The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-09-19 00:00:00

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NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Sir Colin Blackburn has accepted the position
of a Lord of Appeal, with a life peerage under
the recent Appellate Jurisdiction Act. Sir Colin
is senior among the puisine judges of the
Queen's Bench, or, rather, wesuppose we should
say the Queen's Bench Division of the High
Court of Justice. He was appointed to that
office in 1859, by Lord Campbell. It is amusing
to read the leading article in the Times on that
event. "Who is this Mr. Blackburn 1" asks
the Times, indignantly. It appeared on
reference to the Law List that he practised on
the Northern Circuit, and at the Hirkdale
Sessions; but his name was altogether unknown
in forensic fame, and the flunkeys employed
to preserve silence in the Court of Queen's
Bench, Westminster, on being interrogated,
declared that they "never heard the name of
the party." The Times concluded, somewhat
uncharitably, that the reason of Mr. Blackburn's
promotion was his Scotch nationality. It was
a "job," a piece of "national nepotism,"
"which," the writer goes on remark, "is the
worst kind of nepotism ; for there is a limit to a
man's relations, but there is no limit to his
countrymen." Whatever may have been the
reason for his elevation to the Bench, Mr.
Justice Blackburn has now for seventeen years
occupied a distinguished position among dis-
tinguished judges, and will leave behind him,
not only an unblemished, but a brilliant reputa-
tion in the Courts of Common Law. In the
light of such • career, Lord Campbell may be
commended for discernment, instead of blamed
for partiality. Unfamed subordinates some-
times make the best principals. Few prelates
have been so conscientiously laborious, or
deservedly popular as the penultimate Bishop
of Winchester, or the present Bishop of Man-
chester, and yet, before his elevation, Dr.
Sumner was only known as the protege of the
notorious Lady Conyn,gham, and her son, Lord
' Mountcharles, and no one knew anything
at all of Dr. Fraser, except Mr. Gladstone.

"The only Cathedral this side of the Alps
without a peal" is likely to have one at last, in
spite of the opposition of residents in Ludgate-
hill. Five city guilds have presented a bell
each, and the Corporation has undertaken to
provide the tenor bell, at a cost of £530.

The clubbing togejher of parishes in the City
is going on at a rate which would delight the
Bishop of Exeter, whose efforts to annilhate
the small parishes in his Diocesan city, by his
Exeter Benefice Bill in the House of Lords,
have so award some of his clergy. A great
number of parrs of the City of London parishes
have gone shares in one Church ever since the ,
time of the fire, the new church, however, in
every case, retaining the name of both the
saints to whom the previous parish churches
were dedicated, with the quaint and oddly-
spelt epithets which were used to distinguish
the saints of different localities one from the
other. No fewer than three pairs of united
rectories—that is, in all six panshes—are now
about to be blended in one. The united
rectory of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, and St.
Nicholas Olave has for some time been held
wiih the united rectory of St. Mary Somerset
and St. Mary Mounthaw (the latter parish now
containing not a single inhabitant). To these
the united rectory of St. Benedict and St. Peter,
Paul's wharf, is to be added. The church of
St Benedict and St. Peter is to be used for the
Welsh service of the Church of England. The
Welsh were turned out of St. Etheldreda, Ely
Place, when it was bought a little time ago
by the Roman Catholics. Since then they
have been worshipping in St- Nicholas Cole
Abbey.

The oyster should not be eaten at all; it
should be imbibed from the shell. Dear reader,
flee from oyster patties, scolloped oysters,
stewed oysters, and all the fancy combinations
which the meretricious cookery of Paris has
devised. The shell must be opened (with what
relutance, more thin maidenly, does it submit
to its fate!) in the presence of the eater (sit
venia verbs.), nor, while the beard is lightly and
dezterously removed, must too much of the
precious liquid in which it is bathed be allowed
to escape. A few grains of cayenne pepper, or,
better still, and simpler, a thicker shower of the
ordinary condiment, is then to be scattered over
it, and afterwards, not before, fifteen or twenty
drops of the best lemon-juice are to be squeezed
upon it. Then, farewell conventionality! Does
not the oyster, like asparagus, suspend the
ordinary rules of polite feeding? Raise the
shell circumspectly to your lips, without letting
fall one drop of its contents; care not for the
eyes and ears of the world; but, with one
vigorous inhalation, draw the tender morsel,
with its circumambient fluid, on to the tongue;
balance it there for a brief moment; compress
it for a passing instant between tongue and
palate, and then, not rashly, nor yet too tardily,
let it glide on to its appropriate receptacle.
When the same process has been repeated four-
and-twenty times, a man may say, "I have
, lunched."

Alison, the historian, would travel to Switzer-
land or Italy to obtain a relic of Suwarrow, or
witness§ a Napoleonic battle-field; Macaulay,
though he hated travelling, would endure a
dismal journey to Killide, or a still more
dismal journey to Londonderry, to ensure the
accuracy of a paragraph; Boewell would tramp
through Loudon to verify some trumpery fact;
and Admiral Rous declares he would travel
four hundred miles to see a cock-fight. But
Professor Huxley's scientific enthusiasm passes
that of historians' biographers, and sportsmen;
for it has taken him across the Atlantic to see a
few fossils which are in the possession of a
certain Professor Marsh. The title of " Pro-
fessor" is somewhat vague, especially in the
States. It may mean a great savant and public
instructor, or it may mean a quack c.henust, or
empirical rateatcher. However Professor
Marsh has a collection of fossils, and Professor
Huxley's journey to do homage to this star in
the West is duly appreciated by the Yankees.
Publishers are arranging for their Christmas
numbers. Mr. Farjeon will again write Tinsley's,
and—on this occasion—be illustrated by the
rising artist, Mr. Harry Furniss.

Mr. Mortimer Collins left two unfinished
I novels, both of which are to be completed by
his wife. Mrs. Collins, as is well-known is a lady
of considerable literary ability, and has more than
once engaged in authorship with her husband.
The latter parts of "Daniel Derouda" have con-
siderably disappointed the reading public. On
1 the whole, the work is not likely to live. It is
too technically and scientific for general readers,
and lacks the exquisite delineation of human
character which placed " Middlemarch " among
the higher rank of novels. "George Eliot"
should return to her older and happier style.
Some few years ago the Speaker of the Hones of
Commons attempted to establish on his estate • co-
operative system of farming, by which he hoped to
raise the character of labourers and give them an
opportunity of rendering themselves independent.
They were to furnish a certain amount of money and
to receive in retcr n a proportionate share of the profits
made, while they were to be guaranteed against loss
of capital thus invested. There was nothing arbitrary
in the arrangement. The proposer di.l not lay down
a rule that no one should participate in the boon unless
he could provide a specified amount, but labourers
were invited to invest any small sums they could
muster; and the promise made was that • return
should be given according to the profits of the season.
It was, indeed, to be a kind of saving bank, the only
difference being that the amount of Interest would
vary, and would be affected in a large measure by the
exertions of those who were concerned in the move-
ment. The experiment was a praiseworthy if a novel
one; and, being instituted just at the time when
strikes were in vogue, excited a considerable degree of
interest. Most Lemons will regret to hear that success
has not been achieved. Mr. Brand is obliged to con-
ies, that labourer have not come forward so readily as
was expected. Aud, although he blames In a great
measure the adverse character of two consecutive
seasons for the failure, it is easy to see that he knows
of other causes for the disinclination exhibited by
those whom) position he sought to improve. The
agricultural labourer has not yet • proper seine of the
value of isdependence. He has lived for so many
generations from hand to mouth that he does not
perceive the necessity either for bettering his condition
oeroviding for • rainy day. Out-door relief is the
for which he hopes—the reward which he think,
duo. Why work hard and deny Wiwi( when in
Ida old age the parish is willing to support him Mr,
Brand deems this reasoning the great obstacle to his
scheme; but be blames the system quite as much as
the labourer for so unfortunate a state of things. In
Its many the Poor Law has declared, not only that no
abr&hall starve, but that the indigent in eld age &in
properly cared for, without being obliged to enter
the Union. No greater blow to independence could
penally hums been dealt; and It u • when such schemes
se Mr. Brand's fall that we see the perrdciousness of
the system. A premium is offered, indeed, to lin' provi•
&nos wad in vain shall we look for an improved
condition 01 things as keg as the 'TAM no-v in
pretties is maalatahed. ladiviauals vrho
striving to &both& out-door relief Incur in their are