The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-01-30 00:00:00

Murat &until Expresso.

DOROIIIIBTER, JANUARY 30th, 1883.

THE DORBET COUNTY HOSPITAL.

Meddling, in its literal meaning, is an ugly
word, and to cooler an a friend the title of a
meddler is generally considered the reverse of
• delicate compliment; again the little vice
personified would scarcely be the common ideal
of a good•hearted philanthropist. [We would
refer our readers to our report of the Hospital
Meeting for an explanation.] The members of
the Hospital Committee of. Management have
fallen in the category of meddlers, and all
on account of their too careful superintendence
of an institution, the governing body of which
they form • part—an institution which has
been steadily and surely drifting into the
hideous waters of debt. The estimable Chair.
man, who, it will be seen, took up the cudgels in
defame of his brethren of the Committee,
exhibited a little irritation at the charge made
by a gentleman in the same boat as themselves.
But it cannot be taken 014 scrim' ; that was
evident on the face of it, but we can easily
understand the slight shade of annoyance
evinced by Mr. Williams. Still, taken in its
broadest sense, and qualified as much as it
possibly can be, it must inevitably grate harshly
on the ears of the management. In our opinion
one might as lief apply the uneuphonioua term
to • fond mother, over•careful ea to the welfare
and prosperity of her little one, watching with
a jealous eye every step of the young one's life,
and opposing most strenuously the slightest
tof its liberty and ita righta. Those
erintinhro er like the fond mother, week after
week, attended to the noble institution, some
of the most devoted of whom have gone to their
rest, have never done too much. How Is it
mittin the present condition of the hospital I
Ingenious monomist will meddle • little
more, and devise sone means of liquidating the
debt which at present heap round the neck of '
the governors like a millstone, the whole com-
munity will be thankful, and Mr. Bank's, we
are sure, net the least.
The hospital appears to us to be feet approach-
ing • crisis. It is useless to birk the question.
Nub's week explanation will not, we
JO sorry to say get rid of the unpleasant fact
the liabilities of the hospital are steadily
Increasing, and that its income is, and has been
for some time, decreasing with equal steadiness.
A special appeal must soon be made to the
county, and the question will soon have to be
decided whether the work of the institution shall
be curtailed, which means an increase of distress
and suffering among the sick poor, or whether
the income shell be raised by some means,
especially by the regular subscriptions in which
os have a pert.

The Directors of the L. a B.W. Railway are
an acute body, to judge by the latest announce
-
mint of their intentions. The Parcels Post has
been the cause of much pleasureable anticipa-
taw to the public, but of oonsiderable anxiety
to the railway companies ; but it would take •
financier of preternatural keenness to outdo •
railway company, for we are given to under-
stand that in order to compensate themselves
for the anticipated loss of revenue by the
operations of the Parcels Post, the South.
Western Company have raised their charge of
carriage of fish from London in • proportion of
something like 50 per cent.

A pamphlet has just been issued entitled
the "War. Office Ring." At first we imagined
that the title had reference to the so-called
Ashantee Ring," which is supposed to be
altogether devoted! to the interests of Lord
Wolseley. It deals, however, with quite a
different subject. The writer brings charges of
malversation against various officials whom he
mimes with regard to army contracts and
supplies. There is matter in the pamphlet
for several heavy actions of libel, if Use state.
mute contained in it are untrue. If they are
true, or only partly so, there is urgent need
for reform, though even in this cue the
prrhtgleteer has acted somewhat rashly in
into print.