The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-10-11 00:00:00

framed was afforded at the petty sessions at

Banbury the other day. The'disiricit surveyor
summoned several people, whose cattle he had
impounded, with the view of recovering the
penalty of £5 4.aat seetion the Act under
which *ugh proceedings are taken was subjected
to the equivocal process of amendment; aid, on
proceeding to give judgment in this case, the
magistrates discovered that the amended Act
renewed the authority to impose the fine for
straying cattle, but gave the surveyor no
authority to impound such cattle! 41. clause
necessary to the utility of the nieasure had been
omitted from it. The incident is worthy of being
noted as affording a practical argument in favour
of Mr. Stuart Mill's notion that purely legisla-
tive business—that is, the business of the con-
struction of the laws of the land—should be taken
out of the hands of great legislative bodies, like
our Houses of Parliament, and entrusted to a
smaller boa selected writhe view to that special
work. paid arty, for their tiedblll, and retained
In °Mei without reference to party politica Till
some such modification in our constitutional
system is effected, we can never hope to enjoy
the benefit of a statute book consistent with it-
self, to say nothing about the great desideratum
-;-the codification of the law.
Some time since • labouring man 'veined a
little child from drowning in the flooded waters
of the Teviot. He left his work to do this
gallant set, and he further lost some time in
changing his clothes. Altogether his master lost
one hour's service, in consideration of which he
dedusted Sid. from the beto's wager tinform-
nately the name of this gracious employer has
not been commnnicated to the norld, so we are
I unable to latish upon it the etiecintioin it deservea
Clsraell bat again eldrea•ed the farmers
of Buckinghamshire. He made no reference to
politics, the staple of his speech being chiefly a
vindication of the views formerly expressed by
him relative to the character of the harvest, It
bad been complained of him, that his previous
declaration that the crops, on „the whole, had
been good ones, had had the effect of lowering
priors by 2s. per quarter. Mr. Disraeli still main-
tained that what he had previously said was
correct, and added that his statement had been
the means of benefitting prices rather than
otherwise, se had he not made it our ports
would have been crowded with cargoes of foreign
grain. and the fail in prices would have been as
large again as it is.
A tragic event has occurred at Old Windsor.
A man named Cook, a hairdresser, Some time
since became a *Molter with five young children,
the youngest under two years of age. Since the
death of the wife, who contributed largely
towards the support of the family so a laundress,
Cook has been in impoverished circum-
stances, which preyed so greatlY on hit mind
that Lis altered behitioiir attracted the notice
of his neighbours. From Friday week till the
following Sunday his house remaining closed,
and none of the family. being seen, a policeman
entered by forcing a windew, *hen ad appalling
sight met his else. Three children, aged
respectively four years, two years and a half,
and eighteen months, were lying dead upon a
bed on the floor. In another room was Cook's
eldest daughter, aged nine years, lying on the
bed suffering from the effects of poison, and in
another room was a child about eight years
old, with its throat mit, but still allie.
Cook himself was alto lying cid a bed with
his throat att, and vomiting from the effects
of poison which he bad taken. Cook died the
same night, the wounded girl has subsequently
died in the Windsor Infirmary, but the eldest
girl still survives and is likely to recover. Such
is a summary of this tragic event. Cook is said
to have been a sober man and an affectionate
husband and father, and his mind gave way
under the trials and difficulties which surrounded
bim. A letter, addressed to the vicar of Old
Windsor, was found under his pillow. In that
letter, Cook stated that his wife visited him
nightly, and told him to come to her and bring
the children with him, and requested that the
viollt would allow them to be buried by her aide.
Other letters were also found—one addressed to
his brother, requesting that he would see to the
funeral of himself and children, and another to
the surgeoa, asking that he would not Out and
hack their bodies about. In one letter hostated
that he had almost lost his senses ; that this
would have never happened if his wife had been
alive, for be loved her dearly; that they loved
the children, and that he had prayed to God to
forgive him all his sins. At an inquest held on
the bodies, the Jury left it an open question as to
the man's state of mind when he performed the
horrid task which has had so tragical a tannin•-
non. There can be no doubt that the unhappy
man brooded over his wife's lose, and the

children's loss in her death until he became
bewildered, and we then learned " by proof, in
some wild hour, how much the wretched dare."
Few more painful documents have ever been
presented to Parliament than Dr. E. Smith's
report "On the food of the poorer labouring
classes in Kngland." The agricultural labourer
in this country, and the poorer orders of artisans
would appear from the report not to have reached
even the minimum point in quantity and quality
of food necessary to sustain them in health and
strength necessary for the due performance of
their daily toils Dr. Smith's inquiry was made
with studied fairness—with, indeed, an apparent
wish to elicit evidence of comfort which excited
some comment at the conference held at Bath
It was spread over many hundred families, care-
fully selected as specimen families, with w
rigorous exclusion of all but those who appeared
to be naturally healthy and strong. Taking •
fixed quantity of carbon and nitrogen-28 000
grains of the former and 1,330 of the latter—as
indispensable to sound health, he found that
silk weavers, needle women, kid glovers, shoe-
makers and stocking weavers had as a rule too
little, the diet it the came of the needle-women
falling short by nearly one-fourth. With regard
to the agricultural labourer the case is still
worse. Taking still as the standard the bare
amount of nourishment held to be sufficient for
a Lancashire operative out of work. Dr. Smith
found that while the total average was good, was
even very high, there was deficient carbon in
many counties to the following extent per cent.
of the labourers.—" Devon, 35 : Somerset, 43;
Dorset, 21; Wilts, 48; Derby, 22; Stafford, 22;
Northampton, 90; Norfolk, 28; Oxford, 27;
Barks, ; Bertg 20; Beds, 33; Rutland, 25;
and orkshirs, 16 percent. ;" while the per
oentage of those who lack nitrogen rises to
dreadful figures :—"Cornwall, 57; Devon, 41 ;
Somerset, 66; Dorset, 26; Wilts, 53; Worcester,
28; Notts, 28; Leicester, ; Cheshire, 60;
Derby. 33; Durham. 60; Stafford, 44; War-
wickshire, 25; Northampton, 40; Norfolk.
57 ; Essex, 43; Sussex, 22; Rants, 66;
Oxford, 72; IBerks, 80; Books, 42; Recta, 88;
Cambridge. 21 ; Beds. 33; Rutland, 62; and
Yorkshire 29 per cent." To take the result out
of the scientific form, more than half the popu-
lation of Rants, Cornwall, Somerset, Cheshire,
Oxford, Barks, Herta, Rutland, Wilts, and
Norfolk have less to eat than they ought to have
to maintain health and vitality. Much-abused
Dorset standsoomparatively higher, in this respect,
than her lister counties. As to the &Mount they
would eat if they could get it, the figures Sear
no proportion whatever. Labourers, for ex-
ample, fed in the houses of the large Yorkshire
farmer, eating three times the weekly average
fixed as the minimum of health, while in Somerset-
shire the supply drops down in individual
oases to a figure at which speedy injury must
ensue. Looking at these figures, tben, let us
ask • it is wonderful that people to fed
should feel little horror of the prison, where
they have been till lately crammed, or that the
story of three meals of meat a day to be had in
America should sound in their ears like a promise
of paradise, or that ediicatiou thould produee
such a distaste for the labours which yield only
such rewards, or that the national action should

, hether

be constantly impeded by a dread of the conse-
quence' of any serious increase in the price of
food?

DORCHSSTER, —Prraf Comf Master, Saturday,
oaober S.,—Whest (of which there was tolerably
uod supply) POW ratoei more freely at Ute rata,
Torre wet • large qoantity of barley on offer, bat the
demand wat slow at Is. to 2‘. per quarter cheaper. No
alteration in the value of oats.

TER W KATEIII. —The reeding of the thermometer et
Dorchester for the past week is as follows :