The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-11-06 00:00:00

bon.

BOROUGH pixTv SE.SSIONS.

TVI:SDAT, Ott ',her 1.-I;,fore the Mayor, and J.
A. Devenish, h0w..., aid E. Hower, c.
Ali:alseth Effis was summoned hy Slaty Reeks, for
making use of abusive and threatening laitgeare towards
her, and E,lreord.Julto Errks was rniuiiiiolicil by Eliza-
beth Ellis fur using abusive bingo iite towards her, and
wahine ing CIO iron the Horcet I Hank, of a hich lic
was trustee. Mr. Howard appeared for Elisabeth Ellis,
and Mr. 11111 for Edward John Reeks. It appeared
that Reeks and Mrs. Silts were relatives, and that about
two years and a half ago she had Moine money left In r,
and paid 1:50 into the bank for the lazielit of tar little
gill, about seven years of age. This amount being
&lactated, the receipt was giVell to Reeks to keep, he
promising to act as trustee to the chill in the event of
Mrs. EEis's death. This WAX all done unknown to Sirs.
Ellis'. Itusland, awl she was afraid that he might, during
*Moe fit ul intoxication, withdraw the money front the
bank awl spencl it. A shed titue since, in consequence
of a rumour which hail gut afloat, the went to the hank
and found that flecks had withdrawn the whole of the
kW. She thisit went to I sidle tie bee 1:4
saying that thvt w.,s all he ha I left of the t. He
also gave up a pony and cart to ber, worth
about 1:10, and promised to pay off the re-
mainder by instalments. The instalments, however,
were not forthcoming as promised ; and when
she went again, she threatened proceedings, hence the
16111111U1 MA taken out against her by Heeks's wife. !leeks
also was very abusive, and refused to pay the instal.
clients he hail promised, and the crostosummuna was
accordingly taken out by Mrs. Ellis. A vast deal of
evidence was given, and Mr. Hotly was called, who
proved lion Oa y was paid into the bank, and that
the account had been sluice closed ity Reeks, who had
1 received the whole of the inuney.—The Bench
considered that the lass had been made out sufficiently
dear to prove the sap wiry of Reeks, and he was cootie.
.mently committed for trial at the ensuing Mardi
Assizes. Hail was sukssecluently taken for his appear-
ance, himself in kW and two sureties in Eli) each.
The summons against MN Ellis WAS 4161116:x11.
."..•. .

Al.fre IVilliduss appeared to a summons iaucll
&pipet him by Supt. Lidbury laat week, for throwing a
quantity of rubbish in Franchise-street. Defendant
*aid he was not worse than others. Mr. Raggett had a
lump of mortar for • long time in the public street,
and carts and van* were left on the market day in
Maiden-street, blocking up the thoroughfare, but no
notice were taken of the,,, things because, in one 1114 C,
the party wu a member of the Town Council, auol in
the other, because a publichouse, which lx•loonged too a
brewer who was a magistrate, was locnetitted.--The
Bench tot.t Ishii theta cum% were nut at present before
them. Fined Is. anal costs.

PUItTLAND.—Ou Friday evening week, through
the kindness of the commanding officer, the men
were entertained bye very clever dramatic reader.
Mr. F. J. Webb, of London celebrity, who gave
w,me beautiful selections from Shakeiquaire and
modem authors, and a elene from " Luke the
Labourer," which quite took the men by N unwise.
In so dull a place as Portland, it is to be luq.ed that
during the winter months something similar to Mr.
F. J. Webb's dramatic entertainment of Friday
evening will be allowed to wile away the dull mono-
tony of" Barrack life."_

iistivir °Korn or Fonvrrnts.- -We understand
that it is intended shortly to open a F,,rester's
Court at the New Hotel, when the promoters of the
scheme hope to vie with their Weymouth brethren
in a generous rivalry in inducing to thou() habits of
prudence and forethought which by means of Fores-
ters' and Odd Fellows' societies have of late years
been so rapidly developed. We hope the aorta of
the Foresters of Portland will be crowned with
success.

NIECIIANIeri INISTITUTC. --The first of a series of
lectures for the winter season was deliveied on
Tuesday evening week by the Rev. William
Spencer FAlwards, of London; but we regret to state
the number of persons present was not so great as
might have been expected. The subject of the lec-
ture. which was ably treated, was "Forty days in
the Mien, with special notices of Sinai and Petra ;"
being the recollections of • personal visit.

OPENING OF THE FIRST SECTION OF THE
DORSET CENTRAL RAILWAY TO BLANDFORD.

The advantages of railways need not be dilated on it
1860, neither will their history for the last thirty years, !
pregnant as it has been of social and commercial I
benefits, tell, even approximately, of the undevelopod I
good they are intended and fitted to work out. The
recognition of railway advantages is universe! enough;
the only obetaelea to their universal adoption are
the ways and means. These are not 60 difficult to
obtain where city has to be joined to city, or town to
town, by the iron bands, then the appeal for contribu-
tions has to be wade to the Many heads and packets of
• commercial population, to whom gigantic enterprise is
but a play game, and the higher the stakes the bolder
the exertions made to win them. The cue is, how-
ever, very different in so agricultural district, where
the non-enterprising cleans are askel to venture largely
in furtherance of • scheme which dimly foreahadows to
their minds the breaking up of old usages, by the ,
introduction of strange and unwelcome innovations. In
the former came men will co-operate to facilitate, in the
latter they will do all in their power to oppose. The
strategy, however, of professional or commercial
, enterprise, outwits the conservative element indigenous
to • locality, and the established order of things is
sometimes suddenly and rudely broken in upon by •
power external to the neighbourhood, dislocating its
moat cherialiel interests, and successfully hattliug with
Re strongest antipathies. The battle to he fought by
these antagonistic elements is rarely victorious to the
uon-enterprising dames; and though individnahl may
della the completeness of the victory by defiantly
entrenching themselves within the boundaries of their
private interests, sooner or later they must bow to the
force of the popular will, and, whether landholders or
tradesmen, must scknowledge the sovereignty of
those influences which make this nation socially Rod
commercially great. More than ten years since
the propriety of this neighbourhood was firat
alarmed by • railway speculation, projected to pass
through the lame lined country as the Dorset Central,
with this difference, that the terminus was then to be at
Blandford, whereas the line now commenced is intended
to pave onward in the grand project of connecting the
English mei Bristol Channels. This scheme having
proved abortive, a few yeses uuly elapsed before
another was started, for which its advocates hoped to
en'isi public sympathy and support by baptizing it with
the popular arid catching name of the " Independent
Liue." This second attempt, however, proved as unsuc-
cessful 14 the one which preceded it, but it was impanel-
hie that these repeated sowings of the mad of enter-
prise in the public mind should be altogether fruitless,
and at length there +prang up and grew, certainly not
rapidly at first, the Dorset Central scheme, under the
auspices of an experienced railway professional from
London, and a warm-hearted and public-spirited prac-
titioner in the country. The gaine was, at first
especially, a difficult one to play. l'revious failures,
the going through oof private property, the dispossess-
ing of rights, arid the public mind sensitively alarmed
by disclosures of railway gambling, and railway villany,
' made the first movements of our legal heroes not only
to he suspiciously regarded, but actively opposed At
length perseverainx, tact, and the palpable benefits of
the object sought to be accomplialied, subdued the bitter-
ova of hedility, and opened the public ear to listen to
the oersiowive tunes of the gentleman, whom Mr. Red-
dy& described at the luncheon, as "the most eloquent
insii he ever knew." With screething like a share list,
a praciind arid speskiug M.P., and one or two influential
members of our resident aristocracy as the nauclus of a
Board of Directors. an Act of Parliament was readily
obtained, ass,! the *wanted machinery put in motion to •
begin the work. A titled lady of our neighbourhood
" turned the first sod," awl a distinguished nobleman
preaided over the lauquet taking ',lace in homier of the
occasion ; the "pt-ether harmonising in sentiment arid
',familia with the flourish of success which characterised
the proceedings of the day. Four years have elapsed since
these promiaing doings end • " iii" of the line projected I
—not tutor° than ten miles—has been just struggled
through at a total estimate cost of £130,000 or £13,000 I
per mile, and executed at about the rote of two miles
per armour, through • country with scarce an engineering
difficulty, and all but level with time bed of the river
Stour running from end to end of the " bit " completed.
But though there was little engineering difficulty—
not even excepting the place of slips— it is but fair to
say that the monetary, atmospheric, and "landed inter-
eats" were no *light obstacles to the progress of the
undertaking. But £lO,OOO of aubseribel capital to com-
mence • project catimetel to cost 11130,000, and the
inouey market continuing all but throughont its seem-
tion so sensitive that the legitimate demands of trade
could warmly be met, was retarding enough to a com-
pany whose original capital so ill sufficed to lemons it.
monetary wants. This potent drawkick, with water
front the loniken-up cisterns (ruin beneath, and a
redundant fatness from the clouds above, no doubt
combined, with other local obstaeles, materially to
retard the ',narrow of the work, and in a meteors set
at defiance the efforts of an ultimately influential body
of directors, and thwarted the wise arrangements and
practical skill of officials and contractor*. Still,
obstacles as great, if not greater, have been prompitly
overcome in relation Mother schemes ; and though the
" getting up" of a company and the laying dman of a
hue call for men whit " liko plenty of work," and
know "hoe to do it," and knowing that superhumaii
effort cannot be iuspre.ristd though railway official* are
supposed to lie "got up" by nature for the occasion,
yet us cannot but think that, had more of the com-
mercial element bent united with the social, and
property naluence cheraeterised the Board, the means
.it their clispoial would Lave been mere effectively
empluyel. With contractors promptly paid in cis:M—
oon in shares,- and men of bushier. habits to co:tot:lil
them, twelvemonths, or two years at the farthest,
i,;,se given ample time fur the execution of the " hit" of
liue which has taken no lee than four years to coin-
pieta. Not only would greater lousiness promptitude
have lessened time, diaappoititinent, and the expeuiliture
of money. but the retarding influence of an unusually
season would not have had to be contended
with.

The " be of line now completed is said to be well
laid down, and though the total expel's.'a op to June
1..4 wo. k:113,000, with the exception of the hearieat
item to be iaid the contractors, which, with money now
due, will probably swell the total cost of the line to
more thei the estimated amount —the public congratu-
lation hi great that the instalments of a great under-
taking is now open, and that thiti ticighlaturhood will
be opened op, socially and commercially, by one
of the mod wedge-like and determined reformers