The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-03-12 00:00:00

Igorset Conutg expreso.

TUESDAY. 11.1111,C8 It 117 S

NOTES OF THE WEEK.
THE PROSPECTS OF PEACE.
It will require all the igilanoe of the Liberal piety
to prevent the fire-eatikt papers of the bellicose '
echo! from raising to fever best the war policy of the
great place-huutiog Tory phalanx, whicts, unfor-
tunately, now hold. the reins a Power. Willing to
concede, yet 0,4 to be goaded to madness, Russia may
yet be moderate in her demands ; but were wet. Rer
sr=, with our enemy at our feet, and holding the
of victory within oars:lisp, possibly we may be
qui., if not more. arrogant than she is at the present
moment. Therefore, we think, the oars mast be
I on the gel vim to prevent our very un-E preteke,
with h. perfectly un•English policy, rum plunging
, us into • war that would throw us back to the position
, we oectipied at the close of the long struggle with
Napoleon. Had soy Lord Beaconsfield bad the least
bit a political foreaght he must have seen that., after
' the barbarities of the Turk in Bulgaria, ths rule of
the Ottoman o'er, the Christian provinces was soon to
be a thing of the pest for the world, shocked with those
murders, awoke from Its long lethargy
seal =lithe teak of ref 'rotation in hand. But no
the Tarim were still ready to defend the integrity'
of the Ottoman Empire, even after all those savage
butcheries. Instead of joining with Europe in a task
of liberating by peaceful means those unhappy
wretches they made after-dinner speeches. denouncing
all interference with the interual afaini of the
Ottoman, and still hoped to spend English blood and
treasure in defence of a power am effete and moribund
as it was &avails and disgusting. Yet whist has taken
0100 The Turk is driven south of the Balkan, and
Russia, not Europe, is in poemaision of the finest
province In the world. I'u accomlli.ll this the
Muscovite and Turk have sacrificed 300,000 lives,
perhaps more, and an amount of misery bas been seen
that bee not had • parallel since the days of Attllla.
If the policy of Downingstreet bad been lees shifty
the Christian would have been liberated without the
firing of • single shot, and the peace of this country
woad not, as now, be hanging on • thread. We have
our fleet cooped_ up in the 8•L of Marmon, at the
marry of both Turk and Ensidan. for without a land
force to operate in the rear, we cannot hope to be abbe
imooessfaly to run, in that tortuous passage, the
danger of the torpedo and the turbo combined. It was
madness to despatch it there, it would be more than
mains., to try to get it back in the teeth of a hostile
enemy. We have bare allowed llamas., already too
big, to become the guide, philosopher, and friend of
the liberated Slam and her preponderance in the
Balkan peninsula la now tiled for generations. With
all thaws drawbacks it will be well to keep out of war,
for now we have nothing to fight for. If the Turk still
romans in Roumelia, and retains his hold on the
Straits, as he has dons for centuries, we don't think
that we need fear Russian influence north of the
Balka.. range. To attain this end will require firm-
ness, delicacy, and tact, qualities that have been
rather conspicuous by their absence in the policy of
the present Government. However, we most hope for
the beet, and we enjoin all good Liberals to make their
voices heard on the side of peace; yet with a pesos
di
gnity
of will not endanger the interest, honour, and
of thi• great Empire.

The writer of Notes in Th 4 Bernd heads hla pro-
duction "The World, the Flesh, and the [April" His
chief topics this week are the Eastern Question ; the
marriars of the Poet Laureate's ; and 'The
Queen s Proctor." Appropriate, Suggestive, =d—
well, Nut ounaplimenlary —Aye f

The fashionable ancounomasnte of some of the
" Society " papers are very laugh-creating. Take the
following front Vanity Pair, the acknowledged repre-
sentative of the Upper Ten :

"The marriode of Lord Pvrker and Mrs. Ilkhardeon on
the 141 h +rib be very private, and will not be followed WY
any breakfaet.-
" Lady Margaret Beaumont gave • =all and early dawn
on Tuesday last
. Bischotlabaim will receive every Friday evening
In March."

At Birmingham the other evening, Mr. Henry
Irving delivered an address on " The morals of the
Stage." He mointsined that the eta,:e was first
vitiated by is.ciety, and that actor' and monitors had
&limy' been slow in consenting to the debasement of
their art, for which • depraved public tine had too
titan craved. But, be said, be it rude, moral or
Immoral, intellectual or idiotic, the the theatre mud
always be, before all things, a place of amusement.

Lord John Manners has declined to establish small
train between Basingst,ke and Exeter. He thinks
the old eystem of those elegant and lovely vehicles, the
present mail carts, the best.

The English Freemmons have no sympathy with
their French brethren in the craft who desire to
eliminate belief in the Supreme Being from their
ritual. At the "Quarterly Communication" of the
English Grand Lodge on Wednesday night, such
action waa repudiated as contrary to the fundamental
principles of Masonry and the traditions of the Order
from time immemorial.
The number of vessels posted at Lloyd's during
February am "miming," and now given up as lost, has
been scarcely so large as was the cia.e in the preceed-
ing month. Nine vessels of 4071 tons in the aggregate
have been posted, compared with 16 vessels of moo
tons in January. The number of lives supposed to be
lost 1. 130, while in January the °diners and crews of
the missing ships numbers.' 203. It is computed that
the money value of the nine ships and cargoes is not
far short of 17125,000.

It apron from $ return Jut issur that the total
Otinitrr of elector. In the Unit-d IL3a.dout last yrr teas
;9109.177. room tr. d with 5.453.1110 In lad& The number
of riector..n Eng' .nd d W rn. I.t yn. .a 2yn 2*
arin.•l,l ISO a nes that In £s,4lfirl 303 983 114+dtat
raw and that In Ireland t1752..2r05t /22,454. lb.
amount of prope ty and roar narsed to the litoota• tax
for toe rent earlyld April 5 IWO .• fo.. Eq2land and
Wales .C 442 130 0612 for Scotland .1.53.475.1i12. and for
I,land £31,475,472 making a total for the United
Kingland of 5.=.611.346.