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JAPAN.

Colonel Neale, the British Chargé d'Affaires in Japan, was this year directed to obtain reparation for the murder of Mr. Richardson, and a murderous assault committed on an English lady and two gentlemen who were riding with Mr. Richardson on a public road near the English settlement in Japan, in the month of September of last year. He was instructed to demand from the Government of the Tycoon the payment of 100,0007., and an ample apology; and from the Prince of Satsuma, within whose jurisdiction the murder and assault took place, the payment of 25,000l. as an indemnity. The sum of 100,000l. was paid, and a sufficient apology was made by the Minister of the Tycoon. But no satisfaction could be obtained from the Prince of Satsuma, and as ten months had elapsed since the murder was committed, Colonel Neale called upon Admiral Kuper to proceed with the English fleet to Kagosima, the capital of Prince Satsuma, and it entered the bay on the 11th of August. The city of Kagosima was strongly defended by forts and batteries, from which Prince Satsuma's flag was flying. On the ships anchoring off the town, on the 12th, a boat came from the shore with two officers, who had an interview with the English Minister, and they were told what our demands were, which were to be acceded to by two p.m. on the following day, the 13th. Further delay, however, took place, and as no satisfactory answer was received on the 14th, the Admiral proceeded to seize three screw-steamers, which had been recently sent from Europe, and belonged to Prince Satsuma. This was on the 15th, when suddenly all the batteries opened a fire of shot and shell on the squadron. The Admiral ordered the steamers to be burnt, and began to bombard the batteries and the town. The houses soon caught fire, and a terrible conflagration ensued, extending upwards of a mile. The Japanese fired with rapidity and precision, and we had to deplore the loss of two excellent officers, Captain Josling and Commander Wilmot, who were both killed on board the Admiral's ship "Euryalus" by the same shell. The Japanese batteries were soon silenced; a great part of the town was laid in ashes, and an enormous amount of property destroyed. Next day the fleet again weighed anchor, and proceeding under slow speed, commenced shelling the batteries as the ships passed them at long ranges. This brought the Japanese at last to their senses, and news reached this country at the end of the year that Prince Satsuma had consented to do his utmost to apprehend the murderers of Mr. Richardson, and inflict capital punishment upon them, in the presence of one or more British officers; and also to pay the indemnity demanded. We may hope, therefore,

that for the present, at all events, there will be no necessity for resuming hostile operations against this strange people, with whom we have only lately come into contact. The destruction of so great a part of the town of Kagosima, involving as it did thousands of unoffending inhabitants in misery, caused a very painful sensation in this country; but it seems to have been the accidental result of the fire of the fleet against the Japanese batteries, which was a simple act of self-defence against their attack. It is one of the deplorable results of war that its calamities often fall more upon the innocent than the guilty.

NEW ZEALAND.

Great Britain this year was engaged in one of her "little wars" with the Maori natives of New Zealand, arising out of that everlasting cause of quarrel, the question of the right of property in waste lands. But as the contest was not brought to a close this year, and our information at present is imperfect both as to the exact cause of the outbreak, and the war that followed, in which some of our troops were severely handled, we shall defer our narrative of events until our next volume.

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Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln-General Burnside retires to the north of the Rappahannock-Battle of Murfreesborough--Generals Banks and Butler at New Orleans-Message of President Davis to the Confederate Congress-Attempt of the French Government to put a stop to the War-Letter from President Lincoln to General McClellan-Financial Position of the Federal States-Bill for arming Negroes passed by Congress-Expiry of Federal Congress-General Hooker takes the command of the Army of the Potomac-Expeditions against Forts Hudson, Vicksburg, and Charleston-The Confederates claim that the Blockade is raisedSiege of Vicksburg-Day of Fasting appointed by the Confederate President--His Address to the Confederate States-Military Movements in Tennessee-Battle of Chancellorsville.

WE mentioned in our last volume the proclamation issued by President Lincoln on the 22nd of September, 1862, whereby he expressed his intention of declaring free, on the 1st of January in the present year, "all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof should be in rebellion against the United States," and at the beginning of this year he at once put the threat in execution. By a proclamation, dated Jan. 1, he designated the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, as States wherein, except in certain specified portions of some of them, "the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States," and declared as follows:

"All persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, FREE, and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence, and I recommend to them that in all cases, when allowed, they labour faithfully for reasonable wages.

"And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

"And upon this-sincerely believed to be an act of justice,

warranted by the Constitution-upon military necessity-I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favour of Almighty God."

General Burnside withdrew the army of the Potomac to the north of the Rappahannock river on the 16th of December last year, because, as he said in a despatch to General Halleck, the Commander-in-Chief, "he felt fully convinced that the position in front could not be carried, and it was a military necessity either to attack the enemy or retire. A repulse would have been disastrous to us under existing circumstances."

In Tennessee the hostile armies of the two Republics met at the end of the year at Murfreesborough, and a bloody battle was fought, which lasted for two days. General Bragg commanded the Confederates, and General Rosencrans the Federals. The result was that the Confederates retired, and Rosencrans occupied Murfreesborough, which he converted into a fortified camp.

General Banks was sent to New Orleans to supersede General Butler in the command; and in the proclamation he issued on his arrival, he said:-

"The country washed by the waters of the Ohio, the Missouri, and the Mississippi can never be permanently severed. If one generation basely barters away its rights, immortal honours will rest upon another that reclaims them.

"Let it never be said, either, that the East and the West may be separated. Thirty days' distance from the markets of Europe may satisfy the wants of Louisiana and Arkansas, but it will not answer the demands of Illinois and Ohio. The valley of the Mississippi will have its deltas upon the Atlantic. The physical force of the West will debouch upon its shores with a power as resistless as the torrents of its giant rivers. This country cannot be permanently divided. Ceaseless wars may drain its blood and treasure; domestic tyrants or foreign foes may grasp the sceptre of its power, but its destiny will remain unchanged. It will still be united. God has ordained it. What avails, then, the destruction of the best Government ever devised by man-the self-adjusting, self-correcting Constitution of the United States ?"

General Butler, whose name was execrated in the South for the tyrannical and cruel manner in which he had exercised his authority, published a farewell address to the troops forming what was called "the Army of the Gulf," in which he gave a description of the occupation of New Orleans, which must have seemed to the Confederates something like bitter mockery. He claimed the character of a benefactor, while they regarded him as little less than a fiend. He said :

"At your occupation, order, law, quiet, and peace sprang to this city, filled with the bravos of all nations, where, for a score of years, during the profoundest peace, human life was scarcely safe at noonday.

"By your discipline you illustrated the best traits of the

American soldier, and enchained the admiration of those that came to scoff.

"Landing with a military chest containing but $75, from the hoards of a rebel Government you have given to your country's treasury nearly a half-million of dollars, and so supplied yourselves with the needs of your service that your expedition has cost your Government less by four-fifths than any other.

"You have fed the starving poor, the wives and children of your enemies, so converting enemies into friends that they have sent their representatives to your Congress by a vote greater than your entire numbers from districts in which, when you entered, you were tauntingly told that there was no one to raise your flag.'

"By your practical philanthropy you have won the confidence of the oppressed race' and the slave. Hailing you as deliverers, they are ready to aid you as willing servants, faithful labourers, or, using the tactics taught them by your enemies, to fight with you in the field."

In glaring contrast with this was a proclamation of President Davis, in which, after enumerating the outrages of which Butler had been guilty, he declared him "to be a felon deserving of capital punishment . . . an outlaw and common enemy of mankind," and ordered that if captured he should be immediately hanged.

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The Confederate President sent his second annual message to Congress, at Richmond, on the 12th of January. It was a very lengthy document, in which he reviewed the progress of the struggle, and insisted on the nullity of the blockade according to international law, on account of its inefficiency. He said :

"Neutral Europe remained passive when the United Stateswith a naval force insufficient to blockade effectively the coast of a single State-proclaimed a paper blockade of thousands of miles of coast, extending from the Cape of the Chesapeake to those of Florida and to Key West, and encircling this Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Rio Grande. Compared with this monstrous pretension of the United States, the blockades known in history under the names of the Berlin and Milan decrees and the British Orders in Council, in the years 1806 and 1807, sink into insignificance. Yet those blockades were justified by the Powers that declared them on the sole ground that they were retaliatory; yet those blockades have since been condemned by the publicists of those very Powers as violations of international law; yet those blockades evoked angry remonstrances from neutral Powers, amongst which the United States were the most conspicuous; yet those blockades became the chief cause of the war between Great Britain and the United States in 1812; yet those blockades were one of the principal motives that led to the declaration of the Congress of Paris in 1856, in the fond hope of imposing an enduring check on the very abuse of maritime power which is now

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