The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-11-14 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Birmingham is just now in a very unhappy
condition. It appears that the recently ap-
pointed Chief of Police, Major Bond, has intro-
duced a now and painfully stringent method of
dealing with drunkards. He is not content
with severe methods in relation to those
inebriates who combine a certain amount of
violence with their tipsiness. Major Bond has
introduced a system of raids on quiet and peace-
ful drunkards whose gentle meandering from
publichouse to domestic residence is generally
supposed to call for no official interference.
There is some consolation in learning that
Major Bond has raised a storm of indignation
by his proceedings. The important question
was discussed at the meeting of the Town
Touncil with a warmth which would not have
disgraced a• question of the greatest imperial
interest. One angry alderman described the
new system as "diabolical," and even the less
indignant councillors added considerable vigour
o their criticism. Mr. Alderman Chamberlain,
Mr., stated his opinion that the Chief Constable
had acted indiscreetly in making these raids
without consulting the Watch Committee.
Moreover, he had fully made up his mind never
to give consent to such a policy as that of Major
Bond. Ile had, ho continued, witnessed
scenes in the streets which were a disgrace and
a scandal to any town. The police were hound
to see that order was maintained, but "to go
further than this and track men home who
happened to have had a glass too much was
going too far, and the advantages that could
result from such a course would be outweighed
by the disadvantages. He could not help
looking upon such a course as repugnant to
English feeling, and he did not think they
would stop drunkenness or lessen it by any such
stringent laws as wore proposed. It is clear

that this state of things cannot continue.
Birmingham will become uninhabitable under
such a reVinie. After so strong an expression
of feeling on the part of the local authorities
there is some probability that Major Bond's
plan will not be persisted in. If, however, in
the face of the opposition it is still put in force,
nothing but revolution seems to remain for the
inhabitants of the Midland metropolis.

From some interesting figures in a statistical
abstract relating to British India which has just
been published it appears that the total popula-
tion of British India at the date of the last
census was 189,613,238, and the area under
British administration 897,004 square miles.
The density of the population to the square
mile was 211. The native states have an area
of 589,315 square miles, with a population of
50,325,457. The French possessions have an
area of 196 square miles, with a population of
I 258,981. The Portuguese possessions are 1,610
square miles in extent, and the population
amounts to 527,517. The total area of India is
1,488,125 square miles, with a population of
240,726,193.

A London correspondent writing of the Lord
Mayor's Show on Thursday says :—" The
weather has fortunately been favourable, though
cold, mid the crowd of spectators has been
much larger than usual. The procession was
unusually lat.() before it reecho"! Westminster,
and the expectant sight-seers were disposed to
think that the elephants might have broken
loose. In fact, there have been the wildest
stork* afloat about these elephants for days
past. Ono alarmist would have it that two of
the iiinuber were "rogue.," and were likely
' therefore to charge upon the crowd; and a
.;:dement was prevalent on every hand that the
head of the City police had drawn up such a
rup.irt upon the subject to the authorities at the
Mansion House that the use of these animals
was practically interdicted. These fears seem to
have been groundless, for the elephants were
used in the procession—a splendid advertise-
ment, by the way, for Mr. Sanger—and they
behaved themselves with the utmost propriety.
As the chief function of a Lord Mayor is to give
good dinners, it will be of interest to all who
are in the habit of enjoying civic hospitalities
to know that the new Lord Mayor has returned
to the custom of his predecessors, and placed
the Mansion House catering in the hands of
Messrs. Bertram and Roberts. Lord Mayer
Cotton adopted a touch cheaper plan. He
male his own purchases and did his own cook-
ing. I don't insinuate that he and the Lady
Mayoress took their baskets iuto Smithfield
hlarket, as is the custom of thrifty housekeepers,
but they took charge (if their own larder, with-
out the assiatome of a contractor. From a
pecuniary point of view the experiment was •
great success; they gave more than the usual
number of dinners, and the coat is said to have
been about 1:2",000 lees than in the previous
year.

In his lecture on the landed gentry, at the
Edinburgh Philosophical Institute, Mr. Fronde
stated with his mond clearness the strongest
argument that can he used in favour of large as
agaitit4 °stated. "Compare," he
said, "an estate owned by one inan with
£lOO,OOO a-year and a similar estate divided
among a 100 owners with £l,OOO a-year each.
On which of these would the working tenants
find themselves best Mil The expenses of the
most splendid household would not reach
£lOO,OOO a-year, or half that sum, or a quarter
of it. The great Mail was on a pedestal. If he
wmi evil spoken of, his pedestal became a
pillory. Therefore he did not press his rights
when he might press them. The customs of the
manor were generously observed; farm build-
ings were kept in good condition ; fences were in
good repair; cottages had roofs which would
keep the rain out; they found churches, they
found schools; they found everything which
public opinion demanded or approved. Turn
to the estate which was divided between the lOU
less conspicuous proprietors—would an equal
mar-ita of income be forthixnning for improve-
ments'lly them every farthing which their
estate would yield was required for their
ordinary expenditure. This is a strongr
argiunent, but is it not pou-blii to carry it a
little farther?

We w ler under what special form .1 disease
horse N.. 106, E Battery, Royal Artillery, is suffering
to need the extraordinary diet prescribed under the
"general orders of His Grace the Governor in
Council," and published in the official Port :X. George
Gazdtx of October 10 :—No. 609 of 1876.—The follow-
ing order by the officer commanding Nagpore force is
confirmed :—No. 166, dated 14th September, 1876.
Directing rilbs. of firewood to be added to the change
of diet ordered for horse N.. 106, of the E Battery,
20th Brigade, Royal Artillery, in Division Order No.
, 154. dated 25th August, 1876." Our curiosity is
I excited as to what the original prescription thiubl have
been to require five poem& of firewood as an addition
to the change of het. Perhaps coals. Or perhaps
the unfortunate trooper has a propensity for biting his
manager, and the authorities have compromised the
matter by supplying him with firewood wherewith to
satisfy his hunger. Nothing is sail as to the means
of ',repo-Mg the firewissl, whether it had to be boiled
or otherwise cooked.

It is stated of (7ardinal Antonelli that he died pos-
sessed of immense wealth; it is belived that he left
about $0,000,000 of francs (t 1,250.000 That great
Protestant leader, John NVealey, said to his followers :
" If I die worth more thau a hundred pounds after all
my honest debts are paid, let any man call me a
rogue." Of a worthy predecessor of the Vardinal's it
is told tLat he WM wont, in sign of his slillX)molion, Li
have a net spread over a table at which he partook a
the most humble apostolical fare. Aft* he attained
the pontificate a bishLui observed to him that the net
no longer appeared on the table. To which the reply
was, l'eace, holy father the fish is caught."

The appointment of the .Marquis of Salisbury
as our plenipotentiary at Constantinople 'luring the
coming Congress is a step which the Cahinet has
taken in the Eastern Questkal that commands general
remect. On this all parties seem agreed, and even the
Tiouta, which, through its Them a.' correspondent,
has made a 'lead-set a.minst Sir Henry Elliot, seems
t, approve of the I:trquis, as not likely to play the
part of the diplomatic dumu iy to the Turk, which,
they say, Sir Henry Elliot has long done. Something
moat bo thme without hes of time to strengthen our
hand at Constantinople. We had once a Groat
Eltcher there; but now Ignatieff Li the Eltcher of
Standsual. It would not .lo to recall Sir Henry
Elliot at present ; so the Ministry have done the next
best thing in inducing the Marquis to go out there.
Dr. Richardeon is best known as the original pro.
jector of that acme of valetudinarian bliss, the City
of Health, Hneia, or Ifygelopolis, as it is variously
named. Thhi Patients' Paradise, by the way, is
no, longer merely nebulous, a town of castles in
the air, but actually inchoate. Its sacre'l
limits have been mapped awl marked out by
laud-surveying augnoc, its foundations dug, and all
provision planned for mundane requirements except
a cemetery, which it is apprehended would pn've
superfluous ; and 3 wondering world ere long may be
permitted to view a region where lotions cool boluses
will be seen no more, and where all will Is, fat and
H'awisLing except the undertaker awl the sexton, who
will mutually supply each other with the only ghost
of a chance of occupation. hr. Richardson is about
to appear In a new character, namely, a lecturer
before the Church Homiletical which meets
from time to time at St honour of
dia=11111:00541fOr Ur.
8°4867
VlCagm•; but Dr.
taparaDr. Richardson— Y reserved
's

rallied is professional. He
"The Inter-relationship of
Functions." On the whole
pinions may pass the hour a
usuaL

is to read a paper on
Clerical and Medical
perhaps the assembled
trifle less drowsily than

The Saturday Review in a notice of Miss Broughton's
new novel 'Joan,' Lximplains a good deal of its °oars:-
nem and indelicacy, and is particulary offended by the
description of a lady whose "arms are absolutely
unclothed, but for the two tiny shoulder-straps which
alone hinder her garment from entirely taking French
leave." We do not stand up for the description or
for Mho Broughton's style, but it is only fair to ask
who first introduced the description of ladies with
shoulder-straps, and only these to hold up their
garments It was the Satesrdak itself that h, vented
or called into existence the lady with the shoulder-
straps. The Saturday made the phrase populax, not to
say famous. once upon a time, when for months a
number If the Reran, hardly ever appeared without
some allusion to this peculiarity in the make-up of the
girl of the period.