The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-02-14 00:00:00

IMPORTANT ARMY CHANGES.

; Great changes are to be made in the •rnay. Tho pur-
chase systern, it is understood, will be completely
aboliabed. Voluntary enlistment will be maintained
but the inducements tolake Mei Q men's shilling will
be materially increased. Tbe supreme direction of
nsilitary affairs will ha entrusted to a board sunder to
th toe Admiralty. It is oat unlikely that his
ft ,yal lli.einess the Commandepin•Chird well resign his
oftize. Neatly all the cavalry renmente are to be
increased ; the strength of about 40 of the infantry
corps, is to be increased to 859 of all ranks and about
25 are to be stagmentld to 600 men. The Royal
' Artillery is to be immediately strengtheued by the addi-
tion of siz batteries to the Florae and 20 new batteries to
the Field Artillery. 3815 mono( all ranks are to he added
to the regi fleet. The five Indian batteries now on
servioe in India have been ordered home. Twenty
, new belt batteries of artillery will be raised.

TAKING THE VEIL IN COLYTON CHURCH.
On Wednesday evening a ceremony took place in Cols-
ton parish church which willsearely find parallel, perhaps,
in all the later doings of rituslistic tomfoolery—namely,
the niitissims of a nun. The ceremony took plasm at
about eight p.m. the" altar" being covered with lighted
candles, and a large crucifix conspicuously displays')
b 3tween them. A" priest" from Exeter —one RJV. Mr.
Pearse—cmiducted the ceremony, and the poor silly girl
admitted was put through an elaborate performance—
first arrayed as a bride, in white, with a long white veil
which had previously, with much ceremony, been pre-
sentad, placed, and "blessed on the altar. She we.
then taken batik to the vestry, whence, her hair being
all cut off, she re-appeared in the hideous black gar-
ments of the" order," members of which, resembling
guys or scarecrows, may be daily seen stalking about
the streets. This is the story as related in the town.
The whole affair was kept very private lie ciurch beiv
locked up during the ceremony. No males were present,
it seems, except the " priest," a certain prominent
Ritu‘listic tradesman of the plaee, and some choir boys.
Mr. Gaul's, the vicar, is said not to have been there,
but, of (loured, he gave the required permission to use
the church.

The Town Council of Rolston has decided by • rota
of 9 to 7 to hivo • sohool board.

The Gertuao army has already lost above one hal:4nd
and.fitsy mndical offleers..
••-• • • •

The ex-queen Isabella intends to fix her residence in
Austria near Viaana.
The food raised at the mansion-house, London for
the relief fund of the distress in France now calmed.'
£34,000.
The Bishop of London has issued a circular, expressing
epprehensions as to security for religions teaching under
the Education Act
The "Army and Navy Gazette "says that the nave
estimates for the year 1871.72 will probably show an
excess of from £400,000 to £5C3,000 over those of last
year.
On Friday night a farmer named Dwyer was shot
near Limerick Junction. A men knocked at his door
and when Dwyer appeared his assailant fired a revolver
in his face.

An action for libel is pending against an American
newspaper, the Rochester Union, for having stated
Iddlle. Uuristine Nilsson is not equal as • singer to
Jenny Lind.
It is stated that IlajerG mural Sir F. Chapman the
Inspecter•Geoeral of Fortifleations,has been instructed
to submitwitbout delay, plans for a complete defence of
the approsalo to London.
At Bow.street polioe-ooart, London, on Saturday, •
*argue named Skeleton was again fined for ref aaing
to have his children vaccinated. His defense was, that
ho believed vaccination to be injurious as well as useless.
A Galway man canoed Patrick Cslligan was taken into
custody on Friday night at Warrington, charged with the
order of Mitchel Glynn, i• the month of January,
ISIA. It said that the Lanoublre polioe have been
on the look•out for him for eighteen months.
. . .

THI staff of the First Somerset Militia, at present
located is Taunton barracks, have received orders to
leave at once, as the Commuder-in-Chief requires it for
• troop of dragoons, who will shortly anive. This will
no doubt involve the building of barracks by the county
for the accommodation of the entire regiment of militia
'fhe will of the late Mr. Brassey, railway untractor,
WU proved last week. His personalty exclusive of vast
landed estatea, amounted to six-and-athalf millions. Of
this gigantic, and during the existence of the Court
probably unparalleled atm, three millions palmed to
his children in equal shares, and the remainder was
settled in trust to their equal benefit.
MISCHIAVOUIS DiMILST.—On Friday night, a donkey.
the property of Mr John Wright, farmer, of Bishop's
Lydeard, near Testator', broke loose Lod got
amongst some lambing ewes belonging to Mr.G.Gibbs,
of Tatham Farm, and before it was diseovered it killed
one ewe arid cummeacad an attack on some others.
Fortunately the shepherd arrived and prevented any
farther damage being done, bat he had some difficulty
in doing so, as the brute, which seems to be of a savage
nature, made an attack on him.
A CHILD ACCIDiIIrALLI SUYVOCATED.—Its. Hobert
Hatfield, the deputy eounty coroner, held an
inquest on Wednesday, at Woodgreen, on the body
of tilistbeth Ann Osman, aged two months, the Want
daughter of J4OlOll Oman, beer retailer. Toe parents
went to b of with the infant at hilt-past II o' cloak on
Saturday night. The child awoke at 1, and again at 5,
but at 7it was found lying dead on its mother arm. Dr.
Make was called in. and made a post mortem clammier
urns, whios proved Ca.“ the child had been suffocated.
I and the jury returned a verdict accordingly.
AlitrrHiCH OUTRAGS 111 lILILAIIIA—Anotbar Grams
terminating in death, is reported from Ireland. The
tune of the occurrence is Kodeabal, • few miles from
Clonatel, where • young 01411 named Edmond St. John,
Iwoe assaulted in a hurling field near to his own home,
on Sunday afternoon, and died at one o'clock the same
I night (foul the effects of the injuries he had sustained.
I The outrage was committed by a man named Magrath,
from °reigns, an adjoining towniand, who bit tit. John
three desperate blows of his barley on the skull, in.
• Mating a fatal fracture. An ill-feeling, it is stated. has
I existed between the (utilise of both young men for
some years past, in consequence of some dispute about
reed oontracta. Magrath fied after the commission of
the offence, but the polies are said to be sloes on his
truth.
hht. C. S. RIAD, M.P., oe Tag ROYAL ILAIMIAOII.
In addressing his constituats upon public &via, Mr.
LI: S. Ramo, M.P., said his opinion was that if a mem-
ber of the Royal family chose to forego dignity, restrie.
Urine, and expenses of royalty, and become a private in-
dividual, then it was a question whether her marriage
portion should not be supplied from the same south' as
that of any other private individual No doubt Posh-
ment would have been disposed to have gives the
Princess Louise the same marriage portion which had
fallen to 04CLI of her royal sisters, had she followed
their examples and married some foreign prince; but he
thought Parliament had a perfect right to discuss the
question now, and unless he heard some irresistible
arguments to the contrary, be should be reluctantly
compelled to vote against any petunia being granted
from the public' exchequer to the Princess Louise.
ILUELIaa AT NIWCASTLL—Tbe Coroner held an
inquest on Wednesday, at Neweastle-on•Tyne, on the
body of a lod.ging-honse-keeper named Elizabeth
aLitthewson, 73 years of age, who waa found murdered
in her bed. She had a honsetheeper named Barbara
Semple, • married woman' but parted from her
husband. The old woman had been bedridden some
weeks, and while so untitled Sample had pawned and
soM most of the things from the house, including a
couple of beds. Matthewson had been beaten about
the head with a coal rake, from the effects of which
she had died. She had been washed and laid out in an
orderly manner in her lied afterwards, and she had been
dead 411 hours at least when the body was band.
Sample when apprehended, admitted that she bad mur-
dered the idd woman, but said that it was her wish
that they iihould both die together. She stated SUS
she, Sample, had taken poison ; and she is now lying
in the infirmary very ill, and is not likely to theosers
having taken phosphorus. The staff that she had taken
was sold as 'phosphor vermin killer," Sad she bad
bought It at a ithyanat's shop at the tut of Weelgate-
bali. jury retiltned a veediel ei wilful =seder
Wiest barbers lisespie.