The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1885-05-26 00:00:00

Obbs anb enba.

The brewers have put on 2s. a gallon'on their spirits,
and the publicans, not to be outdone, have advanced
their retail ',lice Sd. This is delightfully cool,
considering the second readier of the Budget does not
conic on until sth iif June. I doubt very much
whether this proposal will be allowed to Lataa, and
then, of course, the publicans will refund to their eine
tou,eni, and the brewers to the isiblicans. And then
the world V. in CON.: to an Mit

The decision uf the magistrates in the cases hr tight
against the bakers .in Thursday has itot gisa,, liti.
titudified aatiafaction, oweept. pwrhapa, to the defen•
dant+ themselves. The mayor gave a gratuitous ad•
sertisement, with which I am ^-s*.i.tr to Quarrel, to
th. eyoni 4.1 the staff of life when he said he never
bad occasion to feel discontented with the measure
ahichbin bread•providers had meted out to him. I
wonder, hoistvtr, if the mayor ever weighed • loaf of
bread after getting it hirtv his baker, in his life !
will fniely confess that I base ça,for—to Use the
improaaible's phraaa--"ia tI. innuteace ot no beast,"
whenever I went on a foraging expealitioq, I
.4e%er
thought it would pay to wait to see a loaf weighed.
Hut when I find that hwy.'s are sold which are I lor.
short inn of 2 dm., it makes, one begin to nib his head.
It is all very well for the mayor who, if lie has a long
fruity, has a correspondingly long purse, to accept
light weight a ith a light heart, but siimsaing Volt an'
W0rkifig.113111),1144.1014 fu.ily euta away a 41b. loaf
day, and you get 3 short, what a ould it come to
in the course of a year? Here's a little sun, in pm,
portion for his worship.

I should be the last to attempt to dispute the
decisions 0( magistrates, unless under very excep-
tional circumstances, for I think it does not tend to
uphold the dignity of the Bench, and the man who
once cried out ' shame " because • trumpery alleged
assault upon • Salvation Army captain was dismissed
ought to have been banded over to the care of Supt.
Hunt, I venture to think the ruling ol the Beneh
was wrong when they peremptorily put an end to •
case because it was admitted the constable had been
offered a lull-weight loaf, but he chose to prefer
another. Aooordlng to that, a below who may happen

to have eccentric ideas as to what 2lbs. really signifr,
has only to keep a couple of full-weight loaves in his
shop, and then if a iustomer chooses to turn
" crusty ' be can offer him one of them, and sell A
thousand of any weight he choosos to people who arc
not so particular. I rather think that is • dictum
that will hardly stand much sifting.

Besides, I don't know th.at the bakers are deserving
of any very tender consideration. Directly corn, in
view of a Russian dilficulty, went up, bread " rig
now that it has been going down for the last three.
weeks, the baker's thermometer still stands where it
was.

Taking it altogether I .ve;ture to say the result of
the police proceedings on Thursday was not encoura-
ging to them in their endeavour to dimharge what,
as in this case, are often very disagreeable duties.
- -

This is, however, braid. tf. ijii,sti in a CuKtmner is
not bound Gina up wi th any loaf the baker chi ises to ten .
der him, or he might be offered a lump of dough,
and be told to go and make his own bread, the same
&A the unfortunate labourers, who after unloading a
load of straw for the consideration of some cider, were
given a pocketful of apples and told to brew it for
themselves. But he has a right to demand that he
shall have the full quantum for which he tenders his
money. And more than that, the baker 1110.1111.110 d
to give it hint, by law, whether he asks fir it or not.

A Bristol man is said to sleep with one eye open.
The Poole Mandi, the other day, found that not ioily
was that true, but that when they are awake they
have not only one, but both very widely open. They
very soon stripped off the lion's skin And revealed
the ears; they could distinguish between the bray and
the roar; between the soi-disant reformer awl tle-
Assurance Company's tout; and the ignominious Acre-
daddle before the meeting Waal concluded was a
fitting termination to an impudent piece of humbug.

A contemporary, by bullying Mr. :dontAgue Gue.t,
ha', managed to extract from that gentleman a
reply which I venture to think is one .4 the lima
brilliant specimens of electioneering literature Itorset
has seen for a lung time. I admire the sturdy pluck
with which he tells the constituency that if they
want a man to go to St. Stephen's with his hands
tied, they must go elsewhere to and ban. r.
Harris, in his first speech in Poole, said the same,
and he has acted up to it, and by wi doing he has won
the respect of his opponents. If mentbers are to be
sent up to Illi4uminster pledged to support either Mr.
Gladstone or Lord Salisbury why let us SaVe all
expense, bother, ill•feeling, and troAle oy leaving it
to the two leaders of the great parties of the State to
settle matters over a Henry Clay and • bottle of
_ -

Mr. Guest is accused of treating the Divisional
Caucus with contempt, but months and months ago
both the Poole and Wimborne Liberal Associations
passed votes of "no confidence" in him. And the
very paper which is now trying to butter him reported
that at a Radical supper held in a Poole coffee
tavern his name was recewed with derisive laughter.
Is it to be expected that alter that Mr. Guest will go
os his knees and ask to be patted on the back?
fid.A.P.