners lost sight of the inconsistency of their cause;— they simply saw the glorious structure of the Union threatened with destruction, and they entered con amove into the struggle for maintaining ite integrity. They were not alone in believing they could crush the attempt of the Southern States to throw off the supremacy of the North._ The whoje world' regarded the contention as one that would be speedily resolved by the superior resources of the Northern States. . . .

"A meeting of intending members of the Dunedin City Rifle Corps was held last evening, at Waters’ Octagon Hotel, when it was decided to alter the name of the corps to that of the "City Rifles,” under which name the corps will for the future be recognised. From the number of gentlemen present we augur well for the success of the corps. By the Black Swan, lately arrived from London, a very fine toned bell has been received, which is intended to be hung at the St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church. The bell has been cast in London during the present year, and weighs upward of fifteen hundredweight. It is said to have the finest tone of any bell yet imported into the Southern Colonies. The cost was one hundred pounds. We learn from our Wellington correspondent that the recently acquired block of land at the Waitotara, Wellington, has found favour in the eyes of gome Dunedin speculators, and that 1500 acres were applied for by one individual from this city. . . . The decision of the Seat of Government Commissioners has not yet been made public. Our Wellington correspondent states that the report was left with the (Superintendent of Nelson, but that from some cause he delayed forwarding it for Some days. It is possible the next mail may bring news of the decision —which we need hardly say is anxiously awaited by the three candidates for the seat of Government —Nelson, Wellington, and Picton. Wednesday, the 9th November, being the birthday of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the members of the Order of Foresters intend honouring the occasion by - a pic-nic excursion to the Heads, for which purpdee the steamer Bruce has been chartered.