The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1885-12-29 00:00:00

uountailliS, DSCIMIKKIIIIrm, lopo.

Sot's.

II wee felt that no time would be lust by the
isrpskers id the Liberal party Is funning Immo leeell•
Is whisk ladles might take part. In opposition to the
l'rintruee Limp" whose knights, and tame lar.
lissomly whole dame, have perfoetned such irn.
limiest melee hi the Conservative MUM during the
late election& There are, In fad, SW., 11%004 In
proem of forinatiim, the one representing the
niudsnite Liberal, and the other the Itedleal section
nl the Party. The Program League is Intended for
Liberal Churchmen and Churchwomen, It supporta
Liberalism generally, but repudiates Disesteblish.
men,. The Daisy League, which emulates the
notesselature of Its Oweeerneire rival, as well as its
methods of working, goes, as the Yankees any., "the
entire animal," and adopts Liberationist principles,
am well m the other artialee of an advanced
Radicalism. It will thus be seep that upon nee
question, and that one which is likely ere long to
become a very prominent one, the :two ',emboye
buiames are in direct variance, and it ie possible that
the ladies' battle—such to large extent it will he —of
the mat elections will, like the lames; duel on
" Midehipman Easy," be triangular. Itut,
now that women have learnt their power, we 111 .V
expect not two but two dozen new league.. The
extension of the franchise to women will no longer 1...
required in order to give to the female Br, its due
influence in political life. Why should women de.ire
to Tote themselves when they can p.o.mfolly
employ their faminotiont to waking town itt S. thy
with?

Is London Christmas. Day wee accompanied by • I
cold big; nor can the weather be regarded am
uneessoosible, for in point of fact the festival ham
bees of recent years, at any rate, much more nom
moldy emaciated with fog than frost. Even when the
provinces have rejoiced under bright Christina, skies
the metropolis ham been enwrapped i.. denae darkswe
—se, lee example, in In% the moist beautiful Chrint•
mu Day id all that bye in our memory ; but we were
fortunate enough that year to be in the country. We
remember the doleful account, if our friend,, in two
of adeenturolna journey.. amidat COI aaaaa gloom* of
presents gone irretrievably antray, of dinie-r. kept
waiting for pled.. who did not turn op the
could not, of a whole comedy if err.ro ari•ing fem.
the inability .4 cabmen to read the -troets
and the number. of doers. It wan not quit.. so bad
as that thin year, but it was bad enough. Awl now
Obrietmas-tide in ebbing. New Year'n-tide iO, a.
emilena say, "on the Row," and we turn from the
festival of a Creed to the ledival ,4 humanity. The
distinction ha. not always exulted. For more than
the first three centuries of the Christian era • con-
siderable party of the Chrintian world celebrated the
Nativity on the lot of January. It might have been
imagined that the firxt day a the yaw MIA PAI•CIKI
to commemorate the birth of Chriat, an the f.r.t day
of the week was nelected to celebrate Ili. resurrection
but at that period the year MIA generally undendesl
to begin with March. Sonia churches, however, kcl4
Chrietnia. Day on the fith of March. and ..ther, again
on the Seth of March. There in ni nore to
suppose that the 25th day of December in ti,' true
date of Chriiit'e birth than any of the other dape
which have been en asset red. Scholar. agree in think-
ing that the actual event .4 Bethlehem occiirrel in
the month of October, and it not need much
echolarship P. conclude that in a climate in which the
winter in cold, and the night.. particularly no, the
shepherds would not be likely to have .tayed out all
night with their Rock.; and in thin connection we inay
be pardoned for observing that if the Nativity
had in fact happened in Itecember, dimild have
bees apared mm of the niont intolerable iniimuces
of modern times, for the Om. ./"Ther.i. wh"
form such picturenque figures in the tepid narrative
would never then have (,wined the preoedent which
is followed by the exorable seal of modern wait.. Ile
that am it may, Pope Julien about the 4th century
established the 25th December by an irrevociald.•
deoree ea the day t observed by all Christian, am
the annivereary of the Incarnation. The day has since
been so observed. Though it i. .all not trite that
be MAN identical period id 21 limits is kept nacred
on this.core throughout Christendom, for the chu rams
which maintain the unreformed calendar have their
11:ith December twelve days later than ours. Thu.
even the fiat of Julio.. was not aufficieut to secure
uniformity for all time. It I. • curious cirminintsuce
that uniformity in the obnervance of Sunday itaelf
was not attained much before the Pontificate ,4
Julius. Some Chriatien churches obeervel the find
day of the week as • Sabbath, others Saturday, and
others, bi be on the Nab, side, obnerved both,
resembling nom/ English Jews who du no work on
Saturday out of respect for their own religion, and
none ins Sunday out of respect for that of their
neighbours.

In olden timee the coining-in of the Now Year WASI
regarded as an occasMn of almost equal importance
with Christmas itself. The two fectiisli, indeed,
seem to have been confounded in remote antiquity.
According to .me derivation of Yule-tide it immix
the " OF turning-point a the year, and
thus the name now applied to Clirotnea.. iii..ry appro.
mime'y belongs to the tenet of Janos .r .pening
ot the New Year. Nor were the two fesst* notch
differently obsswved by our jolly forefather..
Prynne in hi* Histrio-mantrix uniten them
in common condemnation. "If we compare,'
mays he, "our Bacchanalian Christina...es and
New Year's tides with thew Saturnalias and
Yeasts of Janus, we shall find such near affinity.
between them both in regard .4 tone (they being
both in the end of December soil the
fin, ofJastfun), and in their manner .4 solemniza-
tion (both of them being spent in revelling, epicure.
animas°, wantonerse, iddlenesse, dancine, drinking.
Mae places, mosque., and amen pomp and jollity)
that we must seeder oottchtie the one to be but win
eery Witte ol the other."

Om of the meet interesting and promising reports
issued at the close of the year is that of the Metro.
politaa Public Gardena Ara miataws, with whieh the
name of bard Brabason is is intimately and honour.
ably amostialed. The emaciation has only existed
three years. Is the Arst year of its existence it was
instrumental in dealing with nine open paces only
I. the mat year, VI; and iii the third, 46. It. income
has rapidly risen, its inanence amongst public
bodice is hamming, it has already iline inceloib
able good; indeed, if it melted at once to exist
the poor, and particularly poor children, would
have endless came to bleat it. memory, but
In the haters it is destined t.i become a still
greeter and inure beneficent power in the metropolis.
At the present time it has thirty or forty scheme.
under consideration. There are still many disused
burial plaere which may he turned int.i wreath,s
grounds, and many iinmed squares which might just
mi well be open to the public. But the two principal
undertakings upon which the Association is bent, are
the purchase .4 Oliesokl Park by the New River at
t4t..10 Newington, and if Itarenmourt Park at II am
ntersniith, for the public. Pinta theee beautiful
esteem are in imminent danger of being tilt is!, (or
buikling purposes to the ruin of the neighbourhasl if
which they ennetitute the chief ornament. What •
dieerent place woad Load's be now, if an manila.
'kis of the sante character lied Issn in existence es• n
afty pare ago I