The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1869-07-20 00:00:00

OUR LONDON OORRESPONDENT.

At lasa doss upon Um lest stage of the Irish
Church meteor. las east, tbe last regards this
• though It to means certain that the whole
matter will not hey. to be gone over make The
Commas. have "restored" their picture, as Yr. Lowe
pride:lied they would, taking only two eights to seder
the work of alteration which occupied the Lords fur live
sating& The strict illeeildure of the Liberal party has
been agate apparent. Not. mingle member of the party
proposed an independent amendment; but the same
great majority (in proportion to the number of members
preheat) went into the lobby with ministers on almost
every division. It is felt here that Ye. Gladstece's
great and °mesa phalanx, resolute In support of •
simple and deanito poliey.mast tiltimstel Teemed against
the divided counsel' and trestle action of the Lords •
for in conceding the principle of disestablishment
Peers !Ave given Yr. Gladstone a porta d'appsi from
which to press his pottery to its logical col:elusions.
The protracted diseuesion on tbe Irish Church Hill
has 'already brought us tea period about week later
than the usual close of the mimeo • and there is yet so
mush work to do in Parliament that the prorogation
eaa meareely be taken before August. However, the
fseldoesble mown, although mealy nearly coincident
with the session, will dose this year some time before
the letter. The Royal Italian Opera will close in • few
nights, three extra performances being given in this last
week • and then we shall behold the sudden completion
of QUA fashionable migration whldh has already more
than commenced. in truth, the extreme heat of the
weather ie quite miticient to drive out of town every.
body who men go, and toast us all longing for refremillog
see-breezes, in lieu of the close hot air of the London
streets. With the season so neerly sompleted, we can
take, pretty socurate estimate of its character; and
tliis must be that, on the whole, it has been • very
brilliant and aucoeseful mason. Atmospherical M-
aumee*. sad other causes readered Its earlier part dull
and somewhat cheerless ; but since the return home of
the Prinse and Princes@ of Wale., and especially during
the sojourn of the Vieerey of Egypt here, fashionable
society has been all astir, and never perhaps were mo
much gaiety and amusement crowded into so abort a
space of time.
The Wimbledon review comes as a very fitteag ohms
to the state pageant+, of the mason. It is now an estab-
lished institution, and would ettraot thousands of sight-
seen merely as review of our volunteer Limy • but on
tieterday them thousands were doubled or trebled by a
oombinetion of attractions. The day vu beautifully
In and, after ea oppressive elmenems in the tally
lilorldnrh it became apparent that cool brawn were to
be net with on the breezy common at Wimbledon,
while rasing clouds would tell farther temperate the
Mal; it was known that the volunteers would muster
In usumnally strong fin-oe ; there were to be some three
thousand regular! presentifrom Aldersbot ; and last, not
least, royalty was to be well represented on the ground.
All these inducements pointed to Wimbledon as the
appropriate rendeeyom of the fashionable world, and
tbe beet place for the general public' to spend the Satur-
day helf•boticlay, the result being that tbe railways
were kept busily at work from an early boar In the day
conveying visitors to the camp. Of the review itself I
will not attempt any description, except that in every
Pay it was a fitting close to one of the Most suspicious
Meetings that the le.tionel Hide Association has ewer
held—a meeting which has had firm weather through-
out, without the previous heat which made the common
last year a desert.

Cirioua revelations continue to be made before the
Abyesinian Committee of the way In which Government
departments conduct their businem. Captain Dundee,
later surveyor to the Navy, gave evidence on Fiiday that
the entire control of the coat supply for the ex peditioo
was placed M the bands of the Peninsular and Oriental
Company. No attempt was made to Invite competition,
for be the witness and the Admiralty thought
" nothing could be more iolnrioas than exciting the
niarbet against the company and the Government"
N.e believed that any iimairies to the mazket regarding
the supply of coal would have doubled the price at once.
This la &curious remelt to expect from open competition,
and very few perform will agree that it was ono likely to
arise ; but theme Government departmente have their
own lumbar views on such subjects, and the public
have to pow tee costs entailed by carrying out such
views. TI a mercantile company, inMead of a Govern'
meta office, had wanted coal at Bombey and the Reel
Pea; they would have thought it the most natural thing
in the world to 'advertise for tenders.
Election of coroners have long been a standing %bun, ,
the expenses incurred being out of all proportion to the
salaries of the officers, besides the fact that the male of '
election is not on., caloalated to secure the beet man for I
the office. But we Fatalist) tolerate abuses, however i
open they nisi, be to theoretical criticion, until some
conspicous practical Levi! misers. We have such an evil
now, springing from a coroner's eleetion, in the appear-
ance of Mr. Bardwicke, deputy coroner for central
Middlesex, in the Bankruptec Court, with debt.
amouetiog to n,SOO, incured through his heavy
expenditure in the coated for the Aloe eighteen month'.
ago. The. ought to be ruflicient to prompt os to some
reform of the present practice, fur ouely we cannot
cdtow men holding an important judicial (Moe to be
brought to the Banktuptcy Court through expenses
inctirrel in obtaining their appointment not to
zneetion that a man's mind can hardly be in a condition
to felt! judicial functione efficiently with a load of debt
weighing upon it,
We bear from Berlin that the Proasime Government
has decided that, ou amount of the reorganitation of
the armaments, of Europe, the needle-gen has become
obsolete, and amonlingly two battalions of the Prussian
army are to be immediately armed with • breech-loader
of • new pattern in order that the weapon nay be
thoroughly tried. When the Promise) Government has
made up its mind ti adopt this new gun or any other,
we may be sure it will not be long In re-arming the
entire army, mutt will certainly not linger oetie the
matter as our Goveroment ha. done. For a wonder,
we were the first nation in Europe to see the nee 'salty
of •depting breecle-loading small mew after the victories
Peoria in the German war, and at first we went
vigoroualy to work. But what have we been doing
lately? The regular army is, I beliem, entirely amplied
with Senders, but this forms only • small portion of our
defensive forces. Nameroas Militia regiments and tbe
wools of the volunteer force still carry the obsolete
Enfield. True, we are told that no more Snider, will
be mannfactured because they bawl been already super•
ceded by a more efficient weapon, but we might surely
have converted all our itock of Enfold.; or if this
was not weeth while, and we were no sure of the raper.
iority of • new weepon as to stop the produc•
tion of Snidere, ought not (ho new rifle to have been
rapiefty manufactured for the regular army, and the '
snMer in the hands of the line regiments and in store to I
have been distributed to the militia and volunteer.'
Anyhow, one fact cannot be denied—that the great
part of our militia, and the whole of our volunteers,
ara practieally unarmed in these days of deadly tereenh•
loaders.

Every nos and then some extraordinary mandal
arises in connection with oar new military police. I
say new, for the force has been almost entirely
reorganised withio the last it. years, and now contains
a large proportion of quite young men, who are fond
of exercising their " little brief authority," without
being duly impressed with the responsibility of their
Lend week awe Collie before Mr. Knox, at
M•rlboroughstreet police court, which strongly illus-
trates the defects of our police force. Revere] gentlemen
wore chargsd with being drunk and disorderly, using
obscene language, antaulting the police, kc., the &Celle
of the offence toeing kid in the Haymarket, just the
locdity where one might expect such things. For the
bleats, however, it was eatidactory proved that the
necuaed were officials in a bank, where they bad been
employed until after midnight in making op the half-
yearly emmuuts, and merely paused on their way through
the Ilayniszket to consider whether they should have
one cab or two to take them home; when they weren't.
properly interfered with by the police, who trumpet up
the whole of the charges preferred against them. The
strong oomments made by Mr. Knox upon the conduct
-ind testimony of the police are the more significant as
thil muiatrate is notorious for his partiality to the
pullet: (wee. SPECTATOR

A Wire's Havant:A—A whitesmith, named William
lAttiltert, Doncaster, and employed by Messrs. Smith
and Son, ironmongers, went to Boston, by • cheap trip,
on Mendez., taking with him, not his wife, but another
WOOMD. This aiming to the MTh of the outraged spou.e,
she luiekly called in an auctioneer, and instructed him
to sell every stick of luroiture in the house. During
the sale Mr. Smith, the husband', employer, went to
the place, and found some troperty of his, including
gas brackets, sheet tin, and other things connected with
big trade. He, therefore, at or communicated with
the polite, and a warrant having been procured,
Lambert was taken in custody on arriving home again
Irons the Boston trip, and charged with stealing the
srtieles in quention, lie was brought before the nimia. i
trates and 'emend.

A WollAll IItIIDENED 13f HER RON MID HER
Gitagnson.—Tbe Court of the Aisne. France, has just
tried a father and son, named Ihichemin, for parricide.
'nip victim was an old woman of SO, mother and grand-
mother of the two prisons.. respectively. The accused
were both labouring are, and lived, with other
members of the family—including the deceamed—at
lierny-Itisiere. The woman, from her great age and
infiroiltie., had become a burden to her relative., bet
in Noreoilei r last she disappear/41, and a month later
mem limed murdered in • wood, to which the body had
Apparently been only recently conveyed. The prisoners
iiipumr to have concealed thu body in a quarry until
they eubmainently carried it to the wood where it we.
found. Both were convicted and condemned the elder
to bird lolamr for life, sod the other to 15 year. of the
etnie pUlti.lnentt.t.
FATAL o MANY A r I{o.-HVITIItk writt.• BATNINg..—
t f•to.l ecopleht occurred at Rochester on Tuesday
seeing m kir. femme Reynolds, a member of the
soeiety of Friends, regaling in that city, who was
,iceidentolly 40•Ismi while bathing in the River
Railway. The deemaird was seen to enter the mita between nine and ten in the evening, and lihortly after-
ward.' we observed to Im drowninl. amiatems at
„die put off to biro, hot before ho could be reached
elecamped sank. The body wee recovered almost imme-
diately, and every means adopted by two medical practi-
tioners to restore animation bet without effect. node.
esed IFS I. highly ntr*llliAl at Raci.aator, vibe', the
ha. ,avaaialaoal demi regret.