The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-09-12 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

I. The manner of Her 11injesty's reentry
into her Kingdom has put to the test her
disposition to be dictated to on the question
of her personal privacy and retirement.
According to the newspaper accounts of the
royal landing from the continent on Friday,
even official reserve had so far given way to
popular clamour that tickets were issued for
a public reception at Woolwich. On "taking
Her Majesty's pleasure" however, on the
subject, the tickets had to be recalled, and the
public, and even the dockyard labourettwhti
had promised thentseltes a holiday, but were
instead strictly donfined to their workshops
weft so far doomed to disappointment. Even
our London Correspondent is found com-
plaining that the Queen should merely make
London a station en route to Windsor,
although he admits that there is nobody "in
town" save Lord Palmerston. The Daily
News has now also joined in the hue and
cry on this point. At this am are sotify,
because we really think the example of the
Stdr, *lllB.l We cited in our la.bt, might have
sufAced to prove that Liberalism can be per-
fectly loyal, and that it is no part of the
creed of Liberal politics "to speak evil of
dignities." The Queen if she did hurry on
from Woolwich through the metropolis;
would appear to have shown hetrielt h•eely to
large assemblages on reaching Windsor.
But even there her resent sojourn is tem-
porary, as the Court left again on Monday
for Balmoral.

11. Mr. Roebuck, M.P., is well appreciated
down in Dorset, for when he comes to Swan-
age, he does not scruple to give us a bit of
his mind in that free out-spoken style which
is his characteristic. He is just as open and
candid, face to face with his constituents at
Sheffield, where the consequences haVe 0,07
chance of proving rather more serious. The
cutlet s 1 feast came off on Thursday, and Mr.
Roebuck took occasion, as he said, to enliven
the fare with "a salad" of his own comming-
ling—omitting none of the ingredients, the
tart vinegar, the pungent pepper, the smooth
oil, or the wholesome salt 1 we eite What he
said tibeut &rani, as he seen,s to be the
Only man who retains the courage to mention
it :

"We have beep teld that ihare has &eh no great prin.
triple at stake in thh: peel eleetion. Now, that I believe
1 to be • cnut mistake, and, if the company will allow
' me, I will state why I think it is • great mistake in the
onward course of events in England. The spirit of Re-
form has been at one time in the ascendancy, and the
spirit of reaction in another. From the death of
E isabeth to the death of Cromwell the spirit of Reform
went on and played precious prpAs (laughtki); slid tgn
came a violent reaction, and that Passed thrduili the
reign af Charles IL and James it. and then came the
spirit of onward movement from William to the that and
aeoond George, but when the third George came, again
came a reaction; that reaction lasted until the end of
the war with Napoleon, and then came the onward pro-
grecr, and that onward progress has made way until the
present time. (Applause.) Now, Sir, we are told with
so much confidence that I almost believe the
ismilewtrewhoeirtldottilisitiptteititehne, p of
land they w"ert
altbgether out of torte with the onward party; and that
they wished to get again to reactionary movement The
question that was fought at the last election was
whether that statement was true or false, and the foot
has been that the people of England are so wedded to
improvement, so desirous of improving and going oni
wards, that they have returned a Maiprity th the Ettliti
of Cpmmttrist *ha Ara borthd to be Liberal. (Cheers.)
Well nhw, Sit, I believe, if you will mark what has
taken place, you can't conclude that the people of
England have been unwise in that particular. In 1829
we got rid of ecclesiastical Metsurba of Opphiiticitl,,to
Reform. In 1830 and 832 we altered the political Rp-
form of the copntry, 1t *at a great tettolution to guide
Its, Mid. erben I ipeek of the word ' reVolntion' I wish
to lay • word about the people of England. They don't
ask for theoretic perfectioa, but what tbey ask is
political advancerdent, they don't hatter dotto till the
old thinglitut thern, slot, to make • oledi held, erect
it, perfect ple, tile hisis; nB, they take what
their sillies ors have given them. They fashion and
Improve it. they make what has now been made a
House and I believe a Government that has never been
equalled sinoe the world began, for the happiness and
welfare of the people under them. (Cheers.) YOu may
call ft theoretic. You may call it aionerillie, I ant
glad it 11:n0nm-chill In thy ylirtth, WAS what is
a. called pdhlhian, but I am glad to feel that the
petal& of ngland ire governed in a way that ought to
make the world at large envy them. (Cheers.) Them
are statements, I have no doubt, that will sound iq the
ear of my Lord Fitswilliam .wild and wonderfully
politioaL That Welsh rah bit I believe eVery doe high
would d4est., and ado doing sit Odd go Mae fiilly
persuaded that the beitintry in which he lives ought to
Wet end Is the envy of the whole world. We have free-
dom of speech and thought; we have security for person
and property to an extent that the rest of the world
does not know, and when foreigners ootne among us the
wonder to them it how this vast multititde Of human
beMgs can live he IttietlY and so happily. (Cheers.)"
No* We might call this anything—we might
call it Liberal, or we might call it Conserv&
tive ; and at least it is but the hybrid artiele
known as Libetal Cdtliletviitive. That is to
say, in M. Roebuck it passes for Liberalistri
*hereas in ally petsen or paper suspected of
an opposite leaning, it *ould inevitably be
Set doWn Spacious and round‘abotit Mode
of driVing at Ban Russell's "rest and be
thankftil.° For, observe, that although the
true principle at stake in the pest election is
acknowledged; although the obligation im-
posed on the House of Commons to be
liberal, by the return of a liberal majority is
admitted; the Republicanism of his youth
must have fallen with Mr. Roebuck into the
sere and yellow leaf of Cohaervatism of Borne
sort, ere we could find him uttering in the
name of the people of England the eataty and
cautious policy of veneration for things
simply because they are old and given to
them by their ancestors. The favourite dis-
ciple ot old Jeremy Bentham who revelled in
the Utopianism of conferring the greatest
possible nappiness on the greatest possible
munber, has reached the very climax of his
wishes. He sees no room for improvement.
He believes in the political millennium of a
house and a government never equalled since
the world began; in a country which is the
envy of the living world; in a security for
person and property which the rest of the
world does not know; and, in a vast
multitude of human beings, become a wonder
of happiness and quiet. We cannot advance
beyond this. The task of the Liberal
Majority will be an easy one; for if Mr.
Roebuck be nearly right, it will not
materially differ from that professed by
"Her Majesty's Opposition."
111. The annual assemblage of the British
Association has called forth from Lord Stan-
v, as president of one of the sections, a
at left.handed compliment to the
of statistics. This is at best but an
.'".l of ascertaining troth.

MR