The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-03-29 00:00:00

o iunty finances, and that it ought to be applio 1
there slob We couiplaiu of it as an anonia'y ; we
complain of it as a grievance. How cou.cs this co
ditum about' The very princip•es fur beoetic iit
national ciustitution themselves hsve boen the
lures of sloe development and clear-bough: rule. l-
ever, and their application in practice has ever
been but gradual, and eehloin about a struggle.
How comes it about that the principle is not yet
applied to county rates? Because the party that
holds the raters' puree have no particular disposition
'to let it go. How conies it about? Because the
formers are the alowest and the latest clam in the
country to assert their righ's. Bet it has been said,
and perhaps there are some that really believe it to
be true, that the rib piyers are already represented
at the Court of Quarter Sessions, that the land
is the subject of the rate, and thelandowerra are the
members of that Court. The best answer to this
statement is that the ratepayers do not admit its
oorrectio as. They say that a considerable pi...por-
tion of that honourable Court have but an in
finitesimal interest in the land; and that the in-
tared@ of substantial landlords are too remote trim the
fluctuating burdens of the land to be influential for
economy, and that where such landlords have a very
inadequate onomption of their resources. They feel
that a great deal besides the land in represented at
Quarter Sessions, Inhibit a large portion of the land
in this sense is not represented at all. Above all
they feel that the Court is not an elective assembly,
and is therefore wanting in that very element
which constitutes the very essence of genuine
representation. But there arc others more
logical, more influential —even our legislators—
who admit that the custom which obtains in voting
away the county money, is a violation of this prin.
ciple of the constitution. The c matruction of our
Highway Boards evinces the correctoess of this
statement. Is not the principle of representation re-
cognised in the appointment of elected waywardene ?
If not, why should not the Board have been formed
of maristrates only ? The caws are sim;lar—the
highways and the county works are equally lyirdens
upon the land. But in the one the title of the
ratepayers is acknowledged, in the other it is
ignored. But it has been stated from the place of
judicial authority that the farmers do not care about
the question. Now meth • statement admits of
various interpretetionit it may have been 'spoken
on the principle of quiets sou movere —a sound and
evaillent one when properly applied. But the
question is, is the subject quiet? How comes it to
be made a subject of di/M.1310D at the Central Farmers'
Club? How owns, it to be welcomed as the theme
of our consideration to-night? How MOO it into
the counsels of the Court of Quarter Sessions, when
the statement was uttered? Or it may mean that
only a small portion of the ratepayers—the MOM in-
telligent and advanced and sensible of their rights,
or the more captious and disaffected—are discon-
tented, whilst the great body are satisfied and
quiescent. I will venture to say that, if occasion
should arise to mares' the feeling of all the farmers
who attend this roa-ket, 19 out of 20 would be
found to be opposed to the present system.
Bat the words may be interpreted as • mode of pooh.
poohing the question under the idea that it was
safe to defer it. If this interpretation be adopted,
it would not be difficult to show that they imply
just claims oaths part of the speakers contemptuous
disregard of the ratepayera And, however, we
may deprecate such a construction, it is not
unnatural that it should be put upon the words and
that it should poems' and irritate the minds of
very many. The fact is that in all matters of civil
government non w.elays it is neither safe nor wise to
I pooh-pooh the sense of injustice in any cam ; it is
neither safe nor wise to defer the reparation of the
wrong beyond the time of the necessary process
of repairing it. Nay more, the refusal to redress
acknowledged grievances does more harm to the
governor in the demoralisation of his principles mid
motives than the endurance of the injury does to
governed. lint I have the firm conviction that we
should not find magistracy as • body deposed to
resist any judiciously arranged place of obviating the
evil complained of; and as we of this club are
accustomed to give a practical direction to our
discussions, I would ask, does not the construction
of our Highway Boards furnish a model by which to
construct County Finance Boards? There might be
properly some modifications as to the proportionate
members of elected members, but they would be
taken pretty mach from the same elms. The list
might be taken annually from the elected members
of the Highway Board, or it may be taken from
the Board of Guardians If the Highway Act does
not yet work very effectively or satisfactorily, the
MOW does not arise from the different members
of the Beard not being able to work
well together. On the contrary, I think it
hee been shown that magistrates and
ersywardens can act well and advantageously
together, and this is sufficient for our present argu-
ment. Nor do I believe that any Government nor
either House of Parliament would object to •
coperly contrived scheme of substituting the
sent method of managing the county expenditure
such County Boards. The difficulty bee is
the subject fairly introduced to the consider-
ation of Parliament. Shall we hesitate to say it is
the duty of our county members to take up the
question? Are they not reedy to admit the justice
of our plea, and being OD. can they, would they
for a moment refuse to prepare fir the advocacy of
our cause? I have yet to learn how far these details
of my views may find accepteam with you ; but if
they should meet with your approval I would
further suggest that we should memorialize our
*linty maniere on the subject, praying for an
alteration of the law. If our sense of wrong be ex-
ploded in empty complaints we tempt the suspicion
som ws are in earnest, but if we put forth practical
effort for the remedy, we prove that it is real and
deepfelt, and we cast the responsibility. on those
with whom it ought to rest. If those who oppose
the proposed altertion, whilst admitting (as they
must) the soundness of its principle, yet urge the
Insignificance of the pecuniary issue; we reply, in
the first plam, that that can never bei.i.omoilifloant
which causes universal dissatisfaction ; y, that
the patient endurance of conscious unfair treatment
constitutes an additional plea for relief rather than
a meson for continuing that treatment; and
lastly, that the grievance complained ofgathers ten-
fold aggravation, and the present plea for redress
tenfold form—from the fact of the county rate, having
been so largely increased of late by county improve-
amnia and polies regulations. The smallness of the
Mill may baveoperated as aquietusin times past; but
the time is not distant, if it has not already arrived,
when the hugeness of the snot will awaken the
sounding chords of discontent. Say, if you plasm,
that the neoessitios of the county, and of the times,
required those wholesome regulations' and improve-
ments, and that the ratepayers themselves, if they
had hese pubes to the consequent espenditure,
could not have resisted them. What have you
shown more dim this, that you can easily and eddy
obviate the evil by making the ratepayers consenting
parties to the mamma, whereas, acting on the
opposite unsound conclusion, you endanger both the
measures and their promoters to the disaffection of
the public. Gentlemen: This question is within
small cowmen. I have endeavoured to set before
you its main fedora and to answer *owe possible or
actual objections that have been or may be urged
against the adoption of the proposed change. I have
also stated whet appears to me to be the best method
of proceeding towards effecting that change. It is
now for you either to confirm or to refute anything
that I have advanced. But before 1 does I would
beg your attention for another moment, whilst at the
does of this swim I take one retrospective view of
its history. And, gentlemen, I cannot but con-
gratulate you on the uninterrupted harmony sod
good feeliag_that have pervaded all our pro- ,
oeidinga Whilst differing widely oftentimes I
on many points on the subjects discussed, and
holding those diapason atently, there Dlll~ bee
bees waiting that perfeetly amicable and reepesdall ,
(«Hag which ought to underlie and control the
debates in which we snags. I am quite sure you
are fully sensible of the advantage this has gives us
in more fully ventilatiug the subjects of them. To
these members of the club who have taken the
tremble to arrange their thoughts and opinions in in.
bedewing the topios discord, we feel deeply
babied ; and to on. other gentleman living at a
distance, who has favoured us with his services in •
way, we are under peculiar obligations. And
hem ia panning, I would just say that should webs
permitted to pres another winter in club fellowship,
I think we may with great advantage, yet further
avail ourselves of their aid, such strangers in
diamerag enthuse themes affec ing our interests, for
which they ere specially qualified. But I cannot
emit the reflection that whenever we have met
daring the winter, and whatever we have discussed,
one subject has ever had an uppermost plans in our
mild& I need not tell you this has been the malt-
tax. It is the property of this club, whether for
praise or for abase, in commotion with another in a
liessat pert of the Kingdom, to have originated the
present agitation. With that question this club is
now identified, and whatever may be its fate of
Iwo things we am perfectly satisfied—that it is our
merinos to take it up, and that the views we
here added are pound. I know it has been
oh*ted by some that UNIDO things me too
hi# for us, and that we ought rather to
coeds* ourselves to the domestic departments of
agriculture. If you give these objections credit for
beauty, you cannot have much opinion of their
usderstanding ; and if you give them credit for
understanding, you cannot have mach opinion of
their beady. The truth is, that we best serve the
State by looking well after our own interests, both
private and public; not by • selfish and tortuous
policy that would secure unfair advantages by
questionable means, but by the fair and open saner-
lion and maintenance of our jest and equal rights
and privileges. Other classes of different miaow
Woos relieve themselves of burdens sod impedimenta
by what we may call o-inetitutiosai pressure on the
Government, and we but help to keep the balsams
of the State even by doing the mule. We do
attend to the domestic departments of agriculture as
occasion requires or permute ; but we should fail to
ditcharyp our dsty to our country as, well as to our
brother farmers, if we isessestei to confine ourselves
within this narrow Gird& Nay, we mnst hold it to
be oar apical mission to rive promises, to such
endetie and gibed questions as those which allot
jssbiliWll of forotors ; thookiel that we