The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-03-14 00:00:00

purely ,
immediately
also, "if

constract
c principle
statement

the .
Watts,
Paki.agtpn)

were all in office, ready to give their assistance
to the department. Where were those gentlemen
now? Not one of them was in the service of the
Admiralty." Sir John Elphinston followed
with a bitter attack on the administration of the
department. The debate was renewed on
Thursday, when very practical and telling
speeches were delivered by Sir M. Peto and
Mr. Stansfield.

The National Rifle Apsociation is in a flourish-
ing condition. The winter meeting was held on
Saturday under the presidency of the Duke of
Cambridge, who indulged in the most con-
gratulatory observations. His Royal Highness
said that the funds of the association were
more prosperous, and the number of its
members greater than at any former period.
The branch associations also, he affirmed, had
increased. Under these circumstances, the next
Wimbledon meeting may be looked forward to
with every confidence that it will be even more
successful than its predecessors. At any rate,
we have the authority of the Commander-in-
Chief for anticipating that the amount available
as prize money will be considerably more than
last year.
One of the most serious disasters that can
happen to a trading community like our own is
reported from Birmingham. Messrs. AttwoOd,
Spooner, and Marshall's bank has stopped pay-
ment, and their liabilities are said to amount to
a million sterling. Of this great sum, which
represents the prosperity, and in very many
cases the happiness, of hundreds of people,
£700,000 was on deposit, and £300,000 made
the sum of customers balances. The notes in
circulation are said to exceed £20,000. To
these painfully minute particulars is added a
statement painfully vague—" the assets are un-
determined." The bank was one of the oldest
and most trusted of private banks in the country.
The loss by its failure is none the greater on this
account, but the surprise of its failure will give
greater effect to the blow. So little was the
true position of the bank suspected, that the
Birmingham Joint-stock Bank was on the eve of
amalgamating with it.
The capture of Wilmington is the most im-
portant intelligence from America during the
past week. It was effected by the combined
naval and military expedition under Admiral
Porter and General Schofield, on the morning of
the 22nd of February. As at Savannah and
Charleston, so at Wilmington, the Confederates
moved out of the place before they were sm.
rounded, taking with them their light guns and
everything else that was valuable. The cotton
and resin in the port were set on fire. Neither
side suffered much loss in killed and wounded.
Genera Hoke, who was in command of the
Southern garrison, marched northwards, and was
pursued by General Terry. General Sherman,
on the 19th, was thirty mile* north of Columbia,
and General Beauregard was still retreating
before him. The proposition to arm 200,000
negroes had passed the Confederate House of
Representatives, but had been defeated, or at
lout postponed, in the Senate, by a majority of
one. Another mission, said to be a private one,
had left the Northern States for Richmond. On
the day the mail left, February 25th, gold was
at 1984.
The IlDuc de Moray died in Paris on Friday
morning in his fifty-fourth year. He was Pre-
sident of the Corps Legialatif, and by his death
the Emperor of the French loses one of the
most faithful companions of his career, and
most distinguished instruments of his policy.
Being a kinsman of the present ruler of the
French, he enjoyed peculiar privileges of im-
proving his fortune. If Napoleon always con-
sidered himself raised up by Providence to
direct the destinies' of France, so likewise the ,
Duo de Moray viewed the Empire as a tremen.
dously successful lottery in which his ticket had
miraculously turned up a great prize. He had
been in the Chamber of Deputies before the
Revolution but was famous rather as a specu-
lator in stocks and shares than in politica. I
partner with Napoleon on the memorable night
of December, he found himself in the morning
in command of the Home-office—a minister in
fact and a millionaire in expectancy. His sub-
sequent career showed what were the motives
under which he shared with his friend the
responsibilities of that night. It is particularly
necessary to make hay while the sun shines if
you have stolen the grass, and later events have
shown how well the Duke has availed himself of
the golden opportunity afforded him. His con-
nexion with Mires—the incarceration of the
great Jew, and his liberation when it was feared
that otherwise he would confess too much, are
still vividly remembered. But perhaps the
most curious story of the Duke was told by an
eminent, if eccentric, English baronet. That
gentleman represented him as having attempted
at the Coronation of the Emperor of Russia to
fob off trashy pietures on the Russian nobility
for works of the old masters. He was both
sordid and showy. With the passion for getting
money was united the passion for distinction as
a gratification of vanity. But he was undonbt-
edly clever, and his cleverness was united with
a vast amount of daring. The mode in which
he exercised his talents in the Legislative Cham-
ber of Francs would never have been tolerated
in an assembly of Englishmen. If he could not
meet his opponents m ith argument he would
endeavour to trip them up with sarcasm or
repartee, and if these failed, he used his
authority as President to silence the offensive
speaker. "there was often," says a contem-
porary, "a great deal of cleverness in the way
in which he conducted these contests. But it is
easy to fight when you have got an Emperor for
bottle-holder; and a generous man does not
strike an enemy whose hands are held by a
policeman."
The scandal about the Edmunds' case seems to
increase in interest. The more it is stirred the
more unpleasant becomes its odour. The Times
of Friday spoke plainly of a part of the affair
which had already become the subject of sundry
dark allusions. Our contemporary asserts that
ever since Mr. Edmunds was appointed Clerk of
the Patents In 1833 by Lord Brougham—then
Lord Chancellor—at a salary of £4OO a year,
"three-fourths of that salary, in other words
£3OO a year have been paid over under the
direction of Mr. William Brougham, the brother
of Lord Brougham and late Master in Chancery
,-4.100 to Mr. Willian Brougham himself, and
£2OO to keep down the interest of a mortgage of
£5,000 on the landed property. of Lord Broug-
ham." On this the Pall Mali Gazette remarks
We can only hope that • full investigation will dire
prove the discreditable nature of the transaction, or
di,prove Lord Brougham's complicity; but a full be
vestigatioo, whatever its results, is imperatively mime
mry. Whilst expecting a complete revelation, we can
only comment upon certain features of the case which
Sr. by theraselves sufficiently startling. It is more Una
thirty years since Mr. Edmunds received his appoint-
ment. During the intervening period Mr. Edmunds
has been paying over to other persons three-fourths of
the salary of one of his offices. A. great number of
persons must necessarily, as me would suppose, have
been more or less acquainted with these facts. Mr.
Edmunde has meanwhile been indemnifying him-
self by • series of transactions which must also have
been known to many people, and which were upon the
very verge, if they never trespassed beyond the verge,
of actual criminality. When these circumstances
became known to the official authorities, Mr. Edmund•
is almost allowed to escape in the enjoyment of a goof
service pension from the House of Lords. The bare
statement of these admitted fasts makes one long to
ask certain questions. Why is it that such prsotioee
have never been made public Was it that publio
aloes are managed with such laxity that a man can do
something so mush like embezzlement as to be indis-
tinguishable from it to the coo-legal mind for over
thirty years without being found out Or did the
persons to whom something of the truth was known
think it such a trifling matter that it was not worth
making a disturbance about? Is it a proper and
correct action, in the view of public officials, to give
a man an office on condition that some one else shall
have the pay? If these practices are possible in one
post, are there no other nooks and corners of the official
world where similar operations may be snugly carried
on? Have we got hold of an isolated case of corruption,
or is it merely an indication of more widely-spread
corruption below the surface? When Mr. Dickens
gave us a rather exaggerated picture of what he called
the " Circumlocution" Office, we at any rate con-
gratulated ourselves that circumlocution was the worst
clime that could be laid to the charge of our officials.
It would be a most unpleasant shock to our confidence
to discover that there were worse spirits requiring to
be cast out of them than even the demon of red tape.
We shall look with considerable interest for the light
which is to be thrown upon these and other topics by
the report of the committee of investigation.
The Lord Chancellor sustained a defeat on
Friday night, which, although not in itself very
important, could hardly fail to be mortifying
under existing circumstances. The Attorney
and Solicitors Bill—one of his pet measures of
law reform—was rejected by a majority of two;
the number of peers in favour of the second
reading v.• v 23, those against it 21. The
• v a long but r un-
which
main
bat