The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-02-26 00:00:00

nowt Croft; Exprecio.

TVISDAY. FEBRUARY 116. 1871

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

THE SITUATION.

The position of aff lin just now for those who hold
the reins uf puwer is not a bed of roses. The hour is
fraught with danger beyond all human conception to
peep, and the gravity of the moment makes the
strongest intellect almost quail before the impending
eruption. The political volcano, charged to the very
summit with fiery materiel is throwing nut dense
masses of smok•—nre harbinger of the mieehief to
follow, and he would be a bold prophet indeed that
spoke ofAMOS as the outcome of so much intestinal
mischief.lt is lamentable t think that all this could have
been
avoided it the rulers f the hour had had the
wiwt ow to do the right thing at the right time; to join
with a unite I Europe to coerce the Turk into those
reforms which were pre-eminently necessary for the
Christiana of the Loot. Unfortunately for themselves
and for no they let the opportunity slip, and then
itaTed. with passive hula* and listless demeanour,
whilst the wily Muscovite took puitiou after position,
and won battle after battle, and not, indeed, till the
Russian is at the gates of the capital itself, do they
ralee a voice to stem the torrent of corcuTiEst. Surely
with a majority that was equal to • measure
so obnoxious aa the Royal Titles' Bill ugh Parlia-
ment, in the teeth of • hurdle nation, they could have
carried any measure they might have thought beet for
the interest and honour of the country. But no
they wait until the Turk is utterly incapable of niaing
• finger, but on the contrary through the reverses he
has sustained, is thrown actually into the arms of the
foe, and then they imperil all in a single cast of the
dice by making the Fleet run the gauntlet of a set of
forts that could have sent half of them to the bottom
In twenty minutes. We speak within the mark in
saying this, for what sort of display, for hiatuses,
would the great long Agincourt have made, with her
thin sides. against the projectiles of the 40-ton Krupp'
at Chem& She would simply have gone down like •
storm-coffin, carrying, perhaps, ball her crew with her.
The Temeraire, Sultan, and Alexandra Might have
made a good fight of it. But to make matters worse
than ever, one of these (the Alexandra, we believe),
took the ground right under the teeth of the strongest
fort, and could if the Turk had chosen have very soon
been rendered about am useful as the Vanguard that is
reposing so quietly off the Irish Coast. This is simply
shocking to contemplate. The Toned with all their
bluster as to our Manchester policy over the Geneva
Arbitration, the Brazilian affair, and the Franco-
German war have now been weighed in the balance
and found wanting, for if they meant fighting why
did they wait until the friend they wished to aid was
utterly annihilated and the foe in possession of
f,rtresess that Europe united could not now dispossess
him. For years they aired the superior way in which
they would have conducted business had they hal the
control of affairs; they have had their trial now , and
heaven known but they have blundered enough in all
conscienos. The feeble arms of Photon have been
unable to control the fiery steeds, and the ministerial
chariot bee been dreadful y bumped about in con-
sequence losing a couple of its occupants in its run.
away gallop; and although one of them is re-seated,
the other does not like the conveyance, and will
not trust himself again behind such a Jehu.
They have cared little for minorities or their opinions
on any of the subjects that they have brought forward
since their warden to office, in which the isms has
been simple and mere force wanted to carry the day;
but in the qoestion of questions—the settlement of the
East, they have simply been nowhere. With all
their high.handed.ness in other matters, when in their
sweepin them, offhand haughty manner they carried
everything before em, telling the Opposition how
cheaply they held their opiajoes ; now, when real
skill la required, a quality the, very much lack, and
for the want of which they have failed, their organs
tell the country that the cause of that failure in not
absence of wisdom on the part of the ministry and
their supporters, but the persistent and rampant
opposition of Mr. Gladstone and his ammoniates, who,
though lying in a hopeless minority, have somehow
been able to steer the barque of State. Mr. Pitt was
aa, hampered by opposition far more real and
brilliant
than any that has pestered the present
ministry, but his policy was clear—it was to crush
Napoleon, and he and those of his school who
succeeded him prevailed But we have a novelist
now at the head of affairs, • dreamer, and not •
statesman of the stamp ol Pitt.
"Lie."

The advocates of Sunday Clueing in Ireland expect
little help from the new Chief 3ecretnry for Ireland.
" Jimmy" Lowther is about the last man to sympathise
in any social reform of that kind. A prominent
member of Tatters&Ws is not likely to side with either
the temperance or the Sabbatarian party. When,
therefore, the advocates of the Bill are told that
inistere will en,lesivour to give them a night a month
hence, it would be wise f x them not to count upon
any aid from the Castle officials.

Though the Session has begun so early, private
members are not sanguine of accomolishing more this
year iu the way of legislation than they did last year.
For instance, unless the Government will take in band
the Bankruptcy Bill which Mr. rlampson Lloyd has
introduced in behalf of the Aatiociate I Chambers ,d
Commerce, its doom may be considered sealed. His
other smaller Bill, intended to amend the law relating
to hills of sale, may possibly get through. It has
lately received some amendments, and is a thorough
useful bit of legislation, seeing that it would close
one fertile occaidon for swindling and fraudulent
debtors.

Do the Ritualist clergy believe in the necessity of
the Eucharist to salvation, or do they believe in the
validity of their own order.! One is compelled to ask
such questions when one sees a man like Mr. Ward,
of St. Raphael's, Bristol, withhol ling the sacrament
from his people because he cannot conscientiously
celebrate it without lighted candles and certain
vestments. There was a certain R.C. martyr who
said that though he was imprisoned in a cell, yet he
wanted nothing but a morsel of bread and • drop of
wine to celebrate the mystery by which God was
brought down to earth. The priest's breast would
serve for an altar if all else failed. But Ritualists'
either have so little faith in their own thaumaturgioal
powers that they cannot exercise them without a whole
stage full of properties, or else they will not exercise
them. In the latter case, what becomes of their
theory, that the weekly Eucharist is essential to the
spiritual welfare of their people? To discontinue the
administration ef the communion, as Mr. Ward has
done, merely because be must not have a couple of
tapers and a coloured dres, is ab .ut as sensible as it
would he to refuse to preach because his ulpit was
n..t allowed to be of a particular shape, and his
sermon case of a particular colour.

A Starling, imitatively envious of the famous Jack-
daw of iiheinis, has built • nest and hatched a
Star(t)ling family in the church tower of Yeovil. A
happy omen of the advent of " Spring, beautiful
Spring."

Mr. ex-P.C. Hobbs, formerly of the Wimborne
division, if what we hear it true, has succeeded in
hood-winking, not only our Powe representative, but
the Judge of the County Court. Mr. ex-P.C. Hobbs
was " pulled up" at the laat County Court for • small
debt, and he then pleaded that be had been rendered
unfit for duty in an affray with po chore, that his
incapacity compelled him to resign ho berth, and
further. that this had been force-ibly brought about
by the advice of his superior officers, and he had been
left by an ungrateful c tunty T-enniteas. Judge Lefroy,
beneath whose horse-hair lurks a world of kindness,
asked the reporters to make the I.oor man's matt
known. As to ourselves this was readily done. But,
WS g 744•41 to learn, there haa been—to designate it
kindly—a slight misunderstanding. Hobbs, we are
told, was never asked to redo. He Was never
advised to do no by his superior officer. And his
pension, as he complains, has not been withheld from
him simply because be never earned it. Hobbs, we
gather from official sources, during the time he was
Incapacitated for duty was allowed 10.. per week.
Toward the latter end of the term he worked as a farm
labourer, and earned 12a. extra. He wag over and
over again asked by his superior officer to return to his
duty, but he obstinately refused. He was also
medically examined, and found tit for ditty. Of
course this is another instants, of one story being good
until the other is told.

The following plan for testing milk la recommended
for ins simplicity. Dip • well.poiished knitting-needle
Into • vessel of milk and immediately withdraw it in
a upright position. If the milk be pure, some of the
fluid will adhere t the needle; should water have
been added, there will be no adhesion of fluid.

I am told.'asys • London correspondent, that the
opponements of Mr. Osirrne Slorgan's Burial Hewitt.
taon, who in the early part of the evening lied
expected • large majority, were in a state of consterna-
tion when they returned to the House iron dinner
about ten o'cbck and learnt that Home Rulers were
going to support the member for Denbighshire. The
Church party say that now they have another year
before them, and so far from abandoning their guns, in
the papern advise them to do, they will Repass fur
another and even hotter defence next year.