The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1877-05-08 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The members for Bi ' ham—Mr. John Bright
and Mr. Chamberlain—have both been appealed to by
Dr. Kenealy's faction to lend their efforts to a re-
hearing of the claimant's trial, and they have favoured
their applicants with letters in reply. Mr. Bright

says :
" I must ask you to excuse melt I decline to enter into
the question again. I have no often expressed my
settled opinion upon it that I have nothing further to

Mr. Chamberlain writea
" I beg you to understand that I give full credit to the
local members of your association for their sincerity and
good faith. I have no doubt that they honestly believe
that an innocent men has been unjustly treated, and
I under these circumstances they are right in seeking a
revision of his sentence. On the other hand I elnim equal
credit for honest and conscientious opinion when I say,
that having studied the reports of the case at the time. I
have no doubt the claimant is an impostor, and one of a
very bed kind, since he did not scruple to slander
innocent persons in order to promote his took But, even
supposing that he was what be represented himself to he,
I confess I should still lie at • loss to understand the •
sympathy which he has excited, for by his own account
he must have been a bad son, a most determined liar, an
ungrateful friend, and a seducer of women. Again, if
your view is correct, it would necessarily follow that the
judges who tried the case on two successive occasions, the
jurymen, 24 in number, the counsel employed, and •
whole cloud of witnesses, in every class of life, should all
be dishonest, corrupt, or imbecile, which is an assumption
so monstrons that the guilt of the claimant appears to me
a much more reasonable hypotheeis. Under these circum-
stances, and as I do riot believe that there is the least
doubt as to the justice of the verdict, I am unable to
assist you in obtmning a re-hearing of the cane."

Can this be true ? It is stated Captain Bedford
Pim, M.P.. has openly asserted "we have over 8,000
Russians in our mercantile marine, and these men, in
the event of war between their country and ours,
would be more than human if they did not scuttle
their ships or interrupt our food supply." It seems
almost too ontraveous to believe, but, when we reflect
• German is at the head of the English army, one
hardly knows what to say.
The British Infantry are about to be head-ed with
felt helmets in lieu of the present incongruous arrange-
ments with which they are blessed, or otherwise, in
that direction. We believe these potrented con-
struction' will resemble, as near as possible those in
which our own admirable county police march, save
and except that in the case of the army the spike and
other metal ornaments will have to plead " gilted."

It is no secret, says the Telegraph, that the represent-
atives of the Liberal party, in consultation with their
official Leader, have determined to oppose the reso-
lutions which Mr. Gladstone will bring forward on
Monday (this) evening. The exceptions to those
adopting that resolve among recognised Liberals are
few and unimportant ; so that the author of the
untoward proposals in question finds himself obliged
to rely on such support as can be found below the gang-
way and among the ranks of politicans who know how
to make hard bargains for their adhesion.

Probably no man living has seen more of the World
in all its phases and attitude. than George Augustus
Sala, one of the specials it the rib graph and therefore,
his opinion anent the awbil struggle about to begin in
the East--a struggle like all others brought about b 7
the wretched desires of blood-thirsty despots whom thew
fellow-men are fools enough to keep in powei and place
—is worth listening to. He says :
"Can you recall, you who are middle aged and whose I
memories are good, those two miserable years between the
fight at the Alma and the fall of the Malakoff I Do you
remember the Ghost's Derby Day of KZ? Do you
remember when on the Cliff at Brighton and the Martina
at St. Leonard's, you could vearcely walk ten paces with-
out meeting groups of ladies and children clad in deepest
mourniag for fatter, 111i51.11111,4 brothers, sweethearts,
slain iu that wretched thersonese, or who had sickened
,nil lied in the cheerli SA wards of the Scutari Hospital!
Are we have to those years of agony and bereavement, of
! public blundering and nii.inianagement, over again? I
suppose to. Glory is a tine thing. I ant only apekin, a
civilian, and I know nothing about glory hut I confess
that my blood runs cold and that my heart sickens, when!
hear piliticians pertly prating about the "arbitrament of
the sword," and? "war clearing the atmosphere." and so
forth. I never met Glory yet, and I don't know what he
, or she is like ; hot I have met War face to face half.a-
diaen times in as many countries. I have looked into the
whites, or rather the crimsons of his eye., and I have
I gazed upon the Sisters who follow him wheresoever he
' goes. They are Forge sisters and their names are Rapine,
and Disease and Death. This is of course, a miserably
craven and spiritless way at looking at war. I cannot
help it. I have seen only war's madness and wickedness,
Its foulness and squalor. To me it has represented nothing
! but robbery and profligacy, but famine and slaughter ; and
I can but think that if the warlike politicians were to
witness just half-an-hour of warfare as! have witnessed
It in Amenca, in Italy, in Mexicl, in France, in Spain,
their martial ardour would cool down a little, and they
I would not be quite so prompt to blow the bellicose
trumpet.

'The Banbury Board of Guardians have decided not
to admit reporters to their meetings by a majority of
20 to I. Happy reporteri ! They ought to present
each of the "20 ' with a paper f those "cakes" for
which this Northamptonshire borough is so celebrated.

The good citizens of Bath, or at least a considerable
number of them, certainly require to undergo the
operation for which, according to tradition, humanity
flute its way there. They have had an offer of £3.000
worth of books and premises if they would establish
• free library there. Two days polling has resulted in
the rejection of the gift. The old tale of the pearls

The Admiralty, it is said, intends to appoint torpedo
lieutenants to the British fleet, to carry on the
necessary drills in the use of than weapons.

The Army and Nary Gazette states that there is an
increase in the number of enlistments, and there is a
marked improvement in the physique of those who have
lately entered the ranks.

It is announced that, with a view to possible event.
nalities in the East, the Government have resolved to
tit out for sea with the first expedition the whole tif the
clam ~f small turret ships of war.

Mr. Osborne Morgan has moved for the discharge
of his Burials Bill, intending to deliver his speech
against the second reading of the Government Bill, in
which he will be supported by the great bulk of the
Liberal party. The Government measure is as good
est doomed, since it concedes really nothing, and con•
ciliates nobody. Sham concessions are quite in the
vein of the stagey sensational Conservatism now in
fashion with the Beaconsfield Ministry; but it gains
no adherents with those who look at questions with
freedom from party bias.

A return bet issued shows the receipts from local
and imperial taxation and other sources in the 229
municipal boroughs of England and Wales in the year
ended Augnst, 1876, to have been £3,597,857, or
£180,544 more than in the previous year; while the
expenditure had been £1,534,483, being an increase of
£425,089. The bans outstanding against the various
Town Councile acting an the municipal authority,
amounted at the close of the year 1875 76 to
£5,699,839.

Press prosecutions in Germany appear to be still
carried on with the greatest possible vigour. The
Leipzig Correspondent gives a list of recent prosecu-
tions, from which it appears that three more unluck?,
editors have been sentenced to six months', six weeks,
and a month's imprisonment respectively. There are
•• number of cases in which fines have been Billeted for
minor offences; but the general rule seems to he if an
editor indiscreetly speaks out on any subject reflecting
upon the Bismarckian autocracy, to ensure silence by
his incarceration.

The quarterly returns of the Registrar-General,
which have just been published may be described as
on the whole favourable. They, of course, include
variations of every sort; but, speaking generally, they
show some improvement. The quarter ending on the
31st of March is generally distinguished for the highest
rate of both births and deaths. This year the birth
rate is above the average, whilst the proportion of
deaths is happily lower than usual. Meteorologists
declare that the temperature for the past three months
was higher than the avelage, one of the immediate
, consequences being that people advanced in life have
,! escaped the perils of the season to a very unusual
extent. The average birth rate during the first three
I months of 1877 in England and Wales was equal to an
annual rate of 18 per thousand.

There is said to be a hitch in the publication of the
Arctic Committee's report. The document was drawn
up and signed some weeks ago, and the committee has
since dissolved itself; but (according to the Lone/t)the
Lords of the Admiralty disapprove of certain strictures
Lig;:then upon the commander of the Arctic
d reidition. The chairman and members of the com-
mittee have, however, declined to modify the objec-
tionable passages ; and as " my lords" will not permit
the report to be given to the world in the original text,
the inquiry is likely to hang tire until one aide gives
way. Fortunately, the public is not profoundly inter-
ested in the matter.