The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-09-17 00:00:00

Snot &until &gm

Tummy. SIPTiMBIIII a. 1817.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

If the statimaset of the Paris 7'estps he true, that
Napolsoa is shardy to meet King William and the
rest of the eoverstgas of the North German Cos-
federation at Berke, we most ezooot to have • new
hatch of rumours, gnomes, and specolatioes se to its
oonseqn•nosa It is not difficult to imagine what
the.. rumours, or some of them, will be like. Tb•
U aviation of Belgium, and perhaps of Seilsetland,
to Frame, will doubtless be one theme of the news-
manufacturers •' and another, of comes will be a
pascal. disarsesmant. And, indeed, the latter is
more likely to be produced by • conference of
crowned head. at Bertha than by a °Degrees of
ultra-dentoorats at Genera, for the peace oongress at
that city was • decided failure, and came to mach •
break up that there was • difficulty is saving frog.
meats enough of it for • closing banEtpfsor
apprentices' asks, The "United States of
•
therefore, still remains the dream of a few visionary
and unpractical sothasiesta The world will have
to be rinlighteued • good deal before @oche project
be:gimes printable; and when it does become possible,
it will so longer be necessary. litanwhile, however,
the world seems certainly to be improving and that
in some of its dark corners. Who would bare
thought • fear years ago that Sptin. Mellon, and
Turkey would in the year ISt/ be simultaneously
proclaiming arnoestisa to political offender.? and
though some people may oall this the mire mutt of
weaklier* in the three Governments, it is at least
satislaratory that woold-be tyrannies are too weak to
work their wicked wills.

The Abreeinian expedition is the question of the
hour, of tha day. and of the week, sodas likely to
remain the stook topic of the dull sesson, now that
"Fran.. is satisfied," led "Europe is at peace."
We are told that" in the multitude of oouncilLirs
there is wisdom ;" and if this can be applicable in
tb• present ewe, the Uoverament ought to be
ezcordingly wise in Abyssinian flatten by this time.
It was assumed at Bret Mitt Abyssinia was• country
whose obaracteristice were known may to a few
African traeellers, and that the Government would
be guided ID their preparations as regarded moue
of trhhoPhiti Ic.. by the advice of those few
individuals. But it semis we have made a mistake
altogether, Abyssinia& travellers (on paper) are
cropping up in our journals by dozens, and if wear.
rebellion' every "on. who has been in the country,"
the peculiarities of that land are as well known as
those of Spain or Turkey. The worst of it is,
throAlli, that it is imposeible to believe all of thee
soidiena tamed ye, or to strike • balance between
them, seeing that they flatly omitradiot each other
°a almost every point. 80, as flub GO SISMONDI{
would Sod it clialt to &introit wisdom from the
contradictory advice of it. multitude of ociormillors,
it must content deaf with following the counsel of
• few private advisers. It aortas evident, however,
that there is • great rcity of wider, aid that the
climate is like • "sufficatiog Pandemonium." As
the Times bitterly remarks, "We do our best to
keep at peace with great Powers, and to live
within our MIMS, oily that • heedful of savages
may run away with the traits of our economy."
The expiators of this war, should it go on, are
estimated at not less than seem millirem
sterling, of which some two millions have already
been disbursed in preparations, such as the hire of
large transport 'tauten at Liverpool. The Liver-
p•ed ships cannot Teeth Bombay till Dotember, and
then they have to take the Indian fuse. us hoard and
sail for Maasowah, • pleas which is described Lb
Iceland itself, compared with Aden, itself the
tinier of men who have beanoi acelimatisei to the
beat of the tropics. After March, malignant fevers
brood over the plains of Abyssinia The perils of the
eepsdition, the expense is this country unshared by
other nations who also have captives there, and the
probability that when Theodore blare the stomore
have sailed from our shores EIS Will soo.umb
Through fright and release the captives, have cam-
tamed to damp the enthusiaam with which the
o untry regarded the expedition at the outset, but
let us hope it may end
The circumstantial amount of the assassination
of Lopez, the alleged betrayer of the Emperor
which was published a short time ago,
and gave immense satisfaction to the lovers of
' ' poetical justice," turns out to bays been a canard,
Of he is yet alive, but oonfloed in • Illei ioan prison
as an Imperial partisan. fie also energetically
denies that he betrayed his master, although for
this Judealike offences he has already bees
degraded from the Freed% Legion of Honour. Let
ne bops that Lopes will be able to clear his
character, and that history may thus have to record
one natant» less of human bosons. But this
matter is chiefly remarkable as illustrating the
very doubtful character of much of the news which
we reedy* now-odave from distant cometriet,
Leik as the report of the release of the Abiewman
captive., for instanoe—a piece of fates intelligence
which it now appears was in soma onacicounteble
manner published by the Levant Herald of the
3 d met, and contradicted by the same paper on
the sh. Really it is becoming unsafe to trust
telajraphic or other intellimiLfrom • dioramas
until is has been corn, by anbitquent
reports.

The case of Auguste Mitchell is sistiting con-
siderable sympathy, and it (teems to be generally
considered that, if guilty n a technical legal offence,
ohs was not morally guilty of the crime imputed to
her, Tbe poor girl wee unfortunite in her judge :
for Mr. Payne, having been unmercifully "chaffed"
for his sympathy with the " pretty ballet-girl,"
some months ago, was no doubt fearlhl this time of
sir hibiting commiseration for • female prisoner who
seems to have deserved it more than the object ol
his former leniency. Some memorials in the prieorier's
behalf have already been forwanied to the Home
Ofil..ro, and • nnotbers a others are in coarse of
signature ; and no doubt their prayer for • re-
-111111•100 of the sentence will be granted unless
the department manages to does it did in a peach-
mg care some little time since, and keeps the matter
"under ooneiderstion" until after the prieorter's
term of confinement has expired. A singular
' statement is made concerning the fiuding
of the girl guilty. A larynxes writes to the
Standard to say, "that ten of the jxry were in
lavour of an acquittal, that two only were in favour
of finding her guilty; that the latter coerced the
fo. mar by the fear of being looked op, and that
they compromised their coasciencee by reois •
mending the prisoner to mercy." The jurymen is
very indignant over this "miserable perversion of
justice," but offers na explanation as to bow the
consciences of two were more powerful than the
consciences of ma.