The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-01-29 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

I.—SECHEST WOULD aritlf TO BE TUB
rock ahead of all Reform Bills. It the late
Ministry had not attempted to conceal the
one-half of their Reform intentions whilst
they were trying to eatry through the others
(not honestly perhaps, but still ostensibly)
they might yet have been in office. Strangely
enough, the present Ministry are playing, by
anticipation, the selfsame fatal game. True,
there would be less than the usual nothing
in a Queen's Speech, if people were to be
apprised beforehand what it would contain. I
But Mr. Disraeli has always been so ready
to taunt others with the want of a pro-
gramme, which he evidently regards as
tantamount to the want of a policy, that the
grand surprise of the age must of necessity
be forthcoming in of tbe phi to be
contributed by the Right 11)CiTtggroisintleman to
the speech from the throne. We may depend
upon it that he is not the man to be found
destitute either of policy or programme when
the time arrives; but like the lions of
Trafalgar-square which the public expectation
had given up in despair, one and all will on
the appointed day be found on their pedestals
ready to be unveiled. In fact, we cannot
imagine on what grounds the disclosures of
the ministerial intentions could be precip-
itated. The question is will there or will
there not be a Government Reform Bill F
The answer must be—how can the Govern-
ment, so recently entered upon office through
the slippery footing created for others on
this very question, be expected to be so
foolish as to show their hand ? But we
learn from our London Correspondent (who
himself thinks there must be a bill in view
by the Government) that the knowing ones
in town are reasoning amongst themselves
that there can be no Reform Bill in prepar-
ation because parliamentary solicitors, clerks,
and others would have been employed in pre-
paring the formal draft, and the secret must
have oozed out. We confess that we think
and believe so too, and that there is really
no Ministerial Reform Bill ready cut and
dried. But what then ? Have not the
Cabinet intimated as plainly as possible to
all whom it may concern, their intention to
proceed by way of resolution? It is evident
they mean to wait for a resolution of the
House, and to shape the measure as it may
be demanded of them. The rinses ridicules
this course, but in our apprehension it is the
most constitutional one they could follow.
Who is it that asks for reform ? Not the
patties within the house; but Mr. &ales
and others without. Or, if anyone within,
only Mr. Bright. Let the House say
whether it wants Reform and "how it will
take it," and the Government, if it seeks to'
abide in office, must then cash up accordingly.
Some presentiment of this seems to have
been floating on the mind of that notorious
northern Reformer, Mr. Joseph Cowen, of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who has been feeling
' the pulses of the hm. members around him;
with what result let the following responses
witness. Mr. Cowen politely inviting them
to attend a Trades' demonstration, somewhat
indiscriminately we must admit, receives the
reply from lltr. Robert Ingham that he is
otherwise engaged, and thst some of their
(the Trades' Demonstration) measures are in
, his judgment "beyond what the occasion
requires ;" that the opinions of hi.P.s are
known by their votes, and that the genuine
sentiment of the people should be spontaneous
• and not influenced byiamentary speakers.
Mr. Pease, of Harlin n, again declines; he
• "cannot endorse to the full extent the views
of the National Reform League." Mr. Hen.
derson, of Durham, although his arrangments
"will not permit" of his being present,
appears to stand alone in approving of "large
meetings of the people" being held for this
purpose. Sir Matthew White hidleir
roundly states that he toel not sympathise
"with the Reform League, its leaders, or its
local demonstrations," and will take no part
whatever, but absent himself from them.
The Hon. H. G. Liddell says, "the prin-
ciples held and proclaimed by the Reform
League are so entirely, at Variance with my
own view!, On the subject," that it would be
inconsistent in him to join in any demon-
stration. Brea Mr. T. R. Headlam has
"come to the conclusion" that his proper
place is within, and not without, the walls of
"Parliament. And Mr. Beaumont, although
he would extend the franchise, desires to
remain completely unfettered. Not much
encouragement here for the whole hoggites
we should say. The amazing thing is how
Cowen came to publish these damaging
letters,

H.—Pitman RIPOIII, there are not a
few social measures and Ameliorations which
Promise to be revealed in next week's
goVernment programme. There is pro-
minently Mr. Hardy's reformation of the
Poor Laws. Poverty is a disease, but it is
treated as a crime. Crime, too, is a diseaste ;
and of all public disorders its cure is found to
be the most expensive. No doubt pauperism
is rapidly becoming more and more expensive
from being treated in the same fashion. Mr.
Hardy, we think, therefore, adopts an
enlightened view in wanting to convert the
workhouse into an hospital
a gaol; and in seeking to give more cubic
space for the play of the paupers' lungs
within the house than in devising repressive
measures to keep suffering poverty without.
Why should we not care better for our poor P
Let no thin-skinned provincialist for one
moment imagine that we make the slightest
local reference here. Our Unions are so
well conducted that we, for one, have never
urged the ordinary surveillance of the Press
which it remains optional for the guardians
to admit or to refuse; and in our district
they refuse because there is not the slightest
occasion for the wholesome cheek of pub-
licity which, in some cases, has its action-
venience. But if, as they say, theca be a
tendency of the age to copy from • former
order of things in Englawd, why not copy, to
some extent, at least, that great hospital
system of charitable tustentation
with all its abuses, was oertainly overthrown
at the Reformation, yet of which the want
was ere long so severely felt as to cause
, the enactment of the 'sainted 42nd Queen
Elisabeth which established the ••:aght of the
poor to public austentation, ar,d has proved
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