The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-11-07 00:00:00

TEM.
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H .1 ' 'ill M. titi. 'Ail Tits Bar,. _. els _ C Lk trieleSill AND
twu Citotalia.— Sunday evening last the Vicar of
Fertington. in his own earnest prat ical way, directed
attention to the oonfeogion in the special prayer dawn
up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and nod in all
our churches—that the murrain among our cattle, as
well as the cholera which threatens tia, are judgments of
God for national tansgreseiorts It became every one,
he said, who added his amen to the prayer to lay that
nonfession t• heart, and to consider well what those
apeeie Inns might be which stalled down these specs]
indium*" If men generally would do so, and would
Litit from tbwailla ad nottfltsabdt hik bell4ved that these
thgibintA wpdtd be lotted to hate been sent in mercy,
d that God would in that mercy, in the a, in (Abet
ti 13004, bring good out of evil. It wes rot for him to
point the judgment of God, but there were sow
national ries to which it was alit ost impossible to he
blind, two of which he would mei tion as, at all event.,
probable causes of these judgment.. The first of these
sal indifference to the dwellings and the health of the
OoOr in comparirm with the attention paid to the
housing of our cattle. He did not Bay that the later
was to, great, but ho did aseert that the former,
especially in coutParisen with the liitter, was utteil
inoonabittnt with tlitr prOferdion as Christians —in mat,'
and malty I east It *lt positively sinful. The can es
might be various—the state of thee dwellings, and the
' overcrowding of inmates might be traced to varions
•souroev, the blame might vbst ha mai peel in the land-
owner, in g tat PIA ail) on the b rden of an extravagant
Hint, or ot hear/ rates; and in a great part on the wastefdl
habits of the tenants theuitelVes. But there was the
fact, that might be witnessed in this and in want
parishes, that working men and their families were
living in places in which few gentlemen or farmers
would allow their horses, their cattle, or their pigs to
live. Surely this is an evil the saurces of which ought
to be sought out—a national sin which we ought to put
away,. The other sin, whit,/ be mast own premed steed
heavily on his awn mind, was that of the anfal waste
of one of the gifts of God's providence. And he must
confess that there always appeared to Lim a vast amount
of Ilpoori.y Or at it Ott of ieoottsistency in harvest
than sgivings, wins men knew, as most persons now
must know, that upwards of Forty Millions of bwhels
of malt were made and used every yea-. Let not his
Mertes turn this off by regarding it as no more than the
preacher's "Total Abstinence) crotchet." Let them look
first at the wa he inyolved in this misuse of one
of God's gifts. Wil,t if those forty ?Milton* of bushel.,
or oven one half I than were used with the straw too
feeding and fait sing cattle? What it to help to thic
the waste of killing wave, and lambi were
Might we not have meat at 4d. or fid. per lb.: .
not the labourer the have food that .would strengs
him? What if that should be allowed and encouragb
which for some time I have been proposing to land•
owners and farmers? What if the cottegers should be
encouraged It itip in in encloand epaciil II() or 25 fowls?
A' soon* of anima food would be supplied for lilt
family, and as long as this is cut off or withheld from
him, and the barley be would require for it is sold for
malt, lam sure there is waste —sinful waste. Let not
any say there would he in this only a temptation to
steal; the public-house is the great temptoton to
that. A man could not steal for 20 or 25 fowls—in-
stead ot this the farmer would open a new market for
bit barley end a new and inexhaustible source of tinware
for his tench These remarklt may mein otit of place, but
whett anti 'nal judgments art mentilined in the house
or God, they are not out of place. And one remark
more must be added, why is there not • supply of mils
in our towns, and even in our villages? Why? be-
cause the food which God has given fir oar cattle is
not given to them, but perverted for the supply of
that whieh whatever may be its boasted virtues "as •
medicine at one tinge, and as affording strength at
another," yet bringslruin into thousands of families,
sends two thirds of their inmates to our gaols, our poor-
houses, and our lunatic asylums, and kills far more men
and women every year than the cattle disease has yet
destroyed amongst our millions of cows and sheep. Let
men and women, whatever be their position in society,
think of these things. Let them pray indeed for the
averting of God's judgments, let them acknowledge
sin, but let them look at sin in its true light.