The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1885-06-23 00:00:00

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___DOKOHESTER. JUNE 234 IRM.

SOUS.

• lir. Henry Edwards,-11.1'.. writes': to in under
Friday's date coolirming the announcement of his
Withdrawal from politico' life. He sap : " I am
much distreseed al having to sever myself from the
House of Commons, but my health won's allow of my
undergoing the onsiety and excitement of a contested
election, so I have no alternative but to retire."

The Liberal candidature of South Dorset i* still in
abeyance. A meeting of the Council has Just been
held at Weymouth, and several goad names were die.
cussed, but no deficit' decision WM arrived at. A
few more days, however, will, MI. believe, settle the
matter.

The further adjournment of Parliament on Friday,
and the open secret that during the day Sir Hardinge
Gifford did not feel sufficiently sure of the voolsock
to justify a further return of briefs, accentuated the
situation. The last rumour nine that, failing before
Tuesday to receive the satisfactory lisnillralKVA with-
out which Lord Salisbury will not take office, an
appeal will be immediately made to the old constitii-
raciest. It is even doubtful if Mr. Gladstone can
speak for the extreme wing of the Liberal party.
Anyhow both sides perceive a constitutional difficulty
about passing the Redistribution Bill during the
crisis. If it becomes law the Queen's prerogative to
dissolve Parliament would certainly be held in
abeyance.
Until the last hitch was apparent nothing else had
bee. talked .1 but the new Ilinisterialiot appoint•
meats aad the prolonged interregnum in pilitical
life. Anomalies beget anomalies. This Ministry of
a Parliamentary minwity cannot he formed without
banishing at least two id its 1-,olingion to the Upper
House. The lato leader of the party in the Lower 14,410 e
is suede a peer because he is, as the riots puts it
"too good, and therefore not good enough,- for the
rough work of party strife amongst the Commons.
Sir Hardinge Gifford most go up to the Lords becatwe
the Conservatives have no ex-Chancellor on their
list, and somebody must he found to occupy the
Woobiack. But whilst Sir Stafford "to kicked
upstairs" the process is made as little painful to him
as possible by his appointment as First Lord I.f the
Treasury, a post to be now for the first time for very
many years separated from the title and authority of
the Premiership. It is an odd political vicissitude
which has introduced us to a Foreign Minister
who is Premier and a First Lord if the Treasury
who is appointed to that peat upon ceasing
to lead his party. There is more than ordinary
difficulty about the appointment of the Law
Officers of the Crown. Up to the time we write it
is not even certain that Mr. Edward Clarke will have
the Attorney-Generalship. If Mr. thirst had spent
rather less time in aiding and abetting Lord Randolph
Churchill in Parliament, he might have stood a better
chance of Solicitoulleneralship. As it is, his appoint.
meat would not be popular at the Bar. Mr. Webster,
Q.C., Mr. Mcßoghten, Q.C., and Mr. Grantham,
Q.C., have all been "in the running." Probably the
arrangement which would prove most satisfactory to
the profession and advantageous to the Ministry
would be the appointment of Mr. Clarke and Mr.
Webster to the two offices. Mr. Webster is under-
stood to have gone down to Launceston with a view
to becoming a candidate for that borough in succession
to Sir Hardinge Gifford. Ile will be new to Parlia•
nunnery life, and will certainly prove an immense
acquisition to hie party in the House.
Alarming are the Board of Trade returns with
regard to the steady continuous falling-off ..f our
foreign trade. The decline of exports ii all the nese
marked, as the increase of our import trade swell,, in
volume every year. In the raw material for textile
fabrics alone the fall is more than eighteen hundred
thousand pounds on a total eight millions, or about
2211 per cent. It in the same with chemicals and all
ovir great industries. How it is to end it is
difficult to say, but it certainly seems as if our cons.
mercial supremacy was soon to become a tale of the
past.

Discontent with the Revised Version d...pening.
It is now said we are charged three gruinean for a
VOTIIOII Of the Old and New Translations in parallel
columns, and the same might be given for three half.
crowns but for monopoly. The prim of the choice
editions is, in fact, prohibitive, and as it is intended
for the people it seems 11u if something more should be

done to bring it within the mean of aIL At

present it is a ten days' wonder, and the
sale after the fint rush is over has already begun to
drop.

One more remark on the Revised Version, if the
public is not already surfeited with cheap criticisms
of the dot•and-dash order. It is a pity it was not
Untied on approval to the critics before its final issue
to the public. What was the we of sending advanced
copies out three days before to the Press But if
three or four thousand copies had been struck off and
circulated six months ago, and the Revisers called
together to make a final revision after this kind of
court of open enquiry, we might have had some good
results. As it is, we have only a few off-hand
remarks hastily made, and of no use except to point
out blemishes it is too late to correct.