The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-04-09 00:00:00

DORSE'r couNnr EXPRESS
IYIRCRESTRIt. TURADAY, APRIL 9, 1487.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

--
The Ministry have drawn the line at which
farther concession to the Opposition in regard to the
Reform Rill will not be made, at the personal pay.
mint of rates, and the two partim have joined
issue on that question. We will not venture to
guem the probable result of a division, for it will be
knows positively IMOD attar them lines are printed.
The Globe of Satunisy says that already 40 members
of the Liberal party have declared they would vet.
against Mr. Colaridge's " instruction to the com-
mittee," but it is well known there is a " cave" on
the other side. In the event of the Ministry being
defestedi it is announced that Her Majesty will be
advised to dissolve Parliament

Mr. Disraeli' Financial fitatement for ISB7, which
li. made to the House of Commons on Thursday
night, was loci& siinpl.,end brief. The 1866
Bears of Mr. Gladstone has been amply realised,
foe we bad an Moms of Dearly 694 millions sterling
.yth.r* vs expelled nOr #l7 millitoa, gimlet the

Wilma estesienaption dinar, spirit*, milt liquors,
aid leboooo ; while, tlata expenditure being under
the estimate by the beet part of • quarter • million,
a surplus remains of £2,654,172. This is gratifying
enough, but theproepect is not quite so bright for the
present financial year, for we learn that with our
augmented inoome, estimated at mine than rig
millions, we are to have an increased Paw :Qum on
our army and navy, which will leave us an estimated
surplus, without new financial arrangements, of only
I F-1,208,000, or leas titan half that of last year. Oat
of this the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to
apply 1.750,000 to the reduction of the ?rational
Debt by the application of a syetein ot Terminable
Annuities which Mr. (lladatoite inaugurated list
year, and £210,000 to relieving marine insurers by
equalising the duty at the lowest rate-3.1. pre cent,
on all voyage policies and on all time policies ender '
tit months ; this leaves the moilest balance of
1:246,000 to meet contingencies. The Widget met
with a hood reception from both eldts or the House,
and it seems probable that its provisions will liecome
law without a single division. It does Out reduce
taxation much or in a very sensitive part, but dis-
poses of nearly all the surplus in part payment of old
debts. The principle is a good one, though the
extent of its present application is insignificant;
@tilt, it is all the Chancello: could so dispose of, and
must he regarded rather as an earnest of good inteu•
tient than • mighty aehieremeni.

The Paris Universal Exhibition was nominally
opened on Monday afternoon, without oe.emony or
pageant, addressee or replies. The Emperor and
Empress of the French, foil of smiles, entered the
enormous building and proceeded to make the tour
of the more presentable parts of it, representatives of
various nationalities being presented to them on the
way. The Emperor wore plain evening dress, with
the Grand Cordon and Star of the Legion d'llonneur.
The Empress was attired in the simplest of walking
costumes, and wore a dark veil, trhich sho never
raised while in the budding. The Tinme cones-
rodent relates a droll incident of the procession, in
which two British tars were the principal actors
Re narrates that as the Imperial party descended
(ruin the machinery gallery the Emperor was greeted
with loud hurrahs which one rarely bears out of
England. Two sailors seemed to be foremost in
cheering, and were conspicuous in the crowd. The
Empress smiled upon them, and mots their hearts.
" Ab, Bill," sald the one to the other, "she guy me
etch • look." In the great crowd, rushing and
tossing about, and Ailing the ear with s rattle of
French phrases, )'ire l'Enapereur .'" " Poe in ."
" A tirndet Al'aieu." one heard with • sort of be.
wilderment interpolated in all their genuineness,
" Ah, Bill, she cue me sech a look." It is said that
the exhibition will be one of the finest of its kind
the world has yet beheld, but most assuredly such
of the world as visit it now are only fated to the
disappointment of guessing at what it will be, and
lamenting their misfortune in having gone there
a month too soon. The attendanceeince the opening
has not been large. The jurors have commenced
their labours, and the Imperial Commission insist
that they complete their task by the 1511 inst.
The efforts of the Emperor of the French to extend
his frontier eastward, and obtain possession of a
fortresa of the first importance for France for
defensive or offensive operations against Cermany
have been thwarted. The Frimh Government
desired to possess Luxemburg, and the King of
Holland, who Is sovereign of Luxemberg, was
willinß to road with the interest he had in it on
tertain conditions. These were, I, that he should
receive certain compensation, which Sir Robert Peel
this broadly put before the House of Commons—he
offered ti sell about 200,000 inhabitants of Lusem•
burg (Ibo,ooo of whom are Germane) to Frapoe at
the rate of £2O per head; 2, that the wishes of the
people of Luxemburg should be consulted ; and :I,
that the consent of the Great Powers should be
idittined, and especially the consent of Prussia.
The 'object has been under coneideration since last
October, and while France regarded it as an acquisi•
tion "not in the interest of an.hition but of
security," Prussia has not been slow to avow the
greatest hostility to the whole project. A few days
ago a communication was received by the Govern-
ment of this country from that of Prussia, asking if
Her Majesty's ministers would endeavour to dit•
suede the King of Holland from proceeding with the
negnciations, and Lord Stanley wrote in effect that
if the people of Luzemberg offered no objection and
if Prussia consented %which he was well aware did
not) the British Government did net feel it to be
their duty to interpose in the transaction. In eon-
sequence of this, the amnion of Luxemberg has been
relinquished. But it is by no means anticipated that
we have seen the end of the questions that may
arise out of it. Lord Stanley significantly stated in
the House of Commons on Friday night -" Every
communication which I have received has
confirmed me in the conviction—a conviction
in which the House will, I think, share—that
we were right in declining to involve our-
@elves further in a transaction which might he,
and still may be, of very serious consequences, but
in which no interest of ours was directly or
indirectly involved, and in which we stood, atm-
lutely free and unfettered by any pledge whatever." ,
The development of the alliance between Russia
and America—despotism and democracy, has created
much speculation and some little alarm. It is
conceived that the United !Habig will endeavour to
make the Ruccian•American territory cold to hers
means of obstructing the Canadian Confederation,
and, if possible, detaching from it our provinces on
the Pacific, vie., British Columbia, and Vancouver,
Island, while Russia is to have the assistance of
America in the event of a European war, should
the other Powers oppose her aggrandisement in
Turkey. So far as regards say productive value the
I territory can ever posers., supposing the purchase
should be confirmed by the Senate, it will be a poor
bargain for £1,400,000. Its only settlement is at
Silks, where a few hundred Russians are located,
and every other part is oniocupied, except by • race
of Indians, who are said to he the most treacherous
and intractable savages in the world. The entire
country is rugged, barren, and almost inaccessible,
while the wrist is dangerous from perpetual fogs.
Some time back an attempt was In progress to carry
a telegraph line through the country, with a view to
its being continued across Baiting • Strait, but even
this has been abandoned. The only part of the
territory ol any value consists of the Aleutian Islands
whence a considerable number of fur seal, and sea
otters are yearly brought by the Russian For Com-
pany, a b-dy of adventures under the patronage of
the Imperial Government, who have the exclusive
right to this trade, and to shorn it may be pre:tined
the Russian Government will have to award corn.
pensation. From this C,omnany, the liudson's Bay
Company hold • license to trade along the wait,
but not to enter the territory except across its
narrow portion at the south. They have however,
never been able to deal safely with the Indians. Of
late years the Russian Fur Company have parried on
a large and profitable business by supplying San
Francisco with Ms. The staterneut in the New
York telegram that the effect of the cession "will
be to exclude British Columbia almost entirely from
the Pacific" is wholly erroneous, not only from the
fact that as British Columbia possesses no peculiar
privilege from Russia of acmes to the Pacific its
cession from one foreign Power to another can make
no difference in that respect ; but also from the
circumstance that between Queen Charlotte's and
Vancouver's Islands British Columbia has an open
coast to the Pacific of about 200 miles.

The King of Denmark, in acknowledging an
address presented to him by the Danes residing in
London, made a remarkable speech which the Berlin
OjCiol Cavite finds it convenient to regard as •
canard. He complained that the principle of
nationalities was torn asunder in Schleswig, aed
affirmed that even the Berman speaking population
nf the south detest their enforced annexation to
Primula.

Our relations with the Spanish Government have
assumed a threatening aspect. Lord Stanley has
demanded reparation for the capture of the Tornado,
but has received no reply. lathe meanwhile an
extraordinary breach of international law ha; been
committed by • Spanish guarclsoosta on an English
vessel. The Queen Victoria was on • voyage from
Gibraltar to Laraiche, on the coast of !lathery,
flying the British flag, when, at the distance of
some 15 miles from the Spanish coast, she was taken
possession of by the Specials vessel Toro, brought
into Cadiz, and oondemned. The first allegation
made by her Spanish captors to amount for their
piratical conduct was that the vessel was derelict.
Upon the crew of the Queen Victoria being brought
forward to prove the falsity of that assertion, the
captors next attempted to make out that the prize
hail been guilty of an infraction of the Spanish
revenue laws. The wand allegation was as false as
the. first, but if it hrd been true it was no excuse for
the seizure of • vessel on the high seas. The act of
the Spanish vessel was one of simple piracy, and
1"ril Stanley has instructed our Ambassador
.at
Madrid to present an ultimatum to the Spanish
IflovenimLnt, requiring the restoration of the vessel
or payment of its value, with compensation VI the
owners and crew for the loss to which they have
been subjected, and an expression of regret to her
Majesty's Government for the illegal act of the
cruiser. Lela could not have been demanded, and
the Spanish Government at least has nothing to
complain of in the patience which has already been
exhibited in dealing with the Tornado case which
most nations would have treated with greater
promptitude and a lea regard for the feelings of the
Spanish people.

"Twelve shillings • week, with • boons aad
garden rent free, is tile very least an agricultural
labourer can live on honestly." Bo etre the Rev.
Edward Oridlestone, Canon of Bristol and Viola of
Palbertou. DM°, sod be bee stated, an the noes
the melt el hat Waite W twee the !era of the

agricultural labourers in his locality to that amount
from 7s. or 8a a week, at which sum he found them
Working in the autumn of last year, and even that
was not always paid in coin. Their condition was
publicly annonne,d, and he received numerous ap-
plications from Lancashire, Yorkshire, larneelimbire,
Kent, and even Ireland, and sumo other parts of the
country, for labourera, and a-Heeled £l.l as a
Labourer.' Removal Fund. The odnotluenu bas
been that 50 agrieulteral laboureu have late Rather.
ton and the neighbourhood, to follow their own
vocation in better.paid districts, and only one has
returned. Of these, 16 are married men with
families, tho remainder, young eingle men. The
married men aro r arcing, none leas than 12y, some
as much as £1 per week. All have house and
garden rent-free, and some fhel and even
furnished hnoses. The single men mostly have
board, lodging, washing, and mending in tbe
farm house, and 6.. or 6a. 6J. • weak. In
fact, they have doubled their wages. Such a
result is startling, and is very significant of the
apathetic and dependent spirit of the agricultural ,
labourer, which allows him to remain In the neigh.l
bourhood where he was born, and no better off than '
his father before him, while by going to °undies not
far removed he may at ono, better his puition, and
that of all whom he I • behind. And this on-
dripuition to taking employment a hundred miles
distant is the more remarkable, because we do not
find that agricultural labouren have any special
chuging to their native villages ; in fact, in this
county, we know that many labourers invariably
seek a new muter every year, though they simply
remove from one part of the county to another,
and on each recurring old Lady-day (April 6th) may
be seen on the roads of Doreet innumerable farmers'
waggons laden with the household goods of
latanurere, their wires, and families, travelling to
their new employ ciente. Gluten Gridleatono sug.
rats to counteract their apparent inability to
advance their own interests, the formation
of an Agricultural Labourers' Union for all
Eugland. Snme of the Devon farmers have
shown their indignation at the proceedings of
Mr. Gridlestone by refusing him a churvh•rate,
absenting themselves from church, and in some cases
becoming dissenters, while they have "cut' both
himself, his w!fe, and daughters. The majority,
however, we are satisfied, regard with satisfaction
any attempt to draft ell the surplus agricultural
labour of the neighbourhood, and that after all ia the
main difficulty, for while machinery is yearly
diminishing the demand for hand labour in Agri.
culture, labourers sa a rule bring up their children
to farming work and that alone, which results in ,
places being overstocked with agricultural labourers.
This is a state of things moat injurious to the farmer
himself, for the labourer and his family must live,
either on the wages the farmer pay. him directly, or
the poor.ratet he pays Indirectly. So that we
anticipate nothing but good results. from this new
movement.

Accidental Death Insurance is now such a common
mode of investment for the provision of familiae
among all classes of the commonity, that • question
which has jolt arisen affecting such policies demands
more than a passing notice. Mr. daffoock, coal-mine
engineer, who Derislied in the noble attempt to
rescue the explorers in the Barnsley coat-pit
explosion, and whoee mortal remains are still on.
recovered from the fatal mine, was insured in the
Accidental Death Insurance ()dice for £l,OOO.
Since his death application has been made for 1,111.
ment of the sum so assured, but the comp's),
decline to pay, on the ground that Mr. Jefrociek
voluntarily placed himself in mortal risk, and to
vitiated Ills polivy of insurance. The secretary of
the Accidental Death Office writes :
" Our ordinary annual premium of I:6 Ss. per £lOOO
does not oover the has trd of voluntary asposuro to rink,
and the yolicies are distinct upon this point. The
premium oovers the risk attaching to a mining
engineer in following his ordinary vocation. If the non-
sequence. of voluntary exposure to every posdisis risk
a mining engineer con run are to 13- godertaken4nar
ra.c will be increttaed tea-fold—gay ea 101 t per fl.ooo.
Will mining engineers submit to this rate or where is
the line to be drawn?"

Perhaps the Company may he right in a technical
legal interpretation of the words of the policy;
whether en or not, they are decidedly wrong in
public opininn, and as regards their own pecuniary
interests. We observe that Mr. W. J. Via',
secretary of the Railway Passengers' Asourancit
Company, states that his company recognise such
exceptional caws. )Ir. Viso says—

" ThM company, like all others insuring against
sceident, has fought by its policies to exclode acts of
'cilfol expoture to unnecesssry danger,' by which I
understand foolhardy actions incurred without any
ressonsble or warrantable motive. The directors of
this company have never considered this to spply to
such neble and self-devoted heroism as that in which
Mr. Jeffoock lost his life. In fact, they have upon
several occasions granted compensatiens to peroons *ho
have bean injured when voluntary endeavouring to save
life from destruction by fire. WILLIAM J. Visit,
secretary, Railway Passengers' Assurance °Mee, CI,
Corohill, April 1."

It may be right to stand up for the absolute dis-
tinction of voluntarily-run risks and ordinary risks o
accidental which the Accidental Death Company
insists upon, but it would seem that • stern
adherenee to the Company's rule would be inimical
to public policy, u tending to check humane efforts
to rescue people in danger, because theattempt might
unhappily lead to tho loss of an insured life, whose
insurance would be vitiated. This is well pet in the
following :
"To the Editor of the Time& —flir,—Ffavicg read 'T's'
letter in yet., columns of to-isy mar I be permitted to
ask the Accidental Death Company through the medium
of your minions if, being a good swimmer, and baying
been so fortunate ye to render several persons assistance
while in danger, I, order similar circuinstanew, should
coins to grief, my policy would be invalidated? If so,
for one, will discontinue my premium. I am, Sir,
your obedient servant, SWINIIIIR. Knightsbridge,
April 1."

So in cases of fire, men must hesitate before lending
assistance, even if it be of the last importance,
because the sot may vitiate the insurance on their
liver, a pestilent instance certainly of "the noble hue
of resolution being Waded o'er with the pale cast of
thought."

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