The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1877-05-08 00:00:00

OR/AT ituarta IN CHINA.
A great famine is raging in the north of China, and I
thousands of the inhabitants are perishing from starva-
tion. The area of the chief dioreee is in the north and
east —in the extreme north of Kisnein, in Shantung, in
Pechili, and in Shame ; hut it is from Shantung that the
most heartrending accounts are coming. The vast stretch
of country affected suffered from severe drought last
summer; and the unfortunate peasants, having consmned
their little stores of grain, are now dying in the agonies
, of starvation, whole communities being swept away by
the destroyer. In the energy of their despair the faint-l-
ing people pull down their houses and sell the timber to
get food, and when this source of lump's, fails them they
sell their clothing and even their children, only in the end
to perish miserably from want and exposure. With the
halotutl lethargy of Asiatics, the Chinese rulers are doing
little or nothing to succour the ine”Ple.

SUICIDE OF A CAPTAIN.
Captain Charlet, F. Gre-2g. of 4. Oaks Villa,
Milserton. the fashionable suburb of Leamington,
Friday afternoon c Immitted suicide by shooting him-
self in the cellar ‘,l his mansion. On the report of
the gun alarming the household, assistance was
summoned, and deceased was fund in a dying state.
The barrel of the gun had apparently been placed
azainst his cheek, and the charge had ',battered his
head in pieces. He recently purchased the mansion
in which he reside,l He was aged 2, and leaves a
young widow, to whom he hss been married some four
years.

DISTRESSING AFFAIR AT GREENOCK.
A sad and mysterious affair has occurred at
Greenock. Last week a young woman named Ann
NCDougall, sister of a farmer, near Greenock, died
from suspected poisoning. She kept company with a
young man. an engineer, and was pregnant. A post-
mortem examination of the body was male, and the
intestines forwarded to Raisin:ll;h for analysis. Dr.
ISCDongall made the postmortem examination, and
pricked the forefinger of his left hand in the opera-
sympt,,ms of blood poisoning rapidly eninicd.
Three doctors attended him, but to no as-MI, and he
died on Friday afternoon. Dr. M'Dougall occupied a
good position, and has left a widow and eight children.
It is suppoeml he scratched his forefinsfer against a
sharp edge f a bone in the corpse. The affair has
created considerable renestion.

RELIGIOUS FANATICISM.
The Prase of Vienna, relates the following incident
which is • striking example of the influence n,
religious fanaticism on certain temperaments. A
young man of the name of Simon IRernink, attached to
the domee‘tic establishment of Prince Johann Adolph
Schwarzenherg. attempted last week to commit
suicide by crucifixion. Stretching himself upon the
floor, he placed one foot upon the other, and
deliberately drove a nail through them Undeterred
by the pain canoed by his first wound, the young
fanatic proceeded to nail his left hand to the ground,
and then stabbed himself several times in the left side
with a pocket knife. Notwithstanding the gravity of
the wounds, death did not ensue; but weakened by
the loos of blood, the would-be suicide lost conscious-
ness. During the whole time that the young man bad
thus been torturing himself he had not tittered the
slightest cry of pain, but fortunately three of his
companions, attracted by the unusual sound of
knocking, came to learn the cause. The major dotno
and Dr. Lenk, the prince's medical attendant, were
immediately informed of what had taken place. The
nails having with much difficulty been extracted, the
Cardinal Archbishop Schwarxenberg, who happened
to be staying at the palace, administered the last
sacrament to the dying man. It is worthy of remark
that, before putting his terrible resolve into execution,
Bernink had burg a garland of roses round his neck.
THE ALLEGED EMBEZZLEMENT OF
215,000.

William Charles Webb, late partner in the woollen
manufacturing firm of Hargreaves and Webb, of Brad.
fool, York-hire. and of Staverton. Wilta, was charged
on remand on -Friday, at the Trowbridge Police Court,
with having embezzled various Mims belonging to that
firm, amounting to between £14,000 and I:11,000, and
al.° with forgery. Evidence WAX given by Mr. Har-
greaves as to the sound position of the firm; by Mr.
Younghusband, a railway agent at Paddington, as to
the receipt for customers of the firm of bales of goods,
which were next day, by the prisoner's written
request re-consigned to other persons, by Mr. Jabez
Booth, cashier of the firm, of particular debts appar-
ently due, but the goods for which had been diverted,
and as to the admisstion of the prisoner that these
Irregular dealings were large, and by Mr. Dicken,
accountant, of Bradford, who stated his belief that the
goods thus dealt with represented a value of over
£20,000. For the defence it was contended that the
prisoner, being a member of the firm, could not forge
his ovrn name, and that the alterations in the books
were made, not for the purpose of embezzling, but to
give a more rosy appearance to the concern than it
would otherwise bear. The Bench committed the
prisoner for trial for embezzlement. They took time
to consider whether they should also commit him for
trial on the charze of forgery- They admitted him to
bail himself and securities in £4,000.
THE MAY MEETINGS.
CHURCR.MIVUONARY SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of This society was held on
Tuesday at Exeter Hall, under the presidency of the
Earl ,4 Chichester. The hall was densely crowded.
The report stated that the expenditure of the society
under all heads (luring the past year hail grown to the
PIM of 1:210,859. Of this £1it,228 was due to the
special work, such as the mission to Central Africa
and the work among the liberated slaves at Mombasa.
The remainder, £192,6.11 was due to the general opera
tions of the society. The total receipts from all
sources for the past year had reach the sum of
£190,000. Among others the meeting was addressed
by Rae. G. K Monte, of Dorchester, and resolutions of
the usual character were adopted.
THE LIBERATION RoCIETY.
The annual conference of the Society for the Libel,
ation of Religion from State Patronage and Control,
was held Tuesday at the Cannon-street Hotel, Mr.
Joseph Chan'''. rlain, M.P., presiding. Resolutions
were passed, condemning the government Burials Bill
as likely to perpetuate and even increase existing evils,
! and expressing approval of the amendments 'imposed
I by the Liberal party to the 'Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge Bill, which the meeting ronsi,lered calculated
I in its present shape to obstruct rather than to facilitate
the changes which, in the interest of religions equality,
are still required. It was also resolved "That this
meeting of friends of religious equality beg to assure
Mr. Gladstone of its most cordial sympathy in his
noble efforts on behalf of the oppressed subjects of ,I
the Porte. and protests against any policy which would !
either aid with sympathy or protect with the armies
I England the despotism under which they suffer." It
was decided to present this resolution to Mr. Gladstone
by deputation, and the proceedings terminated.—
During the afternoon the deputation waited upon Mr.
Gladstone in the Lobby of the Home of Common, to
convey to him the foregoing resolution. In reply, Mr.
Gladstone expressed himself gratified with this mark
of respect from the Nonconformist body, 90 spon-
taneously and unexpectedly shown that morning, and
'so promptly conveyed to him. He added that it was
very desirable that the world as well as England should
be able to judge whether the charge brought against
the English people, that they were capable of being
acted upon by those moving the wires—that they were
literally puppets— was really true. If the men who
had shown such interest in the Eastern question in the
autumn had ceased to feel an interest in it in the
spring, he could not forget his responsibility now, and
he relied on the co-operation of those who had
humanitarian interests at heart rather than party or
coterie interests. For his (Mr. Gladstone's) part he
was determined to bring the subject to an issue in the
House of Commons, and would certainly go to a
, division on his resolutions.