The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-08-03 00:00:00

BLANDFORD.

The report of the meeting of the Dorset Central
Railway Company, held at Wimbonie, (a report of
which will be found in our third page), has given
unmixed gratification to the shareholders living in
this town and its immediate neighbourhood. The
unrelaxing efforts of the directors, and the satisfac-
tory progress of the works evidenced by the report,
as well as the watchful and uniuitigating spirit said
to have animated the proprietors at the meeting,
present a combination ,4 healthful influences highly
satisfactory and promising both as regards the future
progreu of the line and the future profit of the share-
holders. We have always regarded the line as one
purely local in its interests, having a body of dire°.
tors chosen from the localities through which it is
projected to pass, and a proprietary aiming at ob-
taining commercial advantages or interest on capital
outlayed in shares living in the districts through
which its come is worked out. With its interests
thus localized we cannot see how those interests can
be either so conveniently, economically, or effectu-
ally promoted by the directors having offices situated
in London, and their secretary living there also, as
they would be if the former were situated somewhere
on the course which the line is intended to take, and
the latter resided in the midst of the proprietary
with whom ho has to communicate, and in the neigh-
bourhood of directors with whom he has occasionally
to meet. The present arrangement not only in-
creases the travelling expenses of the secretary, and,
as a consequence, the expenditure of the company,
but operates against the unremitting exercise of
those efforts which the secretary should make to
obtain an increase in the list of shareholders. Who
does not know that, iu agricultural districts ups-
cially, an intimate knowledge of the personal pimp
liarities, social habits, and relative social influence of
those living in them, is essentially necessary to a
successful canvass for railway subscriptions; and to
suppose for one moment that a secretary living in
London, more than one hundred miles from the bosh.
ties in which those persons reside, over whom lie is to
exert an influence and with whom he is officially to
act, appears to us to be such an arrangement as must
absolutely preclude that measure of pod being
derived from the performance of his legitimate duties
! which the company have a right to expect. It may
! be policy to have offices designated Metropoluan,
and a secretary to be addressed 11, 12, Parliamest•
street, to give dignified and important aspects to •
speculative scheme ; hut the Dorset Central Railway
requires n such meretricious einbellishmenta. It is
a bond fide, commercial, and social enterprise, and
has only to be prudently, honestly, and perseveringly
worked out to become a great boon to this neigh-
bourhood and to others thr.uil which it may pus.
From the report it appears that it was proposed to
elect at this meeting two directors in addition to the
live already sitting at the board. Sir Ivor Bertie
Quest was chosen as one of the two, and the appoint-
ment of a second was left open for decision at a sub-
sequent meeting of the shareholders. It was pro-
bably intended, as a graceful act of the Board, that
the shareholders should have an opportunity of nomi-
nating the other director required to make up the
number proposed. This interpetatinn of the motive
which induced the directors to leave open the second
appointment has suggested to the shareholders here
and in the neighbourhisid the desirability of fixing
their choice on some gentleman qualified to fill the
office; and, judging from the general expression of
opinion, it appears to us to point to Mr. E. Castleman,
whom long experience in railway matters, and known
habits of businesa, naturally suggest to the minds of
many shareholders here and in the neigbourhood his
fitness for the office. Should Mr. Castleman signify
his willingness to accept the appointment, we think
the interests of the company would be furthered by
his services as a director, and the working energies
of the board would be favourably influenced by his
official co-operation.
Too much praise cannot be awarded to the direc-
tors for the readiness they appear to have masifested
in meeting the requests of the shareholders to have
a detailed statement of the accounts placed before
them. The example, if followed by other Boards,
would prevent much of that confusion and hostility
too generally characterizing railway meetings.
Ties Minirr-Floustey.h porterei:lboyf.
•thuecti"car ortitiMonopudamr announced
Th 26 teh 'au
. , othf
realisedba'
As this wile took plane for the pm-pose of obtaining a
sum sufficient to allow the oorpoistion to make the
unprovementa contemplated in the present market
building, and the amount obtained by the ale not
being Urge enough for that pimie, an additional
sum will be probably borrowed to make up the
amount necessary to the effectual carrying out of the
plan decided on.

(BY ILBCTRIO TZLEGRAPH.)

KO/MAY, AUgllgt, lad.
Parliament was this day prorogued by Royal
Commission ; and the following is Her Msjesty's
Speech :
MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,
•

We are commanded by Her Majesty to express her
satisfaction at being enabled to release you from the
duties of a session which, although interrupted, has by
your unremitting assiduity been productive of many im-
portant measures.
Her Majesty is happy to believe that her relations
with foreign powers are each as to enable Her Majesty
to look with oonfidence to the preservation of general
peace.
Her Majesty trusts that the labours of the plenipoten-
tiaries now sitting in conference at Paris may lead to a
satisfactory solution of the various questions which have
been referred to them.

Theefforta, the gallantry, and devotedness displayed in
India by Her Majesty's forces and those of the East
India Company, have bven above all praise, and Her
Majesty hopes that those efforts have already been so far
crowned with !moues, and that the formidable revolt
whioh hu raged throughout a large portion of her
Indian possessions may now, under the blessing of
Almighty God, be speedily suppressed, and peace be re-
stored to those important provinces.
In this hope Her Majesty has given her willing assent
to the Act which you have passed for transferring to the
direct authorities the government of her Indian domi-
nions, and Her Majesty hopes to be enabled so to dis-
charge the high functions which she has assumed as by •
just and impartial administration of the law, to secure
its advantages alike to her subjects of every race and
creed, and promoting their welfare, to establish and
strengthen her empire in India.
GENTLEMEN of the HOUSE of COMMONS.

Her Majesty commands u to thank you for the judi-
cious liberality with which you have made provision for
the exigencies of the public service. The present state
of the revenue authorises Her Majesty to entertain a
hope that the supplies which you have granted will be
found fully adequate to the demands on them.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN.
The sanitary oondition of the metropolis must always
be a subject of deep interest to Her Majesty, and Her
Majesty has readily sanctioned the Act which you have
passed for the purification of that noble river—the pre-
sent state of which is little creditable to • great oountry,
and seriously prejudicial to the health and comfort of
the metropolis. Her Majesty has also willingly assented
to an Act whereby greater facilities are given for the
acquisition by towns and districts of such powers as
may be requisite for works of local improvements ;
and thus extending more widely the advantages of muni-
cipal government.

• -
Her Majesty trusta that the Act which you have passed
for the future government of the Scotch Universities
will be found highly advantageous to those venerable
institutions, and will greatly promote and extend a
system of sound moral and religious education in
Scotland. The transfer of Land Bill, which extends
the powers hither exercised by the Encumbered Estate
Commissioners, and facilitates the acquisition of an
indefeasible title by our purchasers of land in Ireland,
can not fell to be highly beneficial to the landed proprietors
and to advanoe the prosperity of that part of Her Majesty's
dominions. The Act to which Her Majesty has assented
for the establishment of the colony of British Columbia
WAS urgently required in consequence of the recent dis-
covery of gold in that district; but Her Majesty hopes
that their new colony on the Pacific may be but one step
in the career of steady progress by which Her Majesty's
dominions in North America may be peopled in an in-
broken chain from the Atlantic to the Pacific by a loyal
and industrious population of subjects of the British
Crown.

Her Majesty thankfully seknowledgeal the diligenoe
and perseverance which have enabled you in • compara-
tively short time to I.axs these and other measures of
inferior but not insignificant importanee.
•

Many of you in ;turning to ;our respective counties
will have extensive influence to exercise and duties to
perform of hardly less value to the community than
those from labours of which you are about to be re-
leased ; and Her Majesty entertains a confident assu-
rance that, under the guidance of Providence, that
influence mill be so employed and those duties so
performed as to redound to your own honour, and to
promote the general welfare and the happiness of • leyal
and contented people.