The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-12-03 00:00:00

Porset eon* Cxpreos
TUESDAY. DECEMBER L 2867.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The special business for which Parlianiset was as-
semble 4 has been practically °occluded, with a
rapidity and unanimity little to be anticipated, after
the intimations DO freely gioan e few month, beck
of oPPositi°o to lb. grootoil of supplies for oarrykg
on the Abyssinian ei pedalo.; on scooting of the no.
emiatitutionsi act of lb. Gorenisniset in employing
Indian troops and resources for militaty worries out
of India without the sanotioo of the legialatere, and
bak Lodi sad wesistel erpeaditare Is Ike pre-

for rescuing the captives from King ,
&tniZoZ Bat the breach of their administrative
powers in the. beginning • oostly war, even though
It was done under coroutostemoes strongly suspicions ,
we an intention to act without the kno•ledg• of Par
Hamad, has been readily oondoned, while the
question of financial wastefulness scarcely received
notice, save is • few forcible words spoken by Ur.
Beraal Osborne. Another noticeable circumstance is
the change made in the method of justifying
the war. Until the meeting of Parliament
we heard but little of our prestige in India being
.evolved in the matter, for up to that tune it bad
been deemed euflicimit to warrant our embarking in
this expedition that the honour of the nation was
concerned. What are the facts of the case? An
envoy was employed on England's behalf to go on •
service of danger, and in that, minim he had been
imprisoned nod Maltreated. Under them circum-
stances it wise plainly our duty for honour's mike, to
spare no effort' to mane him. With the missionaries
webs,, nothing to do, for they went there at their
own risk. The necessity for England's engaging in
such an expedition in support of the national
honour, commended itself to the patriotism of the
country, and was an intelligible ground of action.
But in Parliament all this has been ignored, and the
only pleas advanced in behalf of the enterprise,
are, that it is nemesem7 to the maintsitancie of our
prestige in India, and to "keep the Bombay army in
wind Sir Stafford Northoote want so far as to say
that "if it were not for India, it would be a matter
for grave oonsideratias whether this expedition
were necessary at all," and the sum of his
argument is that we most go to war with
Abyreinia, to @how the natives of India that we
see strong enough to hold their country fast Sir
Henry Ithwlimon's reasoning was to a windier effect.
According to this experisoced soldier and diplo-
matist, in sanding troops to Abyssinia, the Indian
Government is doing its proper work just aa mach
as if it were raising recruits "for the porpoise of
overaweing • disaffected district." This is • remark-
able statement, but surely it is forsaking • very
eels beers of motion fer a very unstable one. The
dolmas of the national honour will enlist the
warmest sympathy and support from all 01111111011, but
to rest the Jitetillostlon of the Abyssinian war on
the ground of pollsy in view of Our prestige in
India, is to adopt a moth weaker and more
questionable argument. But the Government do
not adopt the legitimate conclusion of their newly.
found principle. As the war is undertaken in
order tb tasks the people of India clearly
understand that we are their masters, they
ars the proper persons to pay for the necessary
teschiog—se it is on their behalf the expenditure
is incurred, they ought to meet it. Bat what is the
fact? are to pay about 8 per oof the
amount, and cent,
the remaining 92 per oeut, is to °wine
out of the pockets of the patient British income-tax
payers. From this it would appear that the Govern-
ment, with the mutation of 198 members of the House
of Commons, against 23, bee done an injustice to ths
people of this country. For ourselves, however, we
don't believe any wroog has been clones bsbairA wa
dissent from the chief argument by Which the
expedition., has bean justified in Parliament. The
honour of England, we hold, is the main oonsidera-
Pon involved in the restos of our envoy from the
clutches of King Theodore, and of course we ought
to provide the money for whatever measures it may
be found nommary to adopt in order to maintain the
Imperial honour.

It is gratifying to learn from react intelligence
that after all Theodore may not have to be hunted
down. Rebels are springing up against the insane
yet cunning mooster on every band, and the
approach of a British army will probably alienate
the greater part of those who adhere to him. What
have the Abyssinians to gain by upholding the
bloodthirsty tyrant? Already we are told more
than a hundred villages have sought the protection
of Colonel Merewether' and priuntsed him aid ; and
it, is reported that Magdala, where malty of
Theodore's English captives are held in durance,
has fallen into the heads of • rebel chief. Lord
Stanley expresses a confident opinion that the
prisoners held by Theodore will not be pat to death,
and that the King will not By with them to the
extremity of his dominions. By the latter he
would, he says, oertainly risk the loss of throne and
his ;and the former would deprive him of the means
of eventually making pros with us. We may,
therefore, have • short war, but certainly there will
be a heavy bill.
The debate originated by Mr. C. Forster on
Friday night refracting the ratepaying clauses of the
Reform Bill (as people peridet in Milling what has
long since emerged out of that obrysalis state into
the Reform Act), shows that we may expect next
sessiou • determined attack upon the chief principle
of Mr. Dieraeles measure. The personal payment
of rates was relied on by many Comore& lege as a
great bulwark again,' democracy, but now we hero,
on the authority of the Attorney-General, that no
such safeguard exists, as payment of the rates by the
landlord will be taken as payment by the tenant.

If we are to believe the rumours that reach us
from Berlin, Vienna, and Munich, the zealous and
suited efforts of Fosses and kneels have not only
overcome the hesitation of P.assia and Prytema, but
have persuaded thi Pope sod the Ring of Italy to
send .epresentatives to the Conference. It appears
from the diplomatic papers presented to the French
Chambers that the Italian Minister at Paris was the
Ann to suggest • Conference. Tbe hesitation of the
Pope explains itself. He has never acknowledged
the Cr3wn of Italy, though he has accepted coutri-
butions from the Italian Treasiny. He has stead-
fastly demanded the restitution of the Adriatic
Provinces, of Umbria, and of the Romagna, as •
oondltion sine qud non of coming to terms with the
Italian Kingdom. Were he now to consent to re-
linquish the Romagna on the ground that the
Romagna annexed heel( to Piedmont during the war
of independence in 1850, and was not anointed by
force of arms, he would abandon the non nouritetus,
forfeit a principle, and deliver himself into the hands
of those who treat the temporal power as a purely
" tirritrial" question. It is difficult to imagine
that, in consenting to he represented at Conference,
Lb. Holy Father will renounce any one of his
"rights." Hie representative may appear ate Con-
• foresee to " revindiaate" those tights, certainly not to
renounce them. Doubtless in consenting to meet
the representative of the King of Italy at a Con.
femme he will in some sort lend his sanction to
amplished facts. Beyond this be will antecede
nothing. On the other hand, the Italian plenipo-
tentiary will doubtlesa be prepared to concede all
that can be demanded in the miters of secerities
for the absolute spiritual independence sod the
local rpi itaal sovereignty of the Pope. But as
Muds the local temporal sovereignty of the Pope,
the representative of Italy can only conform to the
recorded will of the National Parliament, and to the
declarations of every Italian statesmen since 1860,
including the pretest Minister General Menabrea,
for who-• orthodoxy OVOII the Bishop of Orleans
has vouched. Under such circemmances will any
Conference of European Powers undertake, after
the manner of the First Napoleon, to declare
the Temporal Power of the Pope at an sod, and his
States expropriated for pitrposes of public utility
Meer ti • manner of H. Hatumnann ? If the Con-
(erotic° ?Mimes from such • responsibility as this
will it peremptorily arrest the pretensions of Italy,
and, in anticipation of the (Ecumenical Council of
1869, declare the present bounds of tel Papal
territory inviolable? This would be neither more
nor less than a ratans to the principles and praotioe
of the Holy Alliance, an 4 to perpetuate foreign
military interventions in Daly. Hot we cannot
believe that the Emperor of the French has made
the withdrawal of his troops from Rome dependent
on the problematical issue of • Conference. The
actual presence of his troops at Rome, now that
the safety of the Pope is moored, is • violation of
the Convention he signed with Italy, and by
which he professes to be bound. It would beds.
rugatory to the dignity of any European State to
accept such • ',audition. A conference will
sanction • perpetual foreign intervention at ROOD,
without which .1 is impossible for the Temporal
PSwevtoeobest, A Conference will never abolish
the Temp iral Power. It might give the authority
of • collective European *section to the ample
securities which Italy is ready to offer, and the Pope
refuses to accept, for the independence of the spiritual
soversignity. But it is the temporal and not the
spiritual sovereignty that the C.nference is invited
to discuss. And Oil no Conference will undertake
to destroy or to protect. Then why • Conference?
There is an reason, and we grimily doubt whether
owe will assemble.