The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-01-31 00:00:00

committed

gave judgment, which .sustained the previous
decision of the Master of the Rolla in the case
of a Mr. Sims, of Cork, who bequeathed two '
isparate sums of £5OO each, to "Fathers"
White, Russell, and Conway, of the order of St.
Dominick. His Lordship's decision was based
on the Act of 1829, commonly tailed the Catholic
Emancipation Act, which provides that monastic
institutions are illegal. If then, they are illegal,
why are not all such " orders" suppressed, as
well as other illegal institutions?
General Butler has found his proper level at
, last. He has been ordered to report himself at
, Lowell, Massachusetts, his native town. Now
, that he is disgraced as a coward because be re-
fused to sacrifice the whole of his men and him-
self before Wilmington, those who have been
lauding him to the skies have become his
bittereat accusers. But it is always so,
especially with beings of the Yankee genius.
Encourage a man in every kind of abomination
as long as he is successful • then when he fails,
send him to perdition for his failure, and hurl
all his iniquities after him.
The Royal Family remains at Osborne. On
the 22nd January the Princess Louise was con-
firmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at
Whippingham Church. Her Majesty was
present at the ceremony. The following
day, the Queen and the Princess Helena
received the holy cemmunion at the hands of the
Dean of Windsor. The are busy on the
gossips
alleged approaching betroths of the Princess
Helens with the Hereditary Grand Du!,:e of
Saxe-Weimar. The semi-official journals of
Berlin flatly contradict the rumour; which is as
positively supported by authorities equally re-
spectable at Coburg and elsewhere. This is a
subject on which we presume no information,
but in reference to which, we inspect our
knowledge is as great as that of those of our
contemporaries, who pretend to know everything
about such matters.

Some time since, a band of nonoomformist
settlers went out, with a great flourish of
trumpets, to Port Albert, Middle Island, and New
Zealand, there to institute a new society on
strictly anti State-Church principles. Since
their arrival, they have learned the lesson that
immunity from church-rates, and from the
domination of a " bishop-ridden" church,
involves no guarantee of the comforts of this
life. Their privations have, indeed, been some-
what terrible. Owing to the loss of a small
cutter, which was bound to the settlement with
stores, they have experienced something akin
to the horrors of famine. The settlement is re-
ported by the Nelson _Examiner to be a failure,
having been founded with insufficient capital.
The majority of the labourers have gone to other
parts of the colony to see what they can do for
themselves on their own account.
An extraordinary inquiry has recently taken
place before the guardians of the poor of St.
Pancras, London, relative to a will made by an
inmate of the workhouse in which property of
untold value was devised to the master of the
union, and £lO,OOO to a member of the vestry
who had drawn up the testament. Much
mystery attaches to the 'ease, which Mr. Bishop,
the drawer-up of the will in question, declares
is nothing but a mare's nest. If he has £lO,OOO
at stake he is quite justified in refusing to say
anything which is not required of him but by a
proper legal tribunal, and in a proper form.
But, if the whole story is an absurd hallucina-
tion, why need he get angry, stand on his legal
rights, and refuse to throw any light upon the
matter.

M. Blondin's sumptuous retreat in St. John's
Wood—his charming little cottage ovule,
Niagara Villa, so-called after the scene of his
moat famous exploits—has been broken up, and
Its precious contents brought to the hammer,
ostensibly in consequence of the intention
of the owner to go abroad "for the
fulfilment of engagements." A London letter
says, bL Blondin's taste appears to have been
refined and luxurious, judging from the collec-
tion of buhl cabinets, bronzes, plate, pictures,
jewellery, dinner services in the Etruscan style,
dessert sets of Sevres, dm., &a, which formed
the two day's sale of his effects. The whole
realised upwards of £2,000, a sum probably very
far below the real value of the property, and one
that will leave a very ample profit to the dealers
who were the chief purchasers. It is to be feared
that the selling up of poor M. Blondin's goods
and chattels has been brought about by other causes
than the intense desire of the inhabitants of distant
countries to witness his gymnastic and funam-
bulistic feats ; for not only have his ordinary
effects been sold, but even the jewellery of his
wife, and, hardest perhaps of all, the valuable
testimonials he has received in all parts of the
world. Of this last class of "sacrifice." was a
magnificent luncheon service of Russian manu-
facture, in silver gilt and platina, with views of
the principal buildings in Moscow, given to M.
Blondin by the inhabitants of that city. It went
for £135. This is a sad end to a successful
career, and it is the more sad because it has
been brought about not by M. Blondin's fault,
but by the failure of those in whom he had
trusted. It has been a great fall, and poor M.
Blondin has discovered to his coat how mush
more difficult-it is to keep tine% iboting at the
height of prOdperity than at a less figurative
elevation.

Marshal O'Donnell, the late premier of Spain,
stated in the senate at Madrid, on Thursday,
that the evacuation of St. Domingo was no
longer a question to be argued about.
It was already an accomplished fact. Ile
was ready, however, to take eoMmand of an
expedition to regale the colony if the Queen
desired it, and would guarantee to put down the
rebellion in three months. Marshall O'Donnell
is a great power in Spain, but it is doubtful
whether he can convince the Government and
the people to renew the enterprise which has
already cost such enormous sacrifices in men and
money... . -.— _

Of I modern premiers Lord Palmerston is,
no doubt, the luckiest in filling the two benches
which are the most coveted in the world--the
bench of bishops and the beneh a judges. The
Roman Catholics of Ireland Should have a
special prayer for his happiness, for they have
enjoyed almost a monopoly of his legal patron-
age. During his administration be has pro-
moted, in rapid succession, no less than four
Roman Catholics to the high office of Attorney-
General; and iiith similar rapidity, no less than
Aix Roman Catholics have been made judges.
This is most unjust to the Protestant members
of the bar, of whom there are, at least, two to
one of equal standing. We are, therefore,
not surprised that for some time past a
feeling has prevailed, that profestional Merit has
no chance of promotion at the Irish bar it its
posseiteor laboured under the disability of Pro-
teatantisna, seeing that Roman Catholics, who, by
means of their Church, are supposed to be the
better able to render political service to the
Government, are sure to carry off the prize.
It is quite refreshing to find thaty Spain is
acting with so determined a spirit of indepen-
dence in the Matter ot the Pope's Encyclical
Letter. That a Narvaez ministry should have
the courage to proclaim that it will act energeti-
cally against any one guilty of the offence of
publishing the Encyclical without the consent of
the Council, comes to us with the force of a
surprise. The fact, however, encourages us to
believe that statesmen have at hitt found out
that they have everything to gain by an alliance
with civilisation. Quite as instinetively, priests
judge—they are always shrewd enough to learn
their lessons—that civilisation is their natural
enemy, and that its triumph means their des-
truction. They have maintained the struggle
with wonderful pertinacity; but they know now
that its issues must be against them. That is
what makes them so savage.

DORCRBSTBEL—Prsonso Coen MARKET, Satur-
day, January 28.—The supply of wheat at to-day's
market was large, most of which changed hands at
barely last week's prem. Barley was freely of&red—
best samples realised late rates' second-rate quality
difficult of sale. A ready sale for 03178 at recent
quot•tions.
COMMISSION SIGNED DT THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF
DOusirr.--Queen's Own Y.C.—j. S. Marriot, to be
cornet, rice Webber, resigned.
At a court of examiners held at Apothecaries Hall
on the 271 k and 28th January, the following passed
the examination in Arts, preliminary to registration,
via., Mr. J. R. A. Taylor, of Dorchester; Mr. A.
H. Aldridge. of Poole; and Mr. R. H. C. A, Bodberd,
of Preston, Yeovil.
BrIA, ELI N GING. —Aboa4 a month singe the ringers at
Fordington church paid a visit to the bellfries of St.
Mary's, Wareham, and St. Ectiresd'a, Code Castle,
where they tried their abilities on the hells belonging to
those churches. On MonelAy the Wareham ringers
visited Dorchester, where they rang merry peals from
the bellfries of Fordington and St. Peter's churches.
Flue.—On Saturday evening, about live o'clock, •
wheat rich in Candle -house Barton, Fordingtoe, the
property of the Minos Lea, was discovered to be on
flre. The Fordington and Dorchester fire engines were
promptly on the spot, and the former did good
The are was confined to the risk in whisk at Inektf sat,
although II wheat rick immediately contiguous was
damaged to some extent by the copious attest=
water /rem the engines. Ansotaly there was
any w' - at the Sr eihertriee the
of \et N' ass 4