The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-02-18 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

' The response of t e nahon to the appeal
made on behalf of the sufferers by the Hartley
catastrophe is something of which we have
reason to feel proud. The munificence of
England, when she sees a good cause, is pro-
verbial. It is only twenty-au days since the
fate of the two hundred men and lads en-
tombed in those dreary workings at Hartley
colliery was ascertained, and during this time
subscriptions to the amount of nearly Fifty
Thousand Pounds have been raised, and the
fund still continues to increase. The contri-
butions of London alone are over Eighteen
Thousand. This great Metropolitan subscrip-
tion was begun humbly enough. A working
miu;, in the first instance, sent a shilling to
the Lord Mayor, the price of a dinner which
he had foregone in order that he might give
its cost to the Hartley fund. Nine days
after the receipt of this was acknowledged,
upwards of ten thousand pounds had been
sent to the Mansion House, and the Lord
Mayor deeming that sum to be a fair contri-
bution for the metropolis towards the Twenty
Thousand which it had been announced
woultLbe required, intimated publicly that he
bad gbt all that ism wanted, and the public
need not send any further sum to the funds.
In nearly all other parts of the country there
has been the same generosity displayed. This
is a gratifying fact, but the Hartley subscrip-
tions will only provide for the Hartley suf-
ferers, and it was announced at a meeting in
London on Wednesdaxthat a thousand miners
are killed annually—that for every seventy
thousand tons of coal brought to bank, one
miner loses his life. If this be so—and it was
proved to be correct by the published returns
—then even this year, after ample provision
has beau made for the Hartley sujferers, eight

hundred will be left unprovided for. "Pre-
vention is better than cure,". and it is to be
hoped that the measures which Sir G. Grey
will shortly bring before Parliament will pre-
vent these wholesale calamities which every
now and then startle the public. Still, in the
best-regulated collieries there will necessarily
be some accidents, and it is desirable that now
the Hartley sufferers have been so abundantly
provided for, those who have to give, will con-
tribute to the National Association for the
relief of British miners generally.
"The Revised Code of National Educa-
tion" was brought before Parliament on
Thursday night—in the Upper House by
Lord Granville,.and in the Lower House by
Mr. Lowe. Neither proposed to diminish.
the grant, to restrict the area of its applica-
tion, to exclude a single child from a share of
it, or one teacher from present assistance and
hope of still further reward. What they
did, however, propose, was that where there
was no work done, there shall be no pay;
that where there is no merit, there shall be
no promotion. The whole system as it
existed, was reviewed and proved to be
wantinF in numerous particulars to render it
as efficient as was to be desired. "The vested
interests of the schoolmasters," about which
so much clamour has been raised, was shown
to have no foundation either in principle or
justice. "Where," Lord Granville asked,
"was the hardship in requiring teachers edu-
cated at the expense of the Government to
condescend to the drudgery of teaching their
pupils such rudimentary instruction as read-
mg, writing, and arithmetic ?" The opposi-
tion to the new " Minute " was shown to be
taken from a wrong stand point—that of
looking only to the interests of schoolmasters,
and not to the benefit of the pupils, or the
nation at large. it was quite evident from
the discussion which followed, that the oppo-
sition which, out of doors has been worked
up to such gigantic proportions, will not bear
the calmer atmosphere of Parliament. Lord
Derby's advice was that after the " Minute "
had been laid o the table, the question should
be discussed W hout party spirit, and the
more sensible p of our legislators will, no
doubt, follow hi rdship's advice.
There are few ongst us, we suppose, who
imagine now that e present war is waged
by the North for the purpose of liberating
the slaves. If there are any, however, who
held that opinion, Mr. Cox, an American
senator, will undeceive them. That gentle-
man said, in Congress, that the attacks which
had been made on M'Clellan arose from the
fact that the General would not make the war
one of abolition. Mr. Cox was happy to
announce that no "confiscation or abolition
measures would pass through the present
Congress."