The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-01-22 00:00:00

NOM OF THE WEEK.

I.—TRa went affords a strange Mitture
of topics and eta—the frost—fatality of
Regent'e Pak following on the back of the
fire at the Crystal Palace—and the Deputa-
tion for the repeal of Vos Malt Duty, dancing
the haves, with the organisation of next
*form Dsmonstralon, fixed for 11th
February—Parliament, it will be recollected
assembling on the sth. That frost, as well as
fire, should be so destructive of life and pro-
perty, seems to be a lesson which fearful
accident can alone enforce{ for with regard
to frost, in so tar at all evepta as rapeett
the destruction of' young and valuable lives
in the moment of healthful recreation and
enjoyment, such precautions, it is admitted
on ail hands might have been ad •pted, as
would, humanly speaking, have precluded
the possibility of the Regent's Park calamity.
We are always wive behind hand; and there
cannot be much doubt that another winter
will find the lakes and ornamental waters so
persistently frequented by skaters, that, even
now, the recent catasmrophy his not in isny
perceptible degree diminished their Polishers.
paved over at the bottom and raised to a level
so shallow as to preclude the risk of drown-
ing, whilst at the same time greatly im-
proving the Condition of the ice. As for the
approaching political complications—Mr
Gladstone has shown himself somewhat eager
for the tray, by anticipating Mr. Disraeli's
circular with his own, calling upon honour-
able gentlemen to be in their places on the
sth of February, "at it is highly probable
that business of great public importance will
come under consideration at the opening of
the session." It has been imagined that this
can only refer to the movement of an amend-
ment on the address, which the Times of
Saturday, correcting " uninspired " contem-
poraries, now announces will be moved in
the House of Commons by the Hon. Thomas
1)e Grey, member for West Norfolk, amid
seconded by Mr. Graves, meiber for Liver-
pool. Hut we rather suspecm. the Opposition
*ill be lees preciitate than this, and will
"'bide 'heir time.' Lord Derby on his part
appears, eagle like, to have renewed his youth,
and seems a If in juvenile activity he medi-
tated supplying the place of the late Lord
Palmerston in the public eye. It has seldom
been heard of that the Prune Pdi.iister in
person was present at the mere formality of
proroguing Parliament, as Lord Derby was
last week. Ministers hay., however, issued
no circular rallying their stippotteri around
them, unless it be Lord Derby's invitation to
his Parliamentary banquet on 4th proximo,
and Mr. Disraeli's in Grosvenor-street on the
same day. The latter appears to have re-
sponded to Mr. Punnett and his Anti-Malt-
Tax Deputation with great good grace. His
sympathiest he said, were all with the culti-
vators of the ail and the 14bouring classes;
he had never concealed his opinion that (be
malt duty was a bad tax but when be wanted
to take off the one half of it, be had not been
supported, whereas had he been enabled to
effect the reduTtion of the one half, no part
of the tax would now have remained; but the
cue had been put before him "in quite an
artistic manner," and should have the best
attention of the Government. Finally, as
respects the threatened reform demonstration
—there his been a meeting of delegates to
make arrangements for the 11th of' February.
The Reform League is endeavouring to secure
the co-operation of what they term "the
Trades' Societies," but that designation would
appear to comprehend not only trade but
friendly and temperance societies—surely •
perversion of the fatter to political purposes
—and if as we perceive from a recent trial,
the benefits of the Friendly Societies Acts are
forfeited by trades unions, why not by poli-
tical unions P

IL—Ric/lila OMITLIII, TEI FACTORY
Kure, has paid the debt of nature. We never
knew the fine old man until calamity had
overtaken him—the victim, as he declared, of
a rich man's enmity. But not many years
preceding, thee), was not, save the present
Earl of ;Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, in
all England, • philanthropist of half his
popularity. Ete was, as we have said, even
when bowed down by persecution and im-
prisonment, and driven to give vent to his
strong susceptible feelings in those
but powerful writings, " The Fleet KellporZi Paper.,"
a flue old man—one of nature's noblemen,
whom it might have seemed as if no stroke
of adversity could quell or conquer; although
it is very certain that from the galling senss
of mere injustice, the evils which are un-
deserved are those wlich drive the iron
deepest into the soul. The feeling mind too,
may brave its own afflictions, yet not be
proof against the overwhelming influenses
that enguluh others in the vortex of our fate.
This would appear to have been the case
with Richard I )astler. We lure just perused
what follows in a Worcester contemporary,
aad cacao' help Paying that without

bxception, of all the heart-rending records that
have passed through our hands in a quarter
of a century • editorial experience, it is the
most painful.
wo regret to hare to announce to day the ditstb of
Yr. Richard Oastier, who died ..a Wedusad.l. sful 84.
It may be respenlb.oed that Mese his ernes aohspil
dleappearmee fr.rh society Ow i moo was admitted
into an alinelsour, aid it sopears lb.. he had breo for
wino time sePrriog frogs diarrhors, and from the feeble.
toss of rztreme age had become so helpless that the
woman who small, attends to tbss waalt• of r"
insnatem was quite enable t..thinl.ter to n them
airealamtanans. idr. Corbett, clerk to the Charity
Trustees, informed of hie state, after the kindlorat ano.
aiditration, judged that Me brat thing to be done w.
hi. removal to he Usion-hoser, where be was Wien on
Pri lay, and *irefully and Modestly alma, but balsa
was gaits exhausted, and the poor old man, although
folly eensible and thankful for the attention paid to
bits, newer rallied, hit died ea Wednesday night."

•
The factory—ghe gaol—the almshouse—the
workhouse—the pauper's grave—the last, the
poor old man's sole refuge from this evil
world I Are thee the recompense or lives
devoted to ameliorate the condition of our
fellow men? Millions acknowledge Richard
Oastler's share in the Ten Hours' Factory
Bill, the foundation of the freedom of infant
labour in England, and whilst there 'are mil-
lions of working hands employed in Britain,
millions will revere his memory. Yet this is
how he died. Just enough of human kind-
ness was extended towards him to show that
Ultima Calestorom, Astra% reliquit terns.

Mercy and compassion are always found some
*here. Men are not all relentless towards ono
another; and when the almshouse could no
longer minister to Use expiring wants of an old
man once so conspicuous in England, when the
respectable clerk to the charity trustees could do
no more, then Richard (lathier with "nature
quite exhauated" was still "carefully and
tenderly nursed" in the Unionilottes. Nursed
by paupers when no one else Would do it I
Often and often have we heard fall from the lips
of the great and good Dr Chalmers, whilst
"excavating the heathen" in the lowerparta of
?Ain burgh. the exelasnation "a Attie do we know
the kindness iif the poor to the But here
wig • MO reduced, we verily blleve. through
no fault of his own, unless the bohalt Boglish
spirit of • refusal to be gagged when he felt
himself commissioned to speak Liod's truth
against oppression, be a fault (as in the eyes of
some, it is), from wallowing in the lap of luxury,
reduced to the last and utmost stretch we can
conceive of human misery—perishing, betwixt
the age of eighty and ninety years, of absolute
exhaustion, it, 4 Union Workhouse. Trite, he
had been only Mr. Thornhill's steward; but he
bad in that capacity been more like Mr. Thorn-
hill's friend and—we had almost said, his master.
The sole control, indeed, of that gentleman's
vast and ample fortune wee in Richard °Loner's
hands, and in his hands it was ever • medium
of pure bene oenoe. ihe vicissitudes a such •
career as this preach end proclaim a terrible
lesson to society, and stamp the brand of shame
on our rapacious laws that suffer one man to
entail, *About cadge, and yet With perfeet
Impunity, entire and utter ruin, at any moment,
on the most unwary and unsuspectin;. That
the law should be stringent, sweeping, remorse-
less no respecter of persons, is proper, perhaps,
where its repressive energies ate required to put
down wrong and to establish right. But when
and where the very reverie of this is the case,
where the law seems always capable of being
stretched to wire the vindictive purposes of
private individuals, and when it drives its fangs
deep into inntheint victims, regardless of the
tortures of their broken hearts and crushed and
humbled spirits then we say, "woe unto
those who work such iniquity, or gloat over the
spectacle of the affliction it creates" Few cases
so extreme as that of Richard Deader can ever,
thank God, disgrace the social history of a
country such as ours; but even a few such OM/
must form the blackest and most indelible stain
upoh its pages.
111.—Wrrs IMAM) to the personal prooeed-
inks adopted against the public officer of "The
Church and Country Newspaper Company
Limited" by an eminent London paper firm, and
which have proved 80 completely disastrous to
him, hi* home, and family, we forbear from
making any remarks; but surely we may site
from Saturday's Times the following law of the
case th laid down, unchallenged, by one of the
most eminent counsel at theCliancery bar, in the
notable case of " Overend, Gurney and Co.,
Limited" In the course of Friday's debate
before Vide Chancellor Air John Stuart, Mr.
Bally said :

" The Company (Overead. Gurney, and Chi.,) uedihr
the rebel ails *as oely • riorporation, not • eimassay,
end therefore there was no pm-weal right salami an
individual. Under former area, it would have bees •
company with facilities as to suing end bring sued hy the
publ o cliser. Therefore no creditor weld suppose
bet he had • per oral claim orient an individual. The
18th section ol the tot, 1862. -al that under which this
ocunpany was formed. The creditors' right was only
aphid the Oorporstwene ypinst its fonds or suet', and
that must he deteneleid on matters with *high they
had DOlhilia to do. Whatever therwfore the equities
between the corporation and the member., the eteditorit
were bound because they amid only one the eoreoration.
The learned room's' then referred to various clause of
the Act. The het was only prima facie evident.. The
limited liability was Iced at different period.; end the
only proration in favour of Gradients was that they might
apply for • winding up."
In corroboration of this we have from good
lawyers only one opinion on the "illegality" of
the personal proceedings that have been resorted
to—but we auppdas this in Vain to look for
redress