The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-08-26 00:00:00

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

The report to he submitted to the shareholder* at the
ball .yearly meeung on Thursday next has been issued.
The following are some of its features :
Receipts and expenditure on revenue account for the
half.yeers ending 31st July, 1878 and 1879:

Rzaurrs.
187.

Fmn 9sideBl9l, Darold/. mils,
Ic ... 1.508 938 1 557 129
„ Merelaa.cliae, 1916.,912 '945u0
„ Itinerala . . . 879,t5t1 ... 861,474

.C 1361,003 .P. 494,873
Net decease... £70.870
EZPEZIDITIJKL -

LS7O. 187 a
4;
Maintenance of way... VANS
Locomotive and carriage mock ... M 4,701
Traffic and general charges ... t 150503 1105,079
Govenunant duty, Mc. 130,780 ... 130,517

£1,716,269 ALMON
Net decrease... .019,71 N
The balance available for dividend among the nowt's-
ton of ordinary stock, after payment of the dividends osi
the guaranteed and preference stocks and other !bred
charges, is £392,6130 91. This balance will adroit of the
payment of • dividend on the ordinary stock at the rate
01 34 per cent. per annum, lanai • sum of £16,111 3s. 7d.
to be carried forwent. Although the revenue of the corn•
pally, in common with that of nearly all the railway
companies in the kingdom, has bee. seriously affected by
the continuance of commercial depression, sad by the
unfavourable weather which has prevailed during the peat
hallyear, the proprietors are to be roagratulated upon the
result of the half-years working. On the Weston, Cleve-
don. and Yeovil branchea the broad gauge, which has
hitherto been in use on these hoes, is being replaced by
the narrow gauge. In carrying out this work some
improvements will be effected is the stations. The alters-
tin, will also be attended with conventenos in the conduct
of the traffic mid economy in working.
As intimated in the last report, the directors were able
to dispense with the promotion of any Jill in the last
session of Parliament IThs bills promoted by other
companies and corporations oontaimiag pray-Woo' affecting
this company have received the sanction of Parliament.

The trellic- between this country and Franca by the z:ew
route *it Weymouth and Charbourg_, which wee opened •
year Ng°, has steadily increased. The directors trust that
tb• aorta which, in conjunction with this company, are
being made by the Western of Francs Company to procure
tragic from their own district and from the Railways corn.
municating with their system, will mint in a consider.
able awaiWou of train:, by tine route.

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND THOUGHT.

-•
Dr. Allman's address at Sheffield as president for the
per of the British Association may be dearribed ,a
evolutionary, but not revolutionary. Taking as his
subject "protoplasm," that substance common to all
living beings, animal or vegetable, without which hfe is
not, and by and with which the manifestations of life are
produced, the professor sketched the general nature and
history of the substance a. now familiar to all students of
the life and structure of animals and p/anta. He had no
difficulty in shoeing that in all essentials the life-history
and the ultimate structure of plants and of animals is, to
all present appearance, identical ; but be was careful to
point out that molecular or other differences, or pstential
changes must occur, by virtue of which one mass of primi-
tive protoplasm becomes a jelly.fish, and another
develops. into a sapient man. Similarly the professor to
careful to point out that thereto,
scious life" (if such there be) and thought, Dr. Allman
concluded his address with the following suggestive
sentences, which will carry comfort to those who are, or
affect to be, frightened at some of the speculations of ,
modern science :
. .

I'l k-n-c; that -there is • special charm in theme broad
genendisations which would refer many very different
phenomena to • common source But in this very charm
there is undoubtedly • danger, and we must be all the
more careful lest it should exert an influence in arresting
the progress of truth, just as at an earlier period tradi-
tional beliefs exerted an authority from which the mind
but &lowly and with difficulty succeeded in emancipating
itself. But have we, it may he asked, made in all this
one step forward towards an explisation of the pheno-
mena of consciousness or the disoovery of its source r
Assuredly not The power of conceiving of • substance
different from that of matter is still beyond the limits of
human intelligence, and the physical or objective con-
ditions which are the concomitants of thought are the
only ones of which it le possible to know anything and
the only ones whose study is of value. We are not,
however, on that account forced to the conclusion that
there is nottici7otitte universe but matter and forte.
The ample.* law is absolutely inconnedvahl• by
the herbed the brutes, and no one would he justified
In aamml that man had already attained the limit of his
powera. Whatever may be that mysterious bond which
comucts organisation with physical endowments, the one
grand fact--• fact of inegimahle importance—stands out
clear and freed from all obscurity and doubt, that from
the first
.dawn of intelligence there is with every advance
In :Zaalsalion a corresponding advance in mind. Mind
as las body is thus travelling onwards through higher
and still higher phases; the great law of evolution is
shaping the destiny of our race; and though now we
may at most but indicate some weak point in the gene-
ralisation which would refer consciousness as well as his
to a common material source, who can say that in the
far-off future there may not yet be evolved other and
higher faculties from which light may stream in upon
the darkness, and reveal to man the great mystery of
thought "--Irfai diners' Carolaige.

Tug VALUE Or AGRICULTURAL LAND. —That the value
of agricultural land has fallen within the past four years
is certain, but it is dillicidt to measure the decline. A
little while ago an estate was offered for mks, when the
21;bid was £12.000, although the same estate had cost
01 some years previously. As another Instance of
diminished value, • farm in &sox is mentioned in the
Newt-lame eloprese as having been let for 92a per acre.
while only 7. ed. can now be obtained. Making full
allowance for the difference between buying prices and
selling prima, and also for the difference of circumstances
attending the cultivatice of the soil now as compared with
neor years , the reduction in the value of farm land is
measured by such an extreme fall In market price.
The value which poeisseon set upon their landed property
is Probably on the average higher than its sailing value
would be; the difference between seller.' and liuyare
valuation must be fully to per cent., even allowing the
sminer to acknowledge the fact of depression. The past
value weighi with the owner, especially if he bought at
high prices; the present value, it must be plain both to
seller sad purchaser, is little more, sad in some cases loss,
than nothing; the prospective value of farm lands in this
country is the subject of the most divergent opinions. All
these discontent elements enter into the determination of
the proper price of land; but we cosy perhafr suggest the
prospective value as the moat important, and depends
upon the continuance, growth, or decay of American con.
petition with our home crops. I. We may expect • series
of better harvests than of late Thom of America RART
he ewe ; 1 The virgin soils which produce the cheapest I
Wiest tend to become exhausted ;t The improvement in
American trade will attract Western growers back to the I
towns, and the bulk of the competing produce will be I
lessened; I An Menem of trade will tend to nth*
rail-
way charges (now exesmivelf low) and therefore prior on I
that sick. & A universal revival would raise also ship- I ping freights; and 7. There is always the possibility of • I
ear shutting out foreign supplies and throwing our
populaUon upon home produce. There are many proba-
bilities, therefore, in favour of • rise in the value of
Feiglish agricultural land, which is now suffering extreme ,
dePelpression. se measured by Its selling value In the market. I
—1 Mgt Gaulle.

DAl'"

MARK LANE.—Yossat.
Wheat, both Engbah and ia&gdold mass qaieti
at law week's prior. Flour
044 midi., bone, and piss, met with a fait claraaaci, Las
tendency being against the buyer.

METROPOLITAN cernE.—MOND4Y. About 25,000 berate, lacludio6 shout 400 forefea.
rade dull, from 4s to 5m &i. Aland 11.000 amp sod Lambe. Trade illative • snap from 56 tots 101;
lambs from 76 to 7. 6d. darer from 5. to 56 MI
Pigs from 36 8d 10 4. 6d pee Bd*.—At Lleptfoal ths, were about 3,000 berm and 1,000 'hasp.

DORCHESTER
SATURDAY'S CORN ILARKET.
A very poor attendance to-day, and the weather
being again tuttavourable, although Friday had how
fine, English wheat was held firmly, and Inahltsiaal
its value, samples being scarce; red was worth 44.
to 465. 6d. per quarter, and white was rained se
565, the few samples on show being in fatsOf
herlethere Were no inalplei shown, eed Nein
commanded paces, being in soma case. Was% more money, low qualities 245., otheri 3is. to He fit
Oats were very firm at late rates, but not macaw
wes done to quote an advance, and rates wen,
nominally abotlS the same. Mau; grotosd, firm
at last week's prices; but whole must was rather easier, certainly not. worth more money. Is New
there wern no alteration; but peas were lookimiz
and would be higher in price had there been tb.
demand.

DORCHESTER
SATURDAY'S CATTLE MARKET.
Al Mr. Sy,onds's sale there V!. • good gap* a hit bad, srn sold at rather lover musk but
qualities making 12s to 13s, and aufseioe 10. Us per moons. For store stuck a slow trade. but pee
and calves wens .13 dssnand at fully labs prior. of
sheep alio a good supply, bast wetness maid.,
91,1 pea lb., and ewes to 81d; Iwo* 10.1 to 11d.
Of veal there was a largo quantity oa offer, and fat
c.jvas sold at Id to &I per lb. Rath etched /7 to
EH. Nearly all the lots wore cleared