The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-12-02 00:00:00

OFFENCES.

A MAD RAILWAY RIDS.—The guard on duty at the
Donington station on Saturday night was astonished to
nee a man on horseback trot along the line by the plat-
form. The officer directed him to the highway, and
allowed him to depart without giving his name or
address. On examination of the line it was found that
the horseman had broken open a gate and so got on the
line, that he had traversed it when a goods train passed,
that be had been within a foot of going over a bridge
nearly thirty feet high, and in one place had been down
a steep embankment, where his horse had been strug-
gling violently. This adventurous forsaker of the road
for the raillias been discovered in the person of a farmer,
who will hear more of his trio.
GAROTTING IN THE PROVINCES.—The infamous
system of garotting has, we are sorry to find, found its
way into the country, and it is much to be feared that,
unless the police are very vigilant, many of these atroci-
ties will be committed during the coming winter. It
appears that an attempt at garotting occurred recently.
Shortly after six o'clock Mr. H. Usher, of Boddicote,
was returning home from Banbury, and when nearly
opposite the first milestone he was acoosted by a man
who solicited alms. On being refused he followed Mr.
Usher, cursing both "loud and deep." Mr. Usher
continued on his way; but, fearing an assault, drew his
pocket-knife and opened it. Scarcely bad he done so
when he was attacked by a man who sprang from the
hedge and attempted to throttle him. A short struggle
ensued; Mr. Usher succeeded in inflicting a wound in
the scoundrel's right shoulder, and in knocking him
baokwards by a tremendous blow with his fist. The
fellow screamed out to his "psi," using &frightful oath,
"Jim be has knifed me." Mr. Usher, not knowing
whether there were any more of the vagabonds in the
neighbourhood. deemed it prudent to make off as
quickly as possible.
Reunions PERSECUTION IN AUSTRlA.—Sometime
ago, one Herr Plenss, a tinsmith at Prenau, in Moravia,
felt his belief in the Roman Catholic tenets consider-
ably shaken, and eventually resolved to become Protes-
tant. Raving, in accordance with the law of the
country, informed his confessor of his intention, he was
initiated int* the Lutheran creed by a neighbouring
clergyman, and after some months received into the
Protestant Church. A. week later he was summoned
before the eocleaiastioal court of the (Menial diocese,
but as the summons, conformably to law, ought to have
been made out prior to his conversion, the man, who
was now& Protestant, did not think himself under any
obligation to follow the behests of a Roman Catholic
court. It now appeared as though the bishop had re-
considered the matter, and no further steps were to be
taken againat the spoetate from the sacred fold; for,
except that the pupils ef the public school to which be
sent his children had been warned by their confessors
against holding intercourse with the offspring of the
proselyte, Herr Pieties remained undisturbed, and
already hoped to be Well free of his clerical tormentors.
he wee to be ttideesived, eller the lapis of 110 M•

little time, in a painful manner. On the 17th of
October excommunication wac solemnly pronounced
against him from the altar of the Catholic parish church
to which he had formerly belonged • the sentence being
repeated in the open market-place Of the town, and the
priest expressly forbidding all true believers to talk,
converse, or have any dealings whatever with the
traitor and heretic. This injunction, under the rule of
the concordat and the power conferred by it on the
priests, Is neither more nor less than a banishment from
the diocese in which the heinous act of conversion has
been committed ; and lithe bishop of any other diocese
to which the poor man may remove should be at all
inclined to acquaint his children in the Pope with what
occurred at Presnau, Herr Muss may be positively
driven from the empire, and sent to some more hospit-
able country in search of a livelihood. But let nobody
believe that the condition of Austria can be really
fathomed from the preceding statement, plain and
instructive as it is. Like the Janus divinity of old,
this apostolical empire has two faces, each showing •
different expression,and contradicting the physiognomi-
cal lineaments of the other. While each intolerable
oppression is exercised in the provinces, the Official
Gazette, in reviewing -a new work of the Thirty Tears'
War, pronounces in favour of liberty of corscience, and
ridicules the times of the past for their absurd intole-
rance. The Emperor is clearly of opinion that, although
his domains cannot be kept together except by tyranny,
the outside of the political edifice ought yet to be
whitewashed with liberty and roughcast with the
phraseology of progress. Is is only necessary to engage
a priest and hire a scribe to have either operation per-
formed as occasion offers.