The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-06-29 00:00:00

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1868.

HONESTE AUDAX.

IN the House of Lords on Tuesday the Matrimo-
nial Calll6s Act Amendment Bill and the Pro-
bates and Letters of Administration Act Amend-
ment Bill were read s third time and passed.
On Thursday the Transfer of Land Bill wise
withdrawn for the session, and the further con-
sideration of the Oaths Bill was postponed in
consequence of the continued illness of Lord
DERBY.

In the Commons, on Monday, Mr. M. Gresow
moved a resolution declaring the opinion of the
House "that the maintenance of the excise on
paper, as a permanent source of revenue, would
be impolitic, cud that such financial arrange-
ments ought to be made as will enable Parlia-
ment to dispense with the tax." Mr. DISRAELI
admitted that the paper duty was atax which,
at the proper time, ought to be repealed, and
expressed his readiness to assent to the first part
of the resolution which declared that it would be
impolitic to m tintsin it as a permanent source of
revenue. After some discussion, Mr. M. GIBSON
accepted this offer, and the motion as amended
was agreed to. On Tuesday Lord Homaw
moved, "That it is contrary to the usage and
derogatory to the dignity of this House that
any of its members should bring forward, pro-
mote, or advocate in this House any prooeeding
or measure in which he may have acted or been
oonoerned for, or in consideration of, any
pecuniary fee or reward." Mr. Sot/vertu
moved as an amendment the previous question.
On a division the amendment was negatived by
151 to 80, and the original resolution was car-
ried by 210 to 27. On Wednesday Lord GORE-
RICH withdrew his Registration of Partnerships
Bill, on the understanding that he will have the
assistance of Government in referring the Bill
to a select committee next year. The Election
Committees Scrutiny Bill was lost on the ques-
tion of the second reading by 125 to 87, and the
second reading of the Piers and Harbours Bill
was carried by 136 to 33. On Thursday, on the
question of going into committee on the London
Corporation Regulation Bill, Mr. Rota moved
as an amendment that the Bill be re-committed,
and that the Corporation be heard by their
counsel, agents, and witnesses, on the allegations
of the petition which they have presented against
it. After some discussion the debate was ad-
journed. The Commissioners for the Exhibition
(1851) Bill, as amended, passed through commit-
tee, and the India Bill (No 3), after a long
speech from Mr. Barout on the proper govern-
ment of India, was read a second time and
ordered to be committed.

Telegraphic despatches in anticipation of
the Calcutta and China mails reached town on
Friday last, with news from Calcutta to the 18th,
and from Hong-Kong to the sth of May. The
garrison at Lucknow, which had been reduced by
the intense heat and sickness to 2,000 men, was
threatened in the absence of General HOPE
GRANT by 25,000 rebels under the &MUM. OR
the receipt of this intelligence Sir COLIN CAIN?-
BELL marched to its relief, leaving a strong force
at Bareilly under General WALPOLE. It was
reportel that a skirmish had already taken place
with the rebels under the Moulvie ; and that
5,001) cavalry and 5,000 infantry lay between the
COMMANDER-IN-CHIRP and Mohundy, from
which they were to be driven on the arrival
of reinforcements. KHAN BAHADOOR and NANA
SAHIB had attacked General JuNEs's position at
Shahjehanpore, but had been repulsed; Capt.
Foirras, side•de-camp was among the killed On
our side. Sir HUGH ROSE MO near Calpee on
the 14th May. The rebels had been joined by
the Nabob of BANDA and the Ranee of JHANBI,
and were in position in his front, but Sir HUGH
intended to attack them on the following day.
The rebels had attacked Colonel Licarroor who
had been left to garrison Jndgespore, and Gene-
ral LUGARD VGIS about to fall back to his mei*
aura. The Rajah of flticpsia in Nagpore had
broken out into open rebellion; and %conspiracy
had been discovered in w wing of the 4th Native
Infantry in the P:oglsik, The sesocute hog
China state that ale—ilia'distrest Prevailed r
Canton, and that the inhabitants were leafing
the city.

THIII abandonment of the sports of the field by
a famous and veteran muter of hounds, and the
dispersion of his stud of hunters and celebrated
tenants of the kennel, have no doubt been
viewed by Dorsetehire fox-hunters as a very
serious matter. It was beginning to be feared
that this county, which has acquired so great a
celebrity for good sport, good sportsmen, and
good fellowship, was in danger of dropping
through altogether as a hunting oounty, and
that no gentlemen would be found with sigh-
cieut heart and spirit to keep hounds, and ens-
tun the noble science of fox-hunting—thus con-
tinuing to afford the most exhilarating and
enjoyable &armament to themselves and their
sporting friends. A certain "feeling," unquestion-
able but not ineradicable, it is hoped, was known
to have had more or lees induenoe with the
'Squire in precipitatiag his retirement from
the hunting field, and the breaking-np and wide
separ.tion of the many "beauties" of his estab-
lishment. We will not allude more partioularly
to that fact than to state that the unalterable
resolution of Mr. F•aque.insow, which caused
so much real regret, was like • two-edged sword,
nutting in two ways. The disappointment natu-
rally felt by the genuine, single-minded lover of
the sport at the 'Squire's determination to
throw up that which had constituted his pride
and pleasure for so =my yeses, become still
more aggravated, and led to rest despondency—
signet to despair—es to the talsus prospects
of hunting in Dorestehire ; tow the 'Squire bad
not only retired, but lift the mane in such •
manner, and under suds eirouamiences, as messed

to shut out the advent of a sueceasor In the per.
son of • nobleman by whom alone, It it no*
appears—with a proper Understanding on all
aides—the county ecnild have been nfficiently
hunted, and the allotting reputation of Dorset
fully sustained.
In this difficulty it was obviously necessary
that something should be done—at all events,
that something should be attempted; accord-
ingly, a number of proprietors of covers met in
this town on Tuesday last with the view to
ascertain whether there was any diapolitichi do
, the part of any gentleman or gentlemen to come
forward and hunt the county, and, if so, to see
in what way they, on their part, could beet
, promote the views of those gentlemen, and sus-
tain and encourage sport. It was understood
that the proprietors present numbered about
two-thirds of the whole, and therefore their pro-
ceedings claim to be viewed as invested with
much influence and a great degree of authority.
A careful report of the meeting will be follnd in
our columns this day, and may be referred to
hereafter, if occasion should require, as a correct
narrative of what passed on this interesting and
important occasion. It will be seen that Mr.
RADOLTIMPR, on the one hand, and the liight
Hon. Lord Powntsw and his son, the Hon.
W. H. B. Poarmsw, member for the county, on
the other hand, offered to keep hounds; that a
partition of the county convenient to, and de-
sired by, each of the two parties respectively,
was attentively considered by the Meeting, with
the view to a decisive and amicable adjust-
ment of territory. Mr. EADOLVM, being more
immediately and better prepared with hounds
and horses than circumstances permitted to Lord
PORTMAN and his son, first sketched out the
oountry which he desired to have leave to hunt;
then Mr. Poarnssr traced the boundary within
which it would be convenient to him to constitute
his territory. The respective selections were
made, upon the whole, with a remarkable absence
of interference or clashing the one with the other;
Mr. PORTMAN furnishing a very valid reason for
desiring certain pieces of country, which it hap-
pened that Mr. RADOLYTIrI wished to include in
his own range—Mr. PosrmAn's reason being,
the apprehension he felt as to the destruction of
foxes in certain quarters. But to the honour of
Mr. PORTMAN, and to his infinite credit as a
gentleman actuated with the best and highest
motives—aitterely desirous of removing differ-
ences, and of showing by conoesaion and good
will, his real desire to see cordiality and right
feeling once more pervading the county—that
honourable gentleman, after a lengthened and
discursive conversation, returned to the only
matter of difference between him and Mr.
RADOLYTTIO, and announced his determination,
amidst the applause of the meeting, to defer to Mr.
RADCLYTFE'S wishes, and to yield up the pieces
of country required by that gentleman—namely,
Meloombe Park, Plush, and Arms well. It will be
clear to everybody that a generous and concilia-
tory spirit like this deserves to be met on all
hands by fair and liberal treatment; that in
quarters where anything like bitterness of party
feeling may be found to lurk, and may threaten
• diminution of sport, more honourable ten-
dencies ought immediately to supervene.
It is scarcely possible to believe that any
serious obstacle will present itself to these gen-
tlemen, backed as they are by the cordial unani-
mity of the important meeting at the King's
Arms, and approved as their propositions must be
by the entire voice of the county. We are per-
suaded that there are very few gentlemen indeed
who would suffer themselves to be actuated by
anything like the rancorous spirit enunciated by
the Dorset Chronicle, whioh has the arrogance to
style itself the organ of the Conservative party,
and the exponent of the views and feelings of
gentlemen. The time has long passed by when
the Chronicle could claim an identity of thought
and action with gentlemen, and an honest sym-
pathy with those who would be guided by
nothing else but frank and noble sentiments—
invariable uprightness and integrity. The fox-
hunters of Dorset will despise the meanness, no
less than the vulgarisms and the inherent stupi-
dity, so glaringly conspicuous ins recent article in
our contemporary on the subject before us. We
ought to pass over the palpable absurdity of
which the first sentence of that precious produc-
tion is composed—which is nothing less than a
ludicrous and direct contradiction in terms—the
parties at the great meeting in question being
said to have met by mutuct/ iotpulse, though not
from kindred motives, yet, to try whether they
could not re-arrange the county sports. Here
was a definite and well-understood object before
them—the common motive which by common
consent had brought these gentleinen together,
and yet the scribe in the Dorset Chronicle opens
the way for the expression of his foolish malevo-
lence by declaring that these gentlemen had
"evidently not met from kindred motives !" Our
readers throughout the county will judge from
the general tone of the meeting itself how far
this sour writer—the unamiable friend of enmity
and discord—has pertinaciously struggled to mis-
represent the temper and tendency of the meet-
ing. They will see nothing like an overweening
and aggrandizing spirit in Mr. Po RTMAN—nothing
like dogged "pretensions to the lion's share"—
nothing like "unreasonableness"—in any portion
of that gentleman's conduct, and nothing like
" invasion " on the part of any gentleman
present. And few men, in the possession of their
senses, will be disposed to regard the moment
when the best possible means are being taken,
and with evary prospect of success, to pick up
the sport which Mr. Fsanunsttsorr had thrown
from him, as the moment, above all others, when
fox-hunters must necessarily "feel the full extent
"of the calamity which had befallen them !" No:
the sportsmen of Dorset are not so obtuse as is
to be inferred from this; nor are they accustomed
to think so " brainsickly" of things. They will
turn from this exhibition of ignorance and folly,
and gladly confer with more genial spirits, and
applaud the sentiment of Lord RIVIRS, heartily
echoed as it was by Lord DIOBY, Sir EDWARD
Bsirza, and others, that, "truly nothing could

tisa,ilse