The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-03-29 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

Dr/RCHERTISR, TUESDAY. MARCH 29. 1864.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

A Parliamentary return has been published
showing the total amount of the malt-tax in each
year since 1848. The duty, which in 1847
realised £4,475,000, gradually increased year by
year, until in 1853 it rose to £5,690,000. During
the war with Russia the duty was augmented
from 2s. 7d. and 5 per cent. to 4s. per bushel,
the result of which MU an advance in the amonnt
of malt duty to the extent of about • million
sterling annually. In 1857 it realised much
about the same as in 1853, and averaged
£5,500,000 •-year, until in 1883 the sum derived
from the malt duty was £6,273,000, which, with
the exception of the three years in which the
war duty was levied, is the largest sum the mat-
te: has yet returned to the Exchequer.
In compliance with an order made upon the
motion of Mr. Walpole, the reports of Mae
Estates Committee to the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners, on the 4th and 18th February, have
been printed. It appears that from 1840 to the
present time the value of all the appropriations
made by the Commissioners has amounted to
about £5,500.000. of which about £1,000,000
has been derived from private benefactions, and
the whole of the remaining £4,600,000 from the
re-distribution and improvement of Ecclesiastical
property previously enjoyed by the holders of
cathedral dignities and Ecclesiastical prefer-
ments. Benefactions amounting to £230000
are at the present time offered to the Commis-
sioners on condition of their being met by grants.
The Commissioners require farther augmenta-
tions to the extent of about £330,000 a-year in
order to raise to £3OO per annum all benefices in
public patronage with a population of 500 per-
sona, and to provide one half of the sum
necessary to raise the same amount all benefices
in private patronage with • like population' ex-
cepting those in the patronage of the Lord
Chancellor, which are otherwise provided for.
Grants during the current year are recommended
to the capital value of about £700,000.
The Madras Time.s gives some curious in-
formation respecting the notorious fraudulent
banker Sir John Dean Paul. Immediately after
he was sentenced to penal servitude, Lady Paul
realised all the property settled on her, and pro-
ceeded without delay to Sydney, where she
purchased a beautiful seat in the suburbs. Her
husband having arrived at • penal settlement in
another part of Australia as one of a gang of
convicts, the wife of the convict baronet applied
to the Government for his services, and was
permitted to employ him as her "assigned
servant." We need scarcely add that, having
thu released him from unpleasant restraint, she
placed all her newly purchased property in his
halds, and has since led a very quiet life in his

Company.
Toe Times New York oorresvondent menVona
,most extraordinary case of I. &oral oppression
on the part of one of General Butler's officers.
A clergyman named Wingfield, residing in
North Carolina, had, it appears, given offence
by his secessionist views. Without • word of
warning General Wild, the officer in question,
declared that Mr. Wingfield made use oft lents
which God had given him, to stir up strife
against the Government of the United States,
sod that be must be made an example of. He
was therefore arrested, turned over to a provost-
marshal without a trial, and ordered to be kept
to hard labour for three months—sweeping the
streets. This was too much even for Butler, and
the punishment was remitted, and Mr. Wing-
field sentenced to the milder penalty of military
confinement. It is a pity that this action of
General Butler was not known to the adven-
turous Mr. Parton, who has just written a life
of the hero of New Orleans in such terms as
Mr. Carlyle has written for Napoleon I. and
Frmierick the Great, and generally of all
"strong" men; in other words, tyrants.
Sir howl.wil Hill gratefully acknowledges the
continuance of his official *ahoy. but he demurs
to the inference which the Treasury Lords leave
to be drawn from their minute on the subject,
to the effect that the uniform penny postage was
urged by others before the development of his
plans. Sir Rowland most uncompromisingly
claims the whole of the honour, and quotes'
Hansard to prove that his nearest competition—
Mr. Wallace, aforetime M.P. for Greenock—
only suggested a reduced and not an uniform
rate.
There seems to be no doubt that the Prussians
are inflicting severe penalties upon the country
which they entered under the csinuacter of
deliverers. At Kolring, • town numbering less
than 4,000 inhabitants, a tax of £l,OOO • day
is levied on the unfortunate people for the sup-
port of the invading army. The Prince..
-Victoria has contributed 500 tinders, and the
Duke of Augustenburg 1,000 thalers for the relief
of the poor people of Blesitig, who have suffered
by the invasion of the German army. This war
is likely to give us some practical information
about the TlllllO of different kinds of artillery.
The Prussian guns appear to fulfil all the ex-
pectations that were formed of them. Their
range and accuracy seem to have told with con-
siderable effect upon the Danish defenoes at
Frederica'', and to have left the Danes little or
no opportunity of replying. The expense,
however, is enormous. livery shot of rifled
artillery system costa, at least, El sterling. The
works at Duppel are being armed with 120 heavy
guns. About 300 will be required to undertake
the attack, each of which is expected to fire
from 700 to a 1000 shots. At the lowest
estimate, then, the cost of the bombard-
ment must be set down at £210,000. In
this, however, is not included the cost of the
timber, the gabions, shovels, brushwood, nor
;=:1 of the guns and ammunition from
to Denmark. The epeeist correspondent
of the Times with the allied armies mentions,
among one of the new features of Prussian
artillery, a method of igniting the shell after it
has penetrated, by means of a needle, one end
of which projects from the apex of the °onkel
ball, while the other, when the shell strikes,
is fired into powder and ignites the shell. The
Prussian rifles are nearly all breech loaders, and
are said to answer well, since they enable their
owners to fire six or seven times in a minute.
It is significant of the little progress made by
the Federal* in America that the New York
Herald, which from time to time publishes mays
showing the position of the armies, has join
published a fee simile of that which appeared
two years ago. The country between the
Potomac and James Rivers, including Fredericks-
burg and Richmond, is again delineated on a
Inge scale. This is apropos of Kilpatrick's
recent disastrous attempt to enter Richmond.
Referring to this, the Domicil says that the rebels
were fully aware of the movements of the
Federal troops. The Herald no longer predicts
the speedy end of the war as it has been predict-
ing for the past three months. On the contrary,
it asserts that the present managers of the war
are not a match for that "al7 and vigilant old
for—General Lee." A persistent effort, it is
said, is now being made for the removal Of
Meade from the army of the Potomac. The
f/erald states that letters from the South have
been intercepted, which show that the Co..
federates are determined to die rather than
submit to subjugation. Referring to political
affairs, the same paper states that Fremont will
be started for the Presiiency by the Abolitionists
against Lincoln, and that Ohasewill, anal proba-
bility, become a candidate. In that -case the
opposition will have good Ghana of winning the
day, and will pat forward M'Clellan
A very gratifying oorrespondenos has just
been published, relative to the late shipwreck of
Am. Bohemian. which proves that, despite all the
hostile exhibitions of America as a corporate
government, the inhabitants individually are as
genial and as kindly in feeling towards us as ever.
The Ginseng of Portland, in the &Nth of Mains,
were prompt and profess in the moisten° they
rendered the destitute passengers by that ill
fated ship, and the Britieb Consul wrote to the
Portland Board of Trade Committee ecloloir-
leasing the timely charity. In their reply the