The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-02-14 00:00:00

Punt emit' Expreso.

DORCHSIMIR, FEBRUARY 101, Mt

AT the half-yearly meeting of the London and
flonth-Weetern Railway Company on Thursday, a
dividend at tbs rate of 7 per ornt. per &WIWI was
declared, and a balance of £7,0114 mirrW forward.
MILITART.—The Dorestahme kinamsat—Captaila J.
IL Pliny, from the Emit Lancashirs itegimeat, to be
=Ptvice C. S. Comberland, who exchanges;
. G. E. Edwards has hoes appointed a pro-
batioaer for the Indian Staff Corp..
Twit volunteers are to be incorporated with the
several resimental districts, so as to turns fifth and
eltth battalioas, as the case may be, to Um regiments
In thou respective " territories n and they will appear
with than in the Army Lug. Mid will rie,
v
Mt to Use ooatemplarsal arrangements, and add
greatly to Um esprit dc corps ol Use volunteer regiments.
—The Wodat. _

acittsraa Lidnenut 80currv.—On Friday, the
17th inst., Mr. 8. Brandrant will recite Shakespeare'.
play "A Midsummer Night'. Dream" at the Town
Iola& Between the sots Mama,lreohn's music and the
iacidental vocal music will be performed by Mr.
Britoil Smith and Ms. Stone, kindly sedated by ladies
and gentlemen of Dorchester.
TIX,LAIWIII 111 Ten ALIII.—Th. question " Ii
Good Templed= opposed to the gnomes
tion.?' having been submitted for the decision of the
Duke of Cambridge, H.R. if. says that the promotion
of temperance is not likely to be an infringeaseut of
Her Majesty'a Order. and Regulatioos for the army.
So we may say—" Military lio..sd Templar's tau
coserage ead go forward.'
DuRCHICBTIII MIAS'S° &CUM.—A very interest-
ing deostetatit place at the Abington Hall on Tusaday,
following • motion by Mr. F. B. Ifiaher, "That
I/ivies:don be hJpbirL Th. mover explained away
a possible misundeistanding that might have existed
In the minds of some that he was in favour of un-
limited vivisection, but rather that it be carried on
only in those came and only by those .killed pore=
sanctioned by • Medical Board. This explanation
wee doubtless' this means of gaining many votes. The
Elev. T. Neese impost and ultimately Mr. Feint's
motion wee carried by 27 to 12. On fuseday next the
Rev. I'. thieve will propose • resolution 'That the
habit of smoking la to be reprobated," when • lively
discussion ii expected. Aa no one has yet given in his
name to lesti the oppositim, the cmimittes will be
glad to nerseive an intimation of such desire by any
member taking • view of the subject different to that
of the mover.

—VOCAL iIiIIOCILTIOII.-1110 annual meeting of this
sanoelation was held on Monday evening at the Hwy
Trinity schrookoorn. Bakers the bedews pert of the
a=liaoommenoni, • performance of " The May
a's '
took pleas. During the interval refreshments
were partakes of, by the liberality of Mr. Herbert
Hodges. Mr. F. J. Idolised took the chair. Tim
Host Secretary made his annual report as to the state
of the society, and read the fioancial statement, which
showed • habitual of over £4 in hand. On the motion
of Mr. W. Chick, unaided by Mr. Seward, the
mieottnts were reaeived d adopted. Mr. W. E.
I=, M.P., was re-elected president and Mr. an
Devia vice-president for the ensuing year.
Mears. E- Pope, Nerd Jillard, and F. A Fisher were
elected on the committee of management, and
W. Chick &al W. H. Brown as singing members, the
two latter being appointed on the motion of Mr. E.
J. Demon, main& 1 by Mr. W. J. Darden. Mr.
Boron Smith warn re-elened conductor and Mr. H.
W. dodges hon, secretary and treasurer. It was
waggsat:d by the conductor that the first part of the
pregransme at the nest concert should consist of
sacred music, and that it should comprise selections
item " Samson." The first practice will take place
on Monday week, previous to which those who wish
to iota must wad in their mimes to the hon. entretery
and num 50 have joined by that date no pest-tics will
be held. Thanks were passed to Mr. B. Smith, Mr.
H. W. Hodges, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. J. Robinson for
their past services, and the chairman was also thanked
for his able conduct in the chair. In replying to this
vote Mr. Holland anted in pleasing terms, wishing
him long life and happinees.
Wisteria Home MI alore.--The annual meeting
in behalf of these misoions was 1141 in the Weeleyaa
Schoolroom, on Tburod ey evening. Mr. G. Crocker
presided, and after a few remarks as to the want of
Inca aidesioas as thew in England, he called op in the
Rev. J. Hartle to read the report. —The Rev. J. Hartle
then reed the report, which showed that in the
Dorchester district the receipts had been—Yearly
collection, £7 10e. ; con :raged on collection, ES Lis 61.;
public meeting, El Os. Pd.'
, juvenile association,
Eli Bd. ; Kingston (earl by Mrs. Little), El is. ;
iota, £3O 51. 11d. Expenditure—Grant from Parent
S misty, E.ll ; removal, Li 10e. ; circuit travelling,
Lit; total, £39 10s.—The Rev. W. Allen said that be
believed there was no such thing as an idle Christian
Is the world ; be thought they ought to be all up and
doing; they are not ail called upon to be preachers,
they are not all cal ru upon to be leaders, they are not
all called upon to be Sabbath teachers, they are not
all called upon to be tract distributors, nor ere they all
milled upon to be visitors of the sick : but they are ell
called upon to do something. They ought alit, be home
miseioaaries, for he believed in house to house visitation.
--The Rev. J. Rhodes,deputati en from Plymouth,who
was suffering from the effects of a very bad cold, said
he had been trying to get ri 1 of his cola by speaking
about the BUMS 'Missions every evening that week,
but they did not always succeed. for instead of getting
better it got worse, and he hal been obliged to send
off telegrams to pieces where be was going to speak,
Won:slag them that be wee unable to proceed farther
than Dorchester. which was c onsequently the last place
at which he should speak. He was pleased to see so
many young people present. They had got at the pre-
sent time over 1.000 chapels and schools for carrying
on the work of the Lor I; but although • greet deal I.
being dons, a great deal remains to be done. There
were more uncoevertsci people in England at the
present time than there were in John Wesley's
time, on account of the great increase of the
population, especially in the great centres. In
London the population I. increasing at the rate
of 50.000 per year. The churches in London were
doing nothing to meet this increase; ninety-eight out of
every hundred working men In London never go into
any place of worship. He wanted them to en the
necessity of doing more work, of carrying the gospel
Into homes where it has not been carried before.
There we/ no man or woman in this land SO low or so
dowelled but wb rcaubesaved. He impre teed upon them
to be upon their guard stalest looking upon men and
women around them as &Minsk—Upon the conclusion
of this very interesting • Vireo cordial votes of thanks
were accords i to the Rev. J. Rhodes and to the
chairman, Mr. G. Crocker. The singing of the
Doxology then brought the meeting to • close.
Tin 01.10111 Tiartic, with reference to which Mr.
Horton lectured at the Town Hall, and whose convinc-
ing arguments created such an impression, has jest
been dealt with in London by Mr. W. H. Brereton
from a different point of view, and an unprejudiced
person must certainly find groat difficulty to dead.
under which banner to enrol himself. Mr. Brerston
knows the reality of opium smoking, having bad daily
experience of Roe practice in his vocation as solicitor
to the most eminent opium firms in Hong Kong. His
opinion that opium smoking, as carried on by the
was perfectly innocuous. On one side it had
been saki that we were forcing opium upon the p °pie
of Chins fr the purpo ie of adding seven millions to
the revenue of the British G orornment, and also that
British merchants might make "princely fortunes."
It was elm said that opium was distractive, not ouly
to the body, but to the soul, meaning. of entree, that
It prevents i smokers from accepting the CrisoeL That
wee, however, a missionary complaint. He denied
that the tile of ,ipinm was dent wanner or was ruining
and sapping the manhood of the whole nation, • pro-
position which involve I • charge of the greatest wicked-
ness on the parlor Eng'aori. Opium smoking in China,
113 far from being of c =paretic* sec not growth,
most have beeso a habit of the Clines. for the last
thousand you.e. While in !long Kong, the port which
received all the opium exports i from India, he had
often tried to find one of those pitiable victims of
opium smoking which has been no often spoken of on
public platforms and in books. It. bad gone throulh
the most populous parts of the city and juts all the
opium shops, but had never been successful in finding
one. On the other hand, he had known men of WI
degrees and of all Kea who had been opium smokers
from their youth, and found them to be healthy, keen.
witted mea. Anyone hearing the stories of the dread.
fill effects of opium on the Chinese, and our dreadful
coeduct in forcing it upon them, would think that the
Chinese were a simple unsophisticated people, re-
medy rescued from barbarism by missionaries. They
were, however, on the contrary, the most astute nation
under the sun, and ter c-raning, craft, and subtlety
they might be safely bac/cede:retest Europeans. They
were, after their kind, • highly civilised nation, and
be did not consider it likely that such a people would
allow this opium traffic to be forceS upon thin, by
=
sad if they did not want it. IWe will allow our
to judge for themselves whether Mr. Brenton
I. an Interested party or not.]