The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-06-25 00:00:00

TITESDAY. TUNZ S.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Her Majesty the Queen, aconnipanied by the Princess
Beatrice and suite, left Balmoral on Friday afternoon
for Windttor Cultist. The Queen I. said to be looking
well after her sojourn in :Scotland.
The King of Dahomey has refused to pay tile balance
of his fine, and an ultioistuto is to be sent.
The (Verbs Ossetic soya thereare at least 100 corres-
pondents of foreign newspapers now in Berlin upon the
business of the Congrees.
The heirlooms at Leigh Court, the residence of Sir
William Mile., Bart., who died on Monday, are
estimated to be worth upwards of £150,000, and com-
prise a noble gallery of paintings, chiefly old masters,
and a splendid service of gold plate.
Mr. Alfred Askolent, an eminent French novelist,
has made up his mind to publish a book wherein he
will prove thst the number of murders committed
in cold blood by the restorers of order far exceeds in
number and atrocity the worst deeds of the COM-
MUN.

Everyone will be glad to hear that the strike in
Lancashire is on the point of terminating. The
majority of the workmen have determined to accept
the proposed reduction of 10 per cont. on their wages,
and the masters have accordingly resolved to reopen
their mills.

The Berliners are trying to get amusement out of
the (plaint phenomenon that a, many of the Statue
represented at the Congress have despatched as their
Plenipdentiarire, men whom they would have regarded
as aliens a few years mg.). England (say they) is
represented be one of the Jewiah reAs (Bamsfield),
France by an Englishman ('(ad lingtonl. Austria by
an Hungarian (Andrasev), Turkey by a Greek
(Karatheudory Effendi) and a German (Mehemet All
Pasha).

The London correspondent of the Liverpool Daily
Peet says that Mr. Gladstone and the Marquis of
Hartington have both expressed their disinclination to
take up the question of church disestablishment in
Scotland. Advanced Liberals had determined, and
some of them are still determined, to make Scotch
disestablisment one f the leading questions for the
next general election ;and they are expressing disap-
pointment at the passive attitude of their leaders on the
subject.
Anent the mysterious Anglo-Russian agreement, the
.Veraiag Post observe.:—" We believe that the
memorandum which has made so much stir was not
signed, but only initiallsd. This does not affect its
validity, but is an indicstion of it. character as a
mere arrangement for facilitating an approach to more
serious negotiation." Vanity "lair gave currencv to
the story that Count Schouvaloff gives the agreement
to Madame Nitwits, and the prima donnisold it to the
globe fot £.500.

Harrowing details are to hand respecting the famine
In Chins. In one district alone the population ham
been reduced from 1,000.000 to 160,000. The Roman
Catholic Bishop of Shanxi writes that up to a certain
time the starving wr.tches contented themselves with
eating the dead, but now they are killing the living in
order to devour them. The Bi..hop nays further that
the husband eat e his wife, the parents eat their sone
and •laughters, and in tome Callol the children .leveur
their parents. The China's Government, whi,h ham
rrevented all means 4 intercommunication between
the province, is doing simply nothing in the matter.

A Select Committee of the Horne of Commons will
scarcely be regarded by the public with any very
serious respect, if this is the sort of way in which
disagreeable" matters are stifled. A Committee is
now sitting to inrmire into the jurisdiction of County
Courts. A few day. ag they examined Mr. Stephen
Wall, secretary to the Master Brickmakers' Associa-
tion. Oldham. In the c eiree of his evidence he said,
at Oldham the late jorige was very old and very
°hp. tion drle 'nth,lwoch. After agr eat hl of trouble
and loe, to suitors, they at last succeeded in haviog
him rernoyeri.-..AIr. Ilibbert : Dues the new judge give
satisfaction I—No ; decidedly he does not. The tra les-
people, not only in Oldham, but in the surrounding
district.. are alt.erether tlinsatiofled with him and his
declaim... If it were possible togt to a Deighb .Driog
c piney court there would be very few case. tried before
the r 'Wham POI:e at the present time. The fact was
the Polge did not know the wave or manners of the
peopl., and 11l not try to understand them.—Mr.
Morgan Lloyd aol several other members protested
against thin evidence. Mr. Lloyd sai,l the judge was
a very distinguished man. and had been Attorney-
Heneral in one of the rolonies.—The Witnes. : No
donht our judge is a good lawyer, hut, as I have sail
before, he 41oes not understand the people and their
ways.-13y Mr. Norwood : How lilt that you Olaham
people are dissatisfied with your late and present
j.sl.; I The one was incapacitated hy old age' the
other is rounger, hut unpopular from the unsatisfac-
tory way in which he disposed of the case. c Ining
before him.—A nionil.•r of the cornmittn : Then do
you mean to 'ow he an unjust kilo? Yes, he is an
unjust judge. He gives judgment any way, and no one
can tell whtt way he will g • in ever so stro,g • caae
—Da You gracav say that your jmlge is not impartial ?
- Yes the Oldham pe.44e believe so. and not only
they, but the tradespeople .1 Fa-iton. Leigh, and rtber
itta,ll —At this point the eliairman ordered the room
to be cleared in order that the committee might
dieensa amongst themselves whether this train of
evidence might be pursued. After a long interval the
magic were re-admitted, and the Chairman, addressing
Mr. Well, said: We thank y.,u for your evidence.
We do not require anything more from you.