The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-10-31 00:00:00

Dotal enuntg eXtirtss.

11.1ESDAY, ocror.Eß :11, 1671.

NOTES OF TEE WEEK._

The accounts received front Balmoral? continue '
to be unsatisfactory regarding the health of the
Queen. The physicians in attendance say as
little as they Can ; but what they lot fall is not
calculated to encourage the hope of speedy re-
covery.jeiol.l,lobmutaisaelyyerwalitihnolheicohf
It is
isuottrosuibi
Her Majesty
them of an acute or dangerous kind, but all of
them, taken together, tending to render anything
like effort irksome and to make seclusion almost
indispensable. There has been a fresh rumour of
a Regency, but the Morning Post very
emphatically associates it with the November
fog that has come early and thick this season.
The fog has its day and vanishes. So has the
rumour. Her Majesty is now spending a few
days at the Glass&lt heil ; a change of air and
scene having been considered desirable.

"Gladstone at Greenwich" has boon the groat
sensational event of the autumn stumping season,
transcending all other appearances of the kind.
Throe years had elapsed since the Premier had
been elected free of expense for the Parliamen-
tary borough which bears the name of Green-
wich, but which includes also the contiguous
district of Deptford and tho adjacent town of
Woolwich; and during that time the Ministry of
which the right hon. gentleman is the chief had
done mush to injure the interests of his con-
stituents by abolishing the dockyards at Wool-
wich and Deptford, and not a little toannoy some
of them by discontinuing tho ministerial fish
dinner which had become one of the attributes
of Greenwich. The siannied neglect of the
borough during two constitueucy-visiting &carious
had also tended to exasperate the electors.
I altogether, therefore, It was natural for Mr.
Gladstone to be prepared for "mixed feelings "
in the Liberal majority that had returned him
i se enthusiastically to Parliament, and to autici-
I pato that ho would not get off without strong
manifestations of feeling. Dot the general
metropolitan character which was given to the
gathering at Blackheath prevented ouch a local
demonstration as might have been otherwise
expected, and enabled the Preuner's many
admirers among the working clasaca of I onion
to rally to his support. For days it had boon
foreseen that thousands of working men from all
parts of London would flock to Greenwich on
Saturday, and the day being a moderately fine
and mild one for the season, the railway, steam-
boat, and tramway companies, as well as tho
omnibus proprietors, found that the preparations
they had made were none too ample. The
occasion, of course, has been a gals •nil for the
Idaily papers, latterly reduced to commenting
upon the somewhat apocryphal expressions of
Napoleon's sentiments which he is said to have
communicated to a Times " interviewer," or to
wearing threadbare that exploded farce the
' new social movement." With all ordinary man,
all the fuss that was made about his public
appearance might have produced depression ; but
Mr. Gladstone is not a man who would easily
lose rorve and self-confidence; and if he did not
startle his audience with any now revelation, it
may be considered that he was quite equal to the
occasion, ably justifying his Ministry, and an-
ticipating increased success in the region of
" non-political" reformsin the ensuing session.
The Daily Netel says that Mr Gladstone's
speech was simply that of &Member of Parliament
addressina his constituents, and was In no sense
that of the Prime Minister of England issuing a
manifesto to the nation. It contained no
political revelations, lot out no Cabinet secrets,
and said nothing that any memberof the Cabinet
might not equally have said. His reception was
even more a personal triumph than a party
success. By a skilful exordium he silenced even
the agents of organized interruption, and put
himself at once in sympathy with his audience,
and that sympathy never flagged during a speech
of two hours' duration, The Conservative
working man, of whom so muchhail been expected,
almost held his peace ; and in doing so noted
very creditably. Even the discharged dockyard
labourers, whose vote was to give aid and comfort
to Mr. Gladstonq's opponenta, felt tho charm of
his presence or the fascination of his °ram y,and
failed to vote against him. A promiscuous
assemblage of fifteen thouaaud people, gathered
from all parts of the couutr), aud meeting
unrestrained beneath the open sky, like some
great gathering of the clans in the old times,
listened with growing sympathy while the Prime
altobizer gavu au swouui. uf his stewardship, and
voted their perfect confidence in him.
The Telegraph says the address clears the
political air from calumnies and false pretences,
while it once more stamps Mr. Gladstone as the
trusted and accepted leader of the English
nation.
The Standard says Mr G hailstone's Blackheath
speech, though, in our view, leas ob'ectieuable
and certainly load offensive than moat of his
recent harangues, cannot but have been dis ip.
pointing and discouraging to his friends ; and we
incline to think that, whatever may have been
its effect on Saturday evening, the feeling of un-
easiness and dissatisfaction must have been still
greater yesterday, when Liberal politicians had
time to consider it coolly and critically, and to
weigh and prepeud the real meaning of a tone
uuusual, so moderate, and, above all, so apolo-
getic. We thiuk that the more thoughtful
members of the party will infer from it that
their chief is clearly aware that his constituents
are displeased with him,aud that the same strange
fate which has rendered hiss unpopular with
large bodies of men just in proportion as he is
brought into does relatioas with them, and
which has driven him from one constituency to
another in a manner most unusual among English
statesmen of the first rank, impends over him in
this last place of refuge r'so.
No doubt it would be convenient to got at the
truth about the Belgium annexation scheme,
because, if the proposal was Prince Bismarck's,
it may turn up again. It would f )0111 that M.
Boneletti's statement was not ingenuous, that it
loft room for a direct answer, and if the Ger-
man official reply is not absolutely conclusive,
as is generally believed, it refutes a good deal
that the French Minister advanced, and affords
ground for the strong suspicion that M.
Benedetti took the initiative in the international

burglary they discussed.
The interview of the Tim, correspondent
with the Emperor Napoleon has flout the lereuoh
press into a lit of hilarity. The Gaufei, says it is
evident that the laurels of tho B,ith :lives dis-
turbed tho slumbers of the Tilws. A simple
couutry cabbage-leaf had outdone the great
gardener of the city So away ran one of the
editorial stall to Chiselburst. The Debars
ridicules the idea of Euglani believiug in such
twaddle as the Emperor is reported to have
uttered. " His Majesty expressed his cautompt
for plots, caaspiracios,awl iutriguos.- Then how
about Strasburg, Boulogne, aul tue 2nd of
December 1 Hit hlajesty considers that his
right to the throne retualut tilted, so long as the
nation is not regularly consulted.' Then how
about the vote of the Bordeaux Assembly pro-
nouncing unanimously the deicianiice of the Im-
perial dynasty / if the Emperor Napoleon did
make use of such language as the Times put in
his mouth, the Debt s very wisely remarks that
" his Majesty's words will not have the same
magic as his silence."
The Megrera story is not loss thrilling though
it has a romantic iustead of tragical conclusion.
Captain Tarupp's despatch leaves not a question
that the hlegiera went to sea with crusted iron
plates, which, when by good fortune she reached
St. Paul's Island, were worn so thin that they
could be broken away at places with the linger,
and showed suspiciously rusty spots in others.
Up to the last the vessel "behaved herself
beautifully," but it was only by dint of every
exertion the water from a desperate leak was
kept under. The anchoring of the ship, her
constant dangerof running ashore,the subsequent
beaching of the vessel, and the lauding of men
and stores upon this extinct volcano in the Pacific,
midway between Cape; Town and Western
Australia, form a truly romantic history.
Fortunately the rain had left a pool of water,
and, the ship's stores wore saved in pretty good
condition, so that with fair prospects of attrecting
the notice of some passing vessel the throe
hundred aud forty men of 11. M. S. blegiura
encamped in good order under the sails of their
vessel to watch for deliverance. It was /10t,
however, until July 16, nearly a month after the
Mowers had been beached, that the flag of distress
was seen by a Dutch ship, tho Aurora, which
carried the news to Batavia. Captain Thrupp's
narrative has convinced every one that he did all
that he could to make a safe voyage in an unsafe
ship, but there is just a question raised whether
it
This w
was
responsibility al
iuubt
ol doubtless
the necessary
to beach the vesseLimi
be
Admiralty good
time.
y yulee tto be
be
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to be ow& public; examples of.