The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-06-03 00:00:00

eencral lictos.

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EMPLOYMENT or Wonex.—ln connection with the
admirable efforts of Miss Faithful iLnd Mips Hay, two
new lsw-copying offices have been opened, at 24,
Coleman-street, nod 141, Fenclinroh-ittreet, respec-
tively. Ten or twelve writers, all women, are em-
ployed at these establishments, and their work can suc-
cessfully compete with that of the oldest establish-
ments. This is precisely One of those vocation. which
women niay fairly claim to stare and a large amount
of patronage ought to be, and doubtless will be,
bestowed upon the praiseworthy enterprise.
THE LANCASHIRE DisTerase.—The struggle with
poverty and independence which for some time past
has been going on in LAncashire is still being main-
tained with true heroic spirit by the operatives of that
ones busy district. We have long been familiar with
the energy and skill of the Lancashire workmen, and
the fiery ordeal of distress they are passing through at
present is making us acquainted with an aspect of their
character which raises them to a still higher plane in
the estimation of all good men than that which they
previously occupied. At the most it is but little we
can know of the sufferings which those Lancashire
families have been called npon to endure by one of the
most horrible, and, to our thinking, most wantonly
unnecessary contests that ever disgraced humanity.
The statistics which we publish from time to time of
the distress prevalent in the different towns gives us a
very faint idea of what that distress is. Arithmetic
cannot represent it. They may assist tut in ganging
its dimensions, but the misery resulting from it, the
shock to the sensibilities of minds—who, with that be-
coming pride which is so characteristic of English
workmen of the best class, shrink from dependence
consequent on the gradual and inevitable gravitation
towards the pauper level, cannot be appreciated by
means of figures. The correspondent of a Manchester
contemporary has been out for a day among the Black-
burn operatives, and has given a graphie account of the
visit. From this we learn that about six hundred of
the more robust of the suffering men in that quarter
are employed in the lighter kinds of employment about
the local quarries. They are paid, we learn' at the
rate of a shilling a day—a very small rate; but it is
said the men prefer this nominal remuneration for on.
congenial employment to idleness and the ordinary
Guardian relief. The bread earned tastes less bitter
than the pauper dole, and although the men in many
instances feel the labour strange and onerous they are
upon the whole cheerful.
One thousand emigrants to Albert Land, New Zealand
under the auspices of the Noncomforiniat Emigra-
tion Society, left the Eaatiodia Dqcks on Thursday
afternoon by the Matilda, for Wattenbach ani
Hanover.

A Semen AT THE BLACKBURN RAILWAY STATION.—
The Feu disaster, we leant, has been the means of
giving a number of the stouter and more competent
workmen more remenerative employment. The writer
in the Manchester paper to whom we have referred saw
a batch of twenty despatched to the flooded country,
who were to be paid at the rate of three shillings
and fourpence daily. This journey to Lincolnshire
seems to have appeared • very formidable affair to the
wives and mothers of those who were to undertake it.
The men assembled in the soup kitchen in the morning
and had breakfast, after which each received 4 lbs. of
bread and lib. of cheese for the day's consumption,
with • shilling for pocket money. A member of coin-
mittee, who takes an active interest in the relief of the
prevailing distress, addressed the emigrants as follows:
—"Now, I hope that every man will conduct himself so
as to be a credit to himself, and an honour to Blackburn.
This work may not prove to be such as you will like,
aud you must not expect it to be so. But do your
best; and, if you find that there is any chance of
employment for more men of the same class as your-
selves, you must write, and let us know, so as to relieve
the distress of those behind you. There will be people
waiting to meet you before you get to your journey's
end, and I have no doubt you will meet with very fair
encouragement. One half of your wages will be paid
over to each man there, the other half will be forwarded
here, for the benefit of your families, as all know. Now
go, and do your duty to the best of your power, and
you will never regret it. I wish you all success." The
writer then describes the parting at the station
and the start on the journey, from which it will be seen
that the men went out upon their mission hopefully.
He says :—" At the station I found a crowd of wives,
children, and friends of those who were going away.
Amongst the rest Dr. Rushton, the vies? of Blackburn
and his lady, had come to see them off. Here a sweet
little young wife stood on the edge of the platform,
with a pretty bareheaded child in her arms, crying as
if her heart would break. Her husband now and then
spoke a consoling word to her from the carriage window.'
They had been noticed sharing their breakfast together
at the kitchen. A little farther on a poor old Irishwomen
was weeping bitterly. The Rev. Mr. Heaney went up
to her and said, ' Now, Mrs. Davis, I thought you had
more sense than to cry,' said a young lrisliwoinall,
standing beside her, • sure, she's loan' her 80n from
her." Well,' said the clergyman, cheeringly,' not
your husband, woman.' ' Ah, thin,' replied the young
woman, ' sure, it's all she has left of him.' On the
door of one compartment of the carriage there was the
following written label fragile. Burnley via
Tonmorden. With care." How's this, Dinnisr said
the Catholic priests to a young fellow nearest the deer;
"I suppose it's because you're all Irishmen inside
there." In another compartment the lads kept popping
their heads out, one after another, shouting farewells
to their relatives and friends, after which they struck
up, There's • good time coming V" We trust to such
spirits the " goo i thue" is not far distant.
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.—The court which
contains the articles sent frow British Guiana is not as
yet so well attended as it deserves to be. Its contents
are full of interest. In all our English literature, one
of the most charming and one of the least known works
is Sir Walter Raleigh's " Discovery of the Large, Rich,
and Beautiful Empire of Guiana.' Written with the
glowing eloquence, the euriosa felieitas of style and
diction that characterised the prose of the Elizabethan
era,it has all the charm of a novel, all the accuracy of a
chart. The vivid descriptions of natural scenery and
objects which mark its pages will no longer seem
exaggerated to those who, at South Kensington, east •
glance at the collection furnished by British Guiana.
Were Sir William Holmes, the chief commissioner from
that colony, to re-edit the work of his illustrious
precursor, lie would find no reason to alter or abate
its glowing terme. Nothing in the whole exhibition is
more charming than the collection of stuffed birds
exhibited in this court. It is not an aviary ; it is •
kaleidoscope! From the purest white to the most intence
scarlet—from glowing and burnished orange to clear
and vivid green—there is not a colour which cannot be
found represented in that collection. Close by we have
a large assortment of duffed monkey., interesting to
the naturalists, amusing to the children, but rather sad,
perhaps, to the quiet observer. They are so like! The
serpents of the colony are also represented, and there
is a certain wild and terrible beanty in their coiling,
curling, cronching forms—one is perpetually. reminded,
in this court, alike of the wild fertility of tropical life
and of the myriad dangers to which it is exposed. The
very woods have a sombre beauty about them. Even
in their names they are poetical suggestions. .There
are cabinets cf "tiger-wood ; ' there are walking sticks
of " purpleheart," Interesting, not less from its own
merits than from other associations, is the model, exe-
cuted in pith, of an Indian hut, containing all
necessary Indian furniture, including war clubs, idols,
hammocks, sieves and spears. The modeller is himself
an Indian, and dwells upon the shores of the Upper
Berbioe river, He hears a name which must needs be dis-
appointing to the lovers of romance—to the admirers of
Fenimore Cooper, Rayne Reid, Louis de Bellemare, or
Gustavo Aimard ; he calls himself simply "Robert
Saunders." However, his work is good, and there are
few exhibitors of whom one would think with a kindlier
interest than of this poor fellow, carving a rude repro-
duction of his hut when his day's toil is done, and then
sending it over the sea. Another model of an Indian
hut, or "bnekhouse," is exhibited by Mr. C'unis. A
large collection of the inse,ts of the colony includes a
"thorough-bred" tarantula; and nearly forty varieties
of a certain animal, the members of whose family are so
numerous in Russia that an imaginative English
traveller in that country asseverates that he could hear ,
them bark.

The Board of Trade returns, just issued for the month
of April. show a decrease as compared with last year
of £1,04325 ; the decrease, as compared with 1860,
amounting to t 1,529.552. - -

Enonnous quantities of mackerel are now being caught
of the back of the Isle of Wight.
CHILDREN IN WORKHOUSE/I.—At the eommencement
of the present year there were at least 62,125 children
in the workhouses of England and Wales: probably the
real number was about 53,000, as returns have not been
sent in by several parishes. Of the 52,125, 4,393 were
capable of entering upon service. 13,743 were illegiti-
mate. Of the others, 7,313 had lost one parent, and
11,385 had lost both parents. 6,344 had been deserted
by the father, 2,102 by the mother, 1,880 by both
parents. The fathers of 1,031 were either transported or
in prison for some crime.
A usrasums Got.—The great Australian geld
pyramid under the western dome was on Thursday
completely uncovered from its apex to its base, and on
each of the four sides luny now be read inscriptions
containing the leading points in the statistics of the
Australian gold-fields, and of the colony generally. The
weight of the gold represented by this pyramid is
24162432 troy ounces, and constitutes the total amount
obtained between the dates of October 1, 1851, and
October 1, 1861. The total money value of this im-
mense mass is £104,649,728. The edges of the pyramids
are framed by neatly arranged ingots, stamped with the
name of the Australian Bank, and over its surface are
spread a number of rough nuggets, the exact models of
all the most reinarkable discovered in the course of the
mining operations during the period referred to. Alto-
gether the gold pyramid is a more interesting, as well
as ornamental object than it promised to be, and attracts
a proportionate share of attention.
MUNITIONS? BZQUESTEL —The late Mr. A. Pine, mer-
chant, Dundee, who died lad week, leaving property
to the extent of about £36,000, has left the following
munificent legacies to the local charities of that town,
viz. : To the Royal Infirmary, 4000 ; to the Industrial
Schools, £2,000; to the Royal Orphan Institution.
£250 ; to the Indigent Sick Society, £250. The residue
of his property, after judiciously. providing for other
parties who had &claim upon him, is left to the families
of his two sisters.

R6FORT OF THZ POSTMASTFB-GENCRAL.—The eighth
annual report of the Postinaeter-General (for 1861) was
published on Wednesday. He states that the whole
number of public receptacles for letters is now 14,354,
as compared with 13,194 last year, and with little more
than 4,500 before the establishment of penny postage.
During the last year 45 places were provided with day
mails to or from the metropolis of one or other of the
three parts of the United Kingdom, and some of them
with mails in both directions; the addition mail being
in several instances the third during the twenty-four
hours. The distance over which mails are now conveyed
within the United Kingdom by railways, mail carts,
eteam packets, &c., is about 150,000 cues per day, being
about 7,200 miles more than at the end of 1860; the
increase is principally in railway conveyance. The num-
ber of letters delivered in the United Kingdom during
the last year is: For England, 487 'zillions ; Ireland.
50 millions; Scotland, 56 millions. As compared with
1860, the total shows an increase of 29 million;; and as
contrasted with the year previous to the introduction of
penny portage (1839), an increase (omitting franks) of
517 millions ; making the present number of letters
nearly eightfold the number in 1839. Lees than 1 per
cent of the letters posted in the United K_ingdom were
°barged ulditionel pottage, ot soocivB6 or thi* 806 Y.